Ararat

Rating:
Summary: Finally!!!
Review: Finally an international motion picture on the Armenian Genocide. I saw Ararat in Paris and will "never forget" it. Hitler said "Who afterall remembers the genocide of the Armenians" in gathering support to wipe out the Jews. Well, too bad Egoyan was not around back then.

Rating:
Summary: unnecessary propaganda
Review: I recommend Egoyan to stop making films and resort to activism. Why make a movie filled with subverted history lessons I do not know. I do not agree that the Armenian Genocide ever happened. We can not call a mutual war state a genocide, can we? Please, learn the history well, think about it in terms of those times, and think twice before labeling a country murderers for something that happened in 1915 that took lives of both Armenians and Turks (Ottomans actually) while there were so many primitives ruling the earth. The human race is improving and arts should be looking forward instead of cultivating hate and vengance. Thanks for watching this movie and thinking twice before taking sides on a critical issue.

Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary storytelling by Egoyan
Review: Egoyan has done it again!!! Staying true to himself Egoyan again pulls off what others simply see as not doable, and he achieves it in ARARAT with the precision we are so used to seeing in his films and with such mastery that one just wishes he made the film. An excellent script, excellent actors and acting, ARARAT is a paradigm of storytelling, potent to stimulate thought (and action), and convey both grief over loss suffered in the past and anger over denial being experienced in the contemporary period. Egoyan again stresses the importance if not sacredness of memory and remembrance especially of events that either are tragic or breed tragedy like the Genocide of the Armenians. The stories need to be told and through that the loss and grief should be comitted to remembrance. Egoyan once again proves capable of doing just that. Job well done Atom!!!

Rating:
Summary: Haunting Scenes
Review: The question, of course, is how you approach a topic as vastly horrific as the Armenian Genocide without leaving your audience overwhelmed and numb. The answer is that you tell another story against the backdrop of the unfathomable horrors, thereby giving your audience just enough of a hint of the horrors without drowning them in it.

Spielberg pulled off this device pretty well in "Schindler's List". You see the ovens of Auschwitz, but not the people actually burned in them. You see the piles of bodies, but not them being slaughtered.

In "Ararat" they tell the story of the making of a film about the Armenian Genocide, and inside that is the story of an Armenian American artist named Gorky who survived those horrors. Placing the scenes of mass murder, gang rape, and atrocity upon atrocity as a film-within-a-film provides enough emotional space to make these horrors psychologically manageable.

While the film is very, very good, I'm not sure that the director pulled off the trick completely. I think his missed the mark of greatness. The subplots got a little busy and soap-opera-ish, in my opinion.

There was an unrelated suicide, something about a terrorist attack. Apparently some statement on gay rights. Quasi-incest. Heroin smuggling. I dunno. I didn't see the point in all of that.

The story of the gay son of the customs agent and his Turkish Canadian lover was over the top, out of place. Was the intent seriously to compare the plight of a middle class gay couple in Toronto in 2001 to the horrors of Lake Van in 1915? I hope not, for that would be the worst sort of blasphemy.

Also the story of the young Armenian Canadian protaganist and his semi-incestuous relationship with his step-sister was just bizarre. What was the point of that? There was also a story of his unwiting smuggling heroin from Turkey and how this somehow helped the father of the young gay man (lover of the Turkish actor) accept his lifestyle. Maybe the director was saying that we get only homosexuality and drugs from Turkey, but I don't know. I think that some of this should have been cut, for detracting from the main point.

Some of the dialogue got a bit didactic, with the characters delivering tendentious lectures on Armenian history.

But, that's all nitpicking. Taken as a whole, this is a fine film and one that will stay with me the rest of my life. It makes the point that the Turks committed a crime of the same type as Rwanda, Bosnia, and yes, the Holocaust, and that denying this fact is a terrible stain on humanity.

The fact that Israel officially denies any comparison of the Holocuast to the Armenian Genocide and is apparently working behind the scenes through its strong connections with the American film industry to limit the showing of this film on behalf of its strange bedfellow Turkey constitutes, in my opinion, one of the slimiest sellouts of basic human values in recent memory.

God is Just, and He won't forget. Let Tel Aviv tremble.

Anyway, go out and see this film. Buy a copy, and pass it along to your friends. This is a painful historical truth, the denial of which makes liars of us all and ultimately places us all in jeapardy.

