Calendar

Rating:
Summary: Avoid except for true Atom Egoyan fans
Review: I like Atom Egoyan's movies but I am not a die-hard enough fan to sit through this one. Atom Egoyan even "tries" to act in it. I think he would do well to stay behind the camera.

Basically a photographer and his wife take photographs of Armenian churches for a calendar they are making. They travel to these places with a local historian who is very interested in the photographer's wife. These scenes are cut with the photographer sitting at home trying to solve his emotional problems with other women.

Its pure garbage. Sorry but I could not believe I sat through this. I am a fan of the man's work but this one is a mess. I only recommend it to die-hard fans and the most extreme of art-house movie lovers. I lean a little to the art-house side but this was a way too much for me to take.

Rating:
Summary: Lesser-known Egoyan lets you decide how to feel...
Review: In "Calendar", writer/director Atom Egoyan documents the deteriorating relationship between a man of Armenian ancestry and his wife, who is truly Armenian. The man is a photographer on assignment to photograph Armenian churches for a calendar. He is accompanied by a driver with aspirations to be a tour guide, and his wife serves as his translator.

If it is true that any auteur has a motivating idea behind much of his/her career, than Egoyan's center is voyeurism. Egoyan lays his cards on the table in this lesser-known film, directly examining the way voyeurism affects both the perceiver and the perceived. As if to further reinforce the theme, he places himself in the role of the photographer. The land of his ancestry, its beautiful locales and churches, and his wife seduce him with imagery, rather than with contact. It is a willful choice on the part of Egoyan and his character, for he remains unable to truly connect with any of it.

As with other Egoyan films I have seen ("Speaking Parts", "Exotica", and "The Sweet Hereafter"), much of "Calendar" is deliberately paced, and beautifully shot. His use of soundtrack music is stirring and emotional as usual, yet remains subtle enough to avoid being invasive to the viewer. For one reason or another, this film resonated with me more than any of his other films.

Rating:
Summary: Armenians must know their history
Review: Our duty as Armenians is to Remember and pass the memory to next generation and make the tragedy known to the world, this movie does it the best way... excellent, something to have at home and watch it over and over..it is good acting, excellent plot, love and history...

Rating:
Summary: "Has this place made you forget all our history?"
Review: The film "Calendar" from Canadian-Armenian director, Atom Egoyan is a small masterpiece. It's a very simple story with a very small cast, but it really is a marvellous film and quite perfect. In Egoyan's hands, the simple story is amazingly complex, and the past and the present are expertly weaved together.

A photographer (Egoyan) and his partner/wife are in Armenia to photograph ancient Armenian churches--one to appear for each month for a calender. The photographer's wife (played by real-life wife, Arsinee Khanjian) acts as a translator between the photographer and the driver who takes them to each of the churches. It is clear from the very beginning that problems exist between the photographer and his wife. He is cold, arrogant, exacting, and incapable of communicating. The wife is much more open, and she is capable of enjoying the scenery and the history of the churches as told by the driver.

The story is told in flashbacks as the photographer recalls events that occurred during the trip. The now completed calendar of Armemian churches acts as a prompt for memories, and the photographer also replays video he recorded during the trip. Egoyan fans know that he includes video a lot in his films. Egoyan's story masterfully reveals the subtleties of recording life and analyzing it through video. Videotapes can be re-wound and re-played at the crucial points, but to re-wind life is impossible. Egoyan's protagonist seeks the means of replaying his life until he somehow reaches a satisfactory point again. Stick with this film--it's unforgettable--displacedhuman.

Rating:
Summary: "Has this place made you forget all our history?"
Review: The film "Calendar" from Canadian-Armenian director, Atom Egoyan is a small masterpiece. It's a very simple story with a very small cast, but it really is a marvellous film and quite perfect. In Egoyan's hands, the simple story is amazingly complex, and the past and the present are expertly weaved together.

A photographer (Egoyan) and his partner/wife are in Armenia to photograph ancient Armenian churches--one to appear for each month for a calender. The photographer's wife (played by real-life wife, Arsinee Khanjian) acts as a translator between the photographer and the driver who takes them to each of the churches. It is clear from the very beginning that problems exist between the photographer and his wife. He is cold, arrogant, exacting, and incapable of communicating. The wife is much more open, and she is capable of enjoying the scenery and the history of the churches as told by the driver.

The story is told in flashbacks as the photographer recalls events that occurred during the trip. The now completed calendar of Armemian churches acts as a prompt for memories, and the photographer also replays video he recorded during the trip. Egoyan fans know that he includes video a lot in his films. Egoyan's story masterfully reveals the subtleties of recording life and analyzing it through video. Videotapes can be re-wound and re-played at the crucial points, but to re-wind life is impossible. Egoyan's protagonist seeks the means of replaying his life until he somehow reaches a satisfactory point again. Stick with this film--it's unforgettable--displacedhuman.

Rating:
Summary: An artistic representation of New World existance...
Review: The foreign languages in Calendar represents a world of immediate and authentic and real, uncalculated, uncategorized, or unanalyzed feeling. English, which is the only language which the male protagonist knows, represents the cultural parameters of the New World: utiliatarian, organizaed about doing things and doing them efficiently, and disengaged from any kind of here and now viscerality. All of the women in Calendar speak other langugages and they represent not merely other languages and backgrounds, but also a richer, more real, more authentically emotional, romantic, human, and passionate reality. The "star" of Calendar doesn't have an idiom of expression except that of a new world society in which doing and accomplishing and making and showing have all the value and the needs of people as spirits is not only ignored, but are also inexpressible.

That spiritual paucity of new world existence is explored by Egoyan through his own ethnicity, background, and source culture. The man in that film lost something in being raised in Canada and doesn't know what it is or how to get it back. He only senses that the Armenian guide he is filming with his wife has something to give his wife that he will never have.

This is a very brave, experimental movie which works well. The pacing is even and the scenes appear in a very precise manner.

Rating:
Summary: An artistic representation of New World existance...
Review: The foreign languages in Calendar represents a world of immediate and authentic and real, uncalculated, uncategorized, or unanalyzed feeling. English, which is the only language which the male protagonist knows, represents the cultural parameters of the New World: utiliatarian, organizaed about doing things and doing them efficiently, and disengaged from any kind of here and now viscerality. All of the women in Calendar speak other langugages and they represent not merely other languages and backgrounds, but also a richer, more real, more authentically emotional, romantic, human, and passionate reality. The "star" of Calendar doesn't have an idiom of expression except that of a new world society in which doing and accomplishing and making and showing have all the value and the needs of people as spirits is not only ignored, but are also inexpressible.

That spiritual paucity of new world existence is explored by Egoyan through his own ethnicity, background, and source culture. The man in that film lost something in being raised in Canada and doesn't know what it is or how to get it back. He only senses that the Armenian guide he is filming with his wife has something to give his wife that he will never have.

This is a very brave, experimental movie which works well. The pacing is even and the scenes appear in a very precise manner.