Canadian Film Forum

Mihaela Pisuc · Junior Data inscrierii: 19/Ian/2015 Mesaje: 1

Chloe is a Canadian movie released in 2009, whose director is Atom Egoyan. Atom Egoyan was born in Egypt but he grew up in Canada. His first short-length movie revealed his talent to transmit novel messages through images, talent which subsequently brought him fame at Sundance Festival and celebrity by directing movies like Exotica in 1994, The Sweet Hereafter in 1997, movie that marked it’s success with two Oscar nominations, while the movie Chloe appeared in 2009 and brought with itself the biggest monetary value to it’s producer. In December 2010, Atom Egoyan said to “The Toronto Star” (a newspaper in Canada) that Chloe (2009) had made more money than any of his previous films.

Every production brought with itself more and more success, Atom Egoyan managing to surprise every time. The online newspaper “Turkish Weekly” considered the movie Exotica the best Egoyan movie until then. It entered the official contest of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and received the International Film Critics Award. It found a large audience in Canada and received 8 Genie Awards”. Exotica won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and nominated for the Palme d'Or.

With the arrival of the film The Sweet Hereafter, a critic says: “Atom Egoyan, is known for his highly autentic and challenging productions, and this film is generally regarded as his finest achievement to date”. The Sweet Hereafter won three awards at Cannes and nominated for the Palme The editor of the site www.armenianstudies.csufresno.edu, Tamara Karakashian consideres this movie as a Armenian based not about Armenians: Ararat represents the first major motion picture to treat the issue of the Armenian Genocide. With Ararat won Best Picture at the 2003 Genie Awards for best Canadian film; Also won Genies for costume design and original score.

Enjoying an international distribution, film director Atom Egoyan puts out to the public a distinguished presentation actors like Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried and Julianne Moore. In this thriller, Atom manages to capture in a wonderful way the family life emphasizing the most common family issue : trust. Although the movie does not appear to break the pattern on movies in which the infidel husband cheats on his wife, the particular direct of Egoyan meets unespected shades, bringing out to the public a young girl that haves sex with every family member based on a obsession caused by a distrust of a wife towards her husband.

Being a contemporary director, the movie subject is one adapted daily adapted, passing the public throughout several intense experiences, from emotion and sensibility reaching even to embarrassment in the frequent erotic scenes invoked and trough lesbianism.

Considering Chloe’s reviews, we can notice both arguments that sustain the brilliant idea of the movie, but also arguments that strongly dispute the ingenuity of this movie topic. An American daily newspaper, "The Guardian", in its online version, contains a written review by Peter Bradhaw, who considers the premises of the movie Chloe as an absurd premises. ″Remade from Anne Fontaine's 2003 sex-fantasy thriller Nathalie, this film from Atom Egoyan is a steamy erotic noir with the same preposterous premise. A woman in a stagnant marriage suspects her husband is cheating. She hires a high-class prostitute to attempt a seduction and report back, and becomes voyeuristically obsessed with the call girl's breathless claims and with the call girl herself. Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore are the troubled couple, and Amanda Seyfried is the prostitute, Chloe. As ever, Egoyan is fascinated by the narrowing gap between history and reality, between myth and truth, but this is a by-the-numbers drama, with no believable tension, and there's an irritating visual cheat involved in the way the plot is presented.”

On the other hand, the article posted on the “New York Times” site, signed by A.O.Scott brings appreciations regarding the movie’s composition elements, while the benefit of the actors is slighted. ″Certainly, there is no doubting Mr. Egoyan’s exquisite taste: his frames are elegantly composed; his camera movements as smooth as practiced pick-up lines. But he’s shown off these etchings before — a solemn young woman in lingerie, a handsome older man in the throes of erotic distress — and the artistry he brings to the display feels tired and thin this time around. “Chloe” works hard at seduction, but its heart isn’t really in the game.″

The signed piece of Ann Homaday on the “Washington Post” site comes with appreciations for the producer’s way of work, which turns to scrupulosity in details. ″...Chloe is a treat to look at, with Egoyan taking a fetishistic interest in every little detail, from ladies' shoes to the minimalist multi-windowed jewel box where Catherine and David reside at a companionate distance from one another. (Never has Toronto, of all places, looked so sexy.) But the filmmaker reserves his most obsessive attention for his characters, who here seem to move and talk within a gauzy, dreamlike fog of deceptions and desires.″

In the article called “When nudity isn’t enough”, Dana Stevens names in an ironical mode the reasons why the movie Chloe should be watched. “There are two good reasons to see Atom Egoyan's erotic thriller Chloe (Sony Pictures Classics): Amanda Seyfried naked and Julianne Moore naked. Egoyan, a Canadian, has a Gallic casualness about above-the-waist nudity, so by the end of this 96-minute tale of infidelity and voyeurism, the viewer has a more-than-nodding acquaintance with its female stars' breasts.”
Given the reviews on U.S. sites that count the most visitors, we can notice both pro arguments, but also cons regarding the content and structure of the movie. However, I have analyzed the reviews of the movie and figured out that the film idea is not a novel one, on the contrary, critics insist on the fact that it’s topic is similar with the one in the French movie “Nathalie”(2003). Appreciations in these articles distinguish themselves in the elements of composition of the movie which are due to producer Atom Egoyan.

Despite of the statements of important media companies journalists, I declare myself a follower of this movie. I was profoundly impressed by the idea that is underlying the film, in the mean that I get to savor those movies that have an unforeseeable content. Initially I taught that Atom Egoyan created a similar movie script that I’ve seen before (jealous wife, infidel husband and an unhappy family), I was gratefully impressed to find out that Egoyan had created an erotic script that intensified itself, that received other dimensions and caught my interest in a peculiar mode.