Rating:
Summary: ARARAT
Review: No doubt sad but true, the story the production acting was little poor but who am I to judge.
My comment is that: I saw the film in Paris while I was on
vacation, all my relatives were waiting unpatiently for the release where I never heard about it in the US consedering there is a great number of Armenians and being borders with Canada.
My wish is after putting all that effort to make such a great
piece of work, advertise it, market it, let it be heard.
Hope to see it soon in theaters in US especialy in California.
Even in limitted areas, I am not criticising but wishing
successful start, so there will more masterpieces to follow.
after all everything cost money, but not to forget if you wanna be heard must be on the big screen and media.

Thanks! Keep up the good work

Rating:
Summary: a giant multi-colored tapestry
Review: A film within a film within a film that plays out through a myriad of interconnected stories sewn into a giant multi-colored tapestry. The so called "Armenian holocaust" is the fabric from which director Egoyan spins his narrative, and this event so heavily laden with emotional baggage, becomes almost impossible to approach with intellectual objectivity. The lines between fact and fiction are constantly blurred as in a scene where the protagonist walks onto a movie set about the "holocaust" and one of the characters scolds her, not as an actor, but as a very real character from that time. At times this constant commingling loses focus, but Egoyan's heartfelt attempt to bring back the dead through his art imitating art approach, succeeds surprisingly well. Although the "holocaust" is shown graphically, Egoyan is aware that we connect most deeply with that to which we can all relate, and this is shown right from the start as an artist attempts to transfer his childhood memories of murdered loved ones to a painter's canvas; the details of a mothers dress . . . the skin of a mothers hand . . . her fingers knitting a quilt. The vivid colors and simple reality of that hand are so compelling they can reach out across decades of despair to caress the forehead, reduce fever, and impart a sense of belonging - a reason for being. From this inauspicious beginning, Egoyan is able to arrive at a much greater truth: the inherent need for human beings to believe in something - whether or not that belief is grounded in reality or can be proven scientifically. Finally, ARATAT concludes with a simple truth that is just as powerful: the immeasurable but often neglected joy at being able to look upon our loved ones and to hold them in an embrace of life.

Rating:
Summary: Moving and emphatic.
Review: I enjoyed the movie and subject matter becauase I am a history buff. I would have enjoyed it more if some of the characters were further developed, and a little less time was spent on the other characters, such as the young man's love interest. Moving into the subject matter of the film, even more interesting is the fact that even today, Turks and Turkish sympathizers continue to deny the atrocities commited by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians. Such as the character played by Koteas in the movie. Even today the Turks continue to disparage and/or deny the atrocities commited by the Turkish government much to the horor of the Armenian families who were victims of the holocaust. Generally it is the position of most Turks and Turkish government proponents that either the Armenian genocide did not occur, or it is grossly exaggerated. Like the holocaust is exaggerated? Interesting argument, however, sadly for them, and more deeply hurtful to the Armenians, and other victims of genocide/holocaust such as the jews, denial of the occurence of history only firms up the convictions of the survivors or successors to dig deeper and push harder. To conclude, although clearly not Schindler's List or the Pianist in its nature and quality, I believe this movie, although a little rough around the edges, is a very interesting look at a very dark side of human history.


Rating:
Summary: A sin against the memory of the genocide victims & families
Review: There's really no other way for me to say this. This movie really disappointed me. Obviously the intent was to bring some attention to this horrible moment in time that has been largely forgotten (or never known of) by people who were not directly affected by it. That is why I rented this movie. I've read a few books on the topic, and Armenian musics are some of the world's best, but this movie is a clunker.

There is too much garbage going on. I don't mean that it is hard to follow, because it isn't at all. It's just that 75% of what's happening is trite, as well as extraneous to anything having to do with the genocide itself. There is more than enough tear-jerking "human drama" potential within the stories of the genocide itself, so why is so much of the movie wasted on trying to unravel this insipid love-gone-bad tangent among Raffi's mom, her dead ex-husband, and Raffi's step-sister (Daughter of dead ex-husband. She's also Raffi's girlfriend)? The step-sister is a waste of space whom you can't even begin to care about. All she does is whine about her dead father, who had absolutely nothing to do with any storyline related to the genocide.

