Calendar – Atom Egoyan

nei film di Atom Egoyan c'è sempre qualcosa di misterioso, qui un cameraman che non si vede mai, e il ritmo dei film, fra l'Armenia e casa sua, in Canada, è scandito dalle foto che illustrano i mesi del calendario (che fa per soldi, è un lavoro, lo dice chiaramente).
a cena c'è sempre una donna diversa, che parla un'altra lingua, e che vicino al calendario fa una telefonata.
un film semplice, forse, che strega.
cercatelo, vi catturerà - Ismaele

…Calendar è la storia della fine di un amore. Lui e lei che si vogliono bene, ma qualcosa non funziona più; a poco a poco, una terza persona si infila nella coppia, e lui si sente sempre più estraneo. Come si vede, una storia molto comune, già raccontata molte volte; ma Egoyan è un narratore finissimo, e in questo caso – oltre alla grande bravura degli interpreti – colpisce una sua tecnica molto particolare, che non ho mai visto applicare in nessun altro film che io mi ricordi…

da qui

…Calendar is best described as a sort of experimental documentary.  Egoyan steps in front of the camera to play a photographer who has been sent on assignment to Armenia to create a calendar.   His wife (real-life wife Arsinee Khanjian) joins him and begins to learn more about the Armenian culture thanks to their passionate and knowledgeable guide who is just known as Driver (Ashot Adamian).

Egoyan cuts between three specific points in the story; the distant past, caught on videotape, as Egoyan (labeled Photographer in the credits) and Arsinee (Translator) travel the countryside, the near-past as an answering machine delivers potential dates to Photographer, and the shifting present as Photographer dates each woman with a specific level of aloofness.

This sort of time shift was mostly hinted at in Egoyan's previous work and used more for quick flashback's and for the revelation at the end of The Adjuster.  Here the shifts are present the entire film.  The chronological spheres move forward even as Egoyan cuts back and forth between each set of events.  So despite the consistent changes in time, Egoyan manages to keep things moving at a brisk pace without sacrificing any narrative clarity…

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…The photographer's disassociation with the Armenian country is a product of and reflection on the director’s own early apathy towards it. At one point the photographer talks to one of his dates about her Egyptian roots and, with obvious regret, tells her ‘you wouldn’t see that in me,’ referring to the brief period he spent in Cairo in his childhood. This ambiguity of national identity is something that Egoyan returns to frequently throughout his career and while Ararat (2002), in which he explores the Armenian genocide of 1915, remains the most notable study of his country of heritage, Calendar describes in much more personal detail how he feels towards his homeland(s). Through this film we get an impression of what it’s like to be Armenian and Egyptian and Canadian, to be all of these and none of them at the same time.

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