Regarding the actors, Catherine, under the interpretation of Julianne Moore, manifests her desperation caused by disbelief throughout gestures and unexpected reactions, Atom Egoyan managing to făurite by this a complex character: wife, mother and sex partner for a lady companion.
Trough the medium of Amanda Seyfried, Atom Egoyan created Chloe and gave birth thus to a beautiful lady companion, playing the role of a femme fatale, bisexual.

The movie story takes place in Toronto, this fact clears in the scene where Chloe talks about the date’s place: Allan Gardens. In the ongoing of the film, I’ve observed the Canadian flag in front of the hotel where Catherine met Chloe. Another element that places the movie action in Canadian content is the CD that Chloe gives to Michael, “Raised by Swans”.

Signifying elements that put together the movie are blended in a certain way to transpose the viewer that atmosphere created in the family of Catherine. The movie opens with the scene where Catherine makes her presentation through a voice-over, dressing in an sexy lingerie. The easy-going background sounds, the warn voice of Chloe, the slow succeeding frames, and the oscillation of the plans, whole plan and detailed plan familiarizes the viewer with the character created by Atom Egoyan.

Within the 30th clipe of the movie, takes place the second encounter between Catherine and Chloe, clipă charged with emotional tension. The scene occurs in a coffee shop and is caught in views and movements of the camera towards the close-up of the characters that indicates an open conversation by revealing some unknown things. The actresses get inside the skin of the character very intensely. Chloe describes in a detailed mode her date with Catherine’s husband and expresses her sadness in a visible way throughout her facial expressions. The close-ups that succeed themselves during the conversation are meant to put an accent on the inner feelings of the two characters. Catherine, the cheated wife, expresses her frustration, biting her lips, looking fugitively out the window and somehow without peace, meanwhile Chloe recalls the ocazie spent with David. Scenes are intertwined, are running both scenes of the encounter between Chloe and Catherine, but also scenes from the rendezvous of Chloe and David, so we are talking about two prospects. The scenes are succeeding themselves slowly and consent the moment of intense tension of the movie itself. Environmental colors are different depending on the context of the moment. If in the space of the encounter between Chloe and Catherine, Atom Egoyan catches our attention with the drama that the cheated wife lives, ambient colors are darker, like: brown, beige or other similar shades, and the weather is bad. In the second prospect, based on the meeting of Chloe and David, we are witnessing a more lifelike chromatic by using colorful shades, and the sun rays can be observed easily in the garden. The background sound is missing in the time of the close-up frames, while in the ongoing of the second frames are conjoined sluggish sounds, Atom Egoyan succeeding to reproduce in the mind of the viewer the effect wanted.

I’ve noticed that in Canadian movies the biggest accent is put on suggestion rather then the narration, which causes in the viewers mind complex states. Communicating another reality than the direct one, noticeable, the colors are signs, a conversation capable of transmitting allusions and even information. Colored shapes spiritualize and become ideas and feelings.

Few directors manage not to provide the feeling of total perspective concerning their characters, even tough their entry in the scene is just episodic. Through the movie’s script, Atom Egoyan didn’t just făcute movie characters, he created complex personalities with knowledge so well built that you can hardly believe that reality can’t be identified with the idea of a movie.
In the making of the movie Chloe, Atom Egoyan based himself on symmetry, which is evident in two circumstances. The movie opens with the scene where Chloe puts on a hairpin and closes with the same mark down: Catherine wears the same hairpin. The metal hairpin becomes the burden in Atom Egoyan’s movie, being presented 7 times during the entire movie.

The whole script is based around one symbol through which Atom Egoyan brings the mystery. Whether in the starting of the movie Chloe puts on the hairpin, apparently insignificant, the same metal hairpin is presented in all the important moments of the oncoming action. Afterwards Chloe wants to give that hairpin to Catherine in the bathroom when she wants to catch the attention of Catherine. After several scenes, Chloe wants to give the hairpin to Catherine as a bounty for attachment and affection. The movie closes under the same symbol. After the death of Chloe, Catherine, found at a party, has in her hair the hairpin received from Chloe. And that’s why the last scene arouses consternation.
Another proof of symmetry is represented by the scenes that intertwine together: Catherine is restingone hand on the shower cabin’s glass, while her husband, in the same rhythm, is resting the same hand on the glass of the garden’s window, maintaining thus alive the thirst of the movie addicts.

Ethnic tensions in comparison with the tensions found in Romania can be highlighted easily in the frame of this script. Although she is living an inside drama, Catherine doesn’t hesitate to smile sincerely to her husband, fact that proves once again the movie belonging to Canadian culture by highlighting the subtle characters. In this posture of cheated wife, the Romanian woman, in a Romanian movie, bursts or if she doesn’t, definitely she won’t smile to her husband.

The carefulness of the director is obvious in every detail of the script. Even the attribution of the character’s names is not random: Chloe is a Greek name and means “flowering”;”greenness” according to the beauty and youth of the character, while Catherine means “torture”, according to the inner struggles of the character.

References:
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000382/bio. -http://www.turkishweekly.net/article/286/atom-egoyan-life-and-his-cinema.html.
- http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/05/sweet-hereafter-atom-egoyan-1997.html.
-http://armenianstudies.csufresno.edu/hye_sharzhoom/vol24/dec2002/ararat.htm.
-http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/04/chloe-film-review
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/movies/26chloe.html?_r=0.
-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032500665.html.
-http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2010/03/when_nudity_isnt_enough.html.
-Lazarescu, Liviu, Culoarea in arta, Polirom, Iasi, 2009.

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