Then there is the actor playing Raffi. His scenes in customs with Christopher Plummer are painful. He has no emotional power whatsoever. He will relate some horrendous story of the genocide, and then try to "sell it" to us by doing his Tom Cruise jaw-muscle flex thing and pretending to be haunted, as he longingly looks into Plummer's eyes. It's horrible. I think only Bokeem Woodbine or Keanu Reeves could have given worse performances here.

Oh did I mention that Christopher Plummer's son is gay and he (dad) is having trouble coming to terms with it. Oh did I mention that Plummer's gay son is dating Elias Koteas who just happens to also be a Turkish colonel or something in the "movie within a movie" about the genocide, yet he (Elias' "real life movie character", rather than his "movie in a movie" character) doesn't think the genocide ever actually happened because all he read about were some deportations as well as the standard ravages of war?

If at this point you're thinking my review is annoying in its mention of all this drivel that has nothing to do with the actual genocide, well, you now have a good picture of exactly what this movie is like. It's as if the director pitched this idea to a studio and the studio said yeah we can do a movie on this topic... as long as it's in the background since we need to add in a love triangle, a step-sister's bare breasts, the strained relationship of a father and his gay son, a boring filmmaker who gives his all to make sure a customs official knows the story of the genocide as they wonder whether or not there is heroin in his film canisters, etc...

Woops did I mention a fictionalized story of Arshile Gorky? It's here, too!

Knowing the story of this atrocity, I fully expected there to be no way I'd get through this movie without breaking down in tears. For me, the Armenian Genocide is one of those events along the lines of Rwanda 1994, or Sudan of the past couple decades, etc... Horrible events that are almost worse (not that that's possible) just for the simple fact that almost no one seems to care, notice, or remember, simply because there seems to be no political or economic gain in caring.

The one great performance in this movie is given by Elias Koteas. Not so much during the "movie within a movie" scenes (as it's obvious that movie was going to be worse than Ararat), but during the "now" parts of this movie, where he is the gay Turkish actor who doesn't believe the genocide happened. Elias completely inhabits the role of the apathetic, uneducated "Hey just get over it!" persona that is so widespread both here in the USA and elsewhere in the world in relation to other atrocities. Thank you Elias! Yes your character was a quiet jerk, but you played him perfectly... easily the most powerful performance of the film. I just feel bad for you that you were stuck having to give this performance in a movie as bad as this.

This event deserves better. I hope someone else makes a movie on this topic someday. A couple of the bonus features here are nice, but still, you'd do better to get that information (and much more) from books.

Do you want to lose yourself in the power and culture of the Armenian people? Skip this movie and pick up any of the CDs by Udi Hrant, Richard Hagopian, Djivan Gasparyan, etc... that I've reviewed here.

On these discs you get pure Armenian cultural power and emotion, with no trite lovestories gone bad and pathetic acting to dilute it.


Rating:
Summary: "PLACED ON A PEDESTAL OF LIFE"
Review: A MUST SEE! At first I thought this film was not what I had anticipated. It seemed it would be an artsy-fartsy film (pardon the expression), and not illuminating the history behind the Armenian genocide of WWI. It turned out to be much more than what I had expected, and I think everyone concerned about terrorism should see this; there's so much to ponder on in this film. The action takes place in the present; the past, the history of Armenia, is discussed as a film is being produced on the subject which revolves around an Armenian modern artist's portrait of himself and his mother. The artist was named Gorkiy. He tries to resurrect the memory of his mother, who died in the genocide, in that portrait; his only memento of his family is a photograph that he treasured taken of himself and his mother which he recreates in the portrait. That portrait was the topic of research for an Armenian woman, an art history professor, mother of Raffi, the main character in this movie by Atom Egoyan. She describes his actions as his attempt to take his memory of her from off the pile of corpses to place her on a pedestal of life. I loved how that was said, so I chose that for my title of this review. The artist left the hands of his mother, which lie unfolded in her lap, unfinished. The way he paints the faces of his mother and himself echo artwork on the walls of an ancient church in his village. How he finishes painting her hands reveals his deepest longings to reach for her physical presence which was so violently taken from him.

