Early Friday morning, I awoke early on a glorious, sunny day to attend a press screening of Atom Egoyan's Remember at the Los Cabos International Film Festival in Baja California Sur, Mexico. By the time I returned to my hotel room early in the evening, the world had turned very dark.
While I have no intention of turning this into a political commentary, it is indeed sobering to contemplate the scale of human tragedy that was unleashed in Paris yesterday. In view of such real-life horrors -- which certainly did not begin yesterday, nor will they end tomorrow -- is it appropriate to share comparatively minor notes about a movie and its maker?
We each have our means of processing and dealing with such issues on a daily basis; we all have our horrors to endure. For myself, I find comfort in stringing words together to make sense of the world. Here is what happened before any of us knew the tragedies that were to come; first, a few words about the movie, and then Atom Egoyan's paraphrased comments during a post-screening press conference.
REMEMBER
(Photo above from the gala screening held on Friday evening.)
As it happens, Egoyan's latest film has even more relevance than anyone could have anticipated. Written by Benjamin August, Remember stars Christopher Plummer as Zev Gutman, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz who is suffering from dementia. He is in his late 80s and his dear wife has just died at a nursing home where they both lived.
Now fellow nursing home resident Max Rosenbaum (Martin Landau), a fellow Auschwitz survivor confined to a wheelchair, insists that Zev uphold a promise he made to track down and kill a Nazi prison guard who was reponsible for slaughtering their families during their time at the concentration camp.
Twitch's Jason Gorber saw the film during the latest Toronto International Film Festival and included the following comment in his review:
"Part of the fun of the film is to discover it on your own, and I'd recommend going in as blind as possible about the events that play out. Simply know that this is a film with a strong lead performance by Plummer, a nice role for Landau, and a Nazi-hunting thriller that's got a nice hook to it."
I won't betray that here, but I will say that I responded much more deeply to the film than Jason did. For myself, I'll note that my father suffered from Alzheimer's Disease, and though that's not exactly the same as dementia, there are similarities in the symptoms and that probably contributed to the personal impact of the film. Watch the uncertain, wavering way that Plummer walks, making sure of each step before taking the next; that's more to do with the actor playing a character who's a year or two older than he is in real life and less physically robust. It's a marker for how Plummer and Egoyan approach the characterization with great respect and attention to detail, especially in regard to how someone with dementia acts and responds to situations. And that applies to the film as a whole.
After the press screening, we adjourned to a separate auditorium for a press conference with Egoyan. Click through to read more.
Atom Egoyan Press Conference: REMEMBER
Early on, Egoyan spoke of cinema and its importance for audiences, who "still crave to have the feeling of gathering together." Speaking of that, he said that watching the film recently at the Mar Del Plata Film Festival in Argentina, it was "very exciting to see the response," especially in comparison with his other recent films, which are much less emotionally involving (by design) for audiences.
For Remember, he wanted to keep the camera "simple." He noted that it is the first time that his longtime collaborator Paul Sarossy shot with a handheld camera, which is what they decided would be the best approach for the leading character and his journey.
Egoyan said that he feels that it is 'the last story we can tell' about the Holocaust in the modern day; after this, simply because of the passage of time, any story told will be a period piece rather than a contemporaneous tale. Thus, he felt keenly a sense of urgency and responsibility, also stating that it is notable as a story of rage.
Atom Egoyan and Television
In connection with questions raised about the current state of television in comparison with feature filmmaking, Egoyan pointed to what he described as the Canadian tradition of very fine short story writers. He feels that feature films are the equivalent of short stories.
Getting back to Remember, Egoyan said that he feels that it is 'the last story we can tell' about the Holocaust in the modern day; after this, simply because of the passage of time, any story told will be a period piece rather than a contemporaneous tale. Thus, he felt keenly a sense of urgency and responsibility, also stating that it is notable as a story of rage.
Lately, Egoyan has been 'thinking about what audiences expect from features.' If he was starting out today, he might go for television rather than features.
Atom Egoyan and Binge Viewing
(Above, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer in Remember.)
He was also quick to place the creative possibilities of television in a historical context, pointing to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic Berlin Alexanderplatz and Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage. Fassbinder shot his series on 16mm, even though it was never intended to be shown in theaters.
He made several references to Wagner's musical epic Der Ring Des Nibelungen, which he has directed at least three times so far, in part and in full. So serial television is not an entirely new creative idea.
Cinema's forms were dictated by industrial perogative, Egoyan said. Nowadays, there is 'no need to adhere to form and length. … Things will endure … schedules may become completely fluid,' though he admitted that he "didn't know" exactly how things will develop.
Television projects have developed with the assuption of an "interaction of space," whereas one episode is broadcast, followed by the passage of a week before the next episode is shown. The idea that some people might "binge" the show was not taken into consideration in the process of creating most shows. So binge viewing prompts comparisons with Wagner's Der Ring.
People watch David Simon's The Wire like that. That show is, maybe, the drama of our times; it's a very rich piece, perhaps the equivalent of Der Ring for its time and place.
Atom Egoyan's Personal History of Television
Egoyan first met Martin Landau while directing an episode of the revived Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also admits, with some embarrassment, that he directed the pilot episode of Friday the 13th Presents. At the time, he did those jobs so he could afford to make his own independent features.
He remember that, in 1992, HBO bought rights to his feature The Adjuster, with his stipulation that he would have nothing to do with the series. While he has no regrets about the path he chose, he acknowledges that it would have been a good time to get involved with television, especially since David Lynch had shown with Twin Peaks that something very different could be done with the medium. But Egoyan was so "consumed" with features that he didn't pay televsion any mind; he didn't take it seriously.
From talking with friends and colleagues who have worked in television, he's aware that those who are making television must devote 'half their life' to it; it's more like a "long distance run." The idea of a writer's room as a place to exchange ideas is fascinating to him, though he would be concerned about the personal politics involved in it.
After the Golden Era of television in the 1950s, the medium became very bland; growing up watching television, he never though it was a place where he could express himself creatively; it wasn't the place for serious exploration.
Atom Egoyan, Christopher Plummer, and Benjamin August
Returning to the subject of the movie at hand, Egoyan praised Benjamin August's script, which he said was "amazing" and compelled him to make the movie.
As to Plummer, Egoyan described himelf as "a complete fan." He first saw Plummer in a stage production of No Man's Land, and recounted how impressed he was, to the point that he went backstage to get Plummer's autograph.
For Egoyan, Plummer's performance is "completely original." Because his character is dealing with dementia, there is no subtext for the actor to draw from, which makes it a unique performance. Egoyan spoke at length about his admiration for the actor, some of which wandered into spoiler territory, so we'll conclude things here.