Be forewarned that there is some language and nudity in this film, although it is not overly vulgar; the film is realisitic and honest, but not family friendly. The contents are heavy. The only nudity in the film is a love scene between Raffi and his French Canadian girlfriend, and a scene in the fictional film showing Armenian girls dancing nude holding hands in a circle mimicking a bridal dance while the turks douse their bodies with gas, the girls' grisly anointing, before igniting them. I hate to even mention these atrocities-so much for the sanctity of HUMAN, living, breathing life. Also, be forewarned that you will hear told nauseating details of the massacres, eyes gouged out (Samson-style), pregnant women raped and then having their wombs slashed open and fetuses slain, boys raped, genitals mutilated etc. These violent acts, however, do not pervade this film; there is a lot of other material in this film to reflect on.

Ararat is the mountain on which Noah's ark came to rest upon after the biblical flood in Genesis 6-9. Armenia was the first christian nation before Rome; the Roman emperor Constantine declared christianity its state religion in 300 A.D. or so about the time when the Armenian church went its own way. The country of Armenia is within Turkey, mount Ararat within its domain. The Armenian genocide of WWI is significant in that, finally, there are many eyewitness accounts, documentation from people from other nations such as the U.S. and Great Britain. Armenia is in a strategic location militarily and commercially as it lies within the corridor between Asia and the middle east. All that is not in this movie, but you NEED to know it! Attitudes about Armenia are brought out masterfully through discussions between Raffi and an airport security official, played by Christopher Plummer, in several scenes and another between Raffi and the actor, of turkish descent, who plays the brutal pasha of Gorkiy's villayet. Often viewed as terrorists, in actuality, when these Armenians do fight, it is in resistance, self-defense, against ignoble powers that be.

Many reviewers say that Ararat is thought provoking, and I ditto that. TOTALLY. You MUST see this.

Rating:
Summary: A personal interpretation of history
Review: If anyone has seen Atom Egoyan's other films they'll have a pretty good idea what to expect in Ararat. The Sweet Hereafter was a turgid, pretentious, and moribund piece of movie making, and Ararat proves that, once again, Egoyan hasn't changed his style. Ararat, apart from being as equally affected and exaggerated as his previous films, shows that Egoyan obviously has a huge chip on his shoulder regarding the Armenian genocide. Right before World War 1, the Turks executed a holocaust against the Armenians, raping and pillaging, totally wiping out a whole group of people living in Turkish territory, when the Turks should have protected them. The Turkish people, until this day, refuse to admit that the genocide ever took place.

This convoluted and tortuous story is actually a film within a film. A film is being made called Ararat - a historical epic about the genocide. An Armenian movie director (Charles Aznavour) and an Armenian writer (Eric Bogosian) have effectively recreated the events of the massacre. They hear an art lecture about an Armenian painter named Arshile Gorky and decide to incorporate his early life into the story. Meanwhile, the lecturer and the Gorky expert (Khanjian), has got some kind of emotional struggle going on. Her dead husband was a terrorist who tried to assassinate a Turkish diplomat, and her son, Raffi, (David Alpay) is sleeping with his stepsister. The stepsister is French Canadian, and for some inexplicable reason, resents Khanjian.

Raffi goes on an unauthorized trip to Armenia, to shoot some video to add to the film, and he brings the film home in two sealed film cans courtesy of a Turkish soldier. A retiring customs officer, played by a tired-looking Christopher Plummer, challenges Raffi about his trip. He suspects the cans may contain drugs, but during the customs interview he begins to sympathize with the boy, and learns about the holocaust. The story is set in four time periods: the customs inquisition, the filmmaking process a year earlier, the actual holocaust in 1915-1918, and Gorky's painting of a central work, around 1935.

How we interpret history is the theme of the movie, and Egoyan really wants the viewer to understand that the genocide happened without reason. The film is very partisan and pro-Armenian, yet the director is obviously intent on trying to show us the truth behind what actually happened. The movie is somber and preachy, and the action sequences look cheap and second rate. There are also various subplots that don't quite work - Raffi's affair with his sister-in-law seem totally out of pace, and the confrontation between Raffi and the customs officer goes on for far too long. Also, the mystery surrounding the death of the art lecturer's husband is never really resolved. There's one good scene where Raffi confronts a half-Turkish actor (the gorgeous Elias Koteas), on the role of history in their lives, and Koteas's character tells Raffi just to just get over it. Ararat is pointlessly enigmatic and moralistic, but it is recommended if the viewer wants a basic history lesson in the Armenian genocide. This viewer, however, found it tortuous, oblique and almost unwatchable. Mike Leonard July 04.