1150 Exotica

[swo17]

Exotica



One of the defining independent films of the 1990s, Atom Egoyan's mesmerizing international breakthrough Exotica takes the conventions of the psychological thriller into bold new territory—unsettling, dreamlike, and empathetic. At the neon-drenched Toronto strip club of the film's title, a coterie of lost and damaged souls—including a man haunted by grief (Bruce Greenwood), a young woman with whom he shares an enigmatic bond (Mia Kirshner), an obsessive emcee (Elias Koteas), and a smuggler of rare bird eggs (Don McKellar)—search for redemption as they work through the traumas of their mysteriously interconnected histories in an obsessive cycle of sex, pain, jealousy, and catharsis. Masterfully weaving together past and present, Egoyan constructs a spellbinding narrative puzzle, the full emotional impact of which doesn't hit until the last piece is in place.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Atom Egoyan and director of photography Paul Sarossy, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring Egoyan and composer Mychael Danna
• New conversation between Egoyan and filmmaker and actor Sarah Polley
• Calendar, a 1993 feature film by Egoyan, with a new introduction
• Peep Show, a 1981 short film by Egoyan
• En passant, a 1991 short film by Egoyan featuring Maury Chaykin and Arsinée Khanjian
• Artaud Double Bill, a 2007 short film by Egoyan, commissioned for the sixtieth anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival
• Audio from the film's 1994 Cannes Film Festival press conference, featuring Egoyan, Khanjian, actor Bruce Greenwood, and producer Camelia Frieberg
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by author and filmmaker Jason Wood

[ryannichols7]

anyone have the tip on who this is licensed from? since it was a former Miramax property, I'm curious

[Omensetter]

It's a Janus title.

I adore Egoyan's run up until the early 2000s, but unless reviews indicate otherwise, I'll stick with the AE set.

[willoneill]

Janus has all of the Egoyans up to The Sweet Hereafter, plus Adoration.

Re. Calendar, there's an old DVD commentary that's missing from both the AE release and now (apparently) this one, so I guess I'm keeping my old Alliance DVD for completeness sake.

[beamish14]

Janus has all of the Egoyans up to The Sweet Hereafter, plus Adoration.

Re. Calendar, there's an old DVD commentary that's missing from both the AE release and now (apparently) this one, so I guess I'm keeping my old Alliance DVD for completeness sake.

Calendar really deserved its own spine. It's a wholly separate work that feels very different from Exotica. The commentary is on Zeitgeist's excellent box of his 1984-1989 features.

I'm hopeful that we'll see a number of Egoyan's films trickle in over the next few years. He'll always hold a special place for me, particularly Family Viewing and The Adjuster, although his post-Ararat films are almost uniformly pretty embarrassing, except for the self-conscious return to his earlier work, Adoration

There is a great interview with Egoyan in the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated which specifically covers Exotica and the deeply reactionary Motion Picture Association of America's decision to give it an NC-17 rating.

[swo17]

There is a great interview with Egoyan in the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated which specifically covers Exotica and the deeply reactionary Motion Picture Association of America's decision to give it an NC-17 rating.

I think you mean Where the Truth Lies. Exotica doesn't quite get into NC-17 territory

[Computer Raheem]

Janus has all of the Egoyans up to The Sweet Hereafter, plus Adoration.

Re. Calendar, there's an old DVD commentary that's missing from both the AE release and now (apparently) this one, so I guess I'm keeping my old Alliance DVD for completeness sake.

My guess is that Criterion is going to release The Sweet Hereafter and The Adjuster, most likely on a yearly basis... or they'll just release The Sweet Hereafter, then pull a Criterion and ignore the rest of Egoyan's films that they own .

[John Cope]

Still probably my favorite Egoyan even after all this time and I say that too as someone who is a fierce proponent of his overall body of work and considers some of that much maligned later period to be profoundly underrated (especially Chloe and Devil's Knot which I regard as genuinely great works). So I guess this means that a box set is less likely? I've collected most of his films across a variety of mediums and I can tell you that's almost the only way to get all of it best represented. The Kino box does indeed contain commentaries (and Egoyan always reliably gives good commentary) on the first films save The Adjuster which is not part of the set. That's the only way I know that you can get those commentaries on all the films as the AE set has none and virtually no extras. The release of The Adjuster is particularly blackly comic in a way Egoyan might appreciate as the Alliance DVD is the only way to hear the commentary but bizarrely it's not in the proper aspect ratio. The US DVD is but has no commentary (also the Alliance DVD was the only way to see En passant on disc up to this point). The Canadian Blu of Exotica is superb and features the commentary that's on this disc so I'm not even sure I really need to acquire this other than for that new conversation between Egoyan and Polley and the Cannes press conference (though actually I'll probably get it just to have his great Artaud Double Bill in HD). The Sweet Hereafter, meanwhile, has a bevy of extras but so far only on the old laser and DVD as far as I know. And, of course, the AE set has no subs; normally that alone might be enough to compel me to reacquire the films but Egoyan's dialogue is always presented so cleanly and crisply and front and center that in his particular case it barely matters--still, would be nice to have as an option.

[beamish14]

There is a great interview with Egoyan in the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated which specifically covers Exotica and the deeply reactionary Motion Picture Association of America's decision to give it an NC-17 rating.

I think you mean Where the Truth Lies. Exotica doesn't quite get into NC-17 territory

Actually, I think he mentions both!

[therewillbeblus]

I've been meaning to get to Egoyan's work for years, having only seen his most famous film many years ago. I guess I'll take this is an opportunity to jump in (he says, after compulsively requesting the entire filmography from closest local library).

[colinr0380]

Here's the Mark Cousins introduction to Exotica (NSFW) from its Moviedrome screening in 1997.

Great news about Calendar too!

[beamish14]

I've been meaning to get to Egoyan's work for years, having only seen his most famous film many years ago. I guess I'll take this is an opportunity to jump in (he says, after compulsively requesting the entire filmography from closest local library).

This and The Sweet Hereafter are his two most universally celebrated, although I think Family Viewing is the best introduction to the themes he repeatedly returns to (Armenian diaspora, adjusting to a changing Canada, processing our world through media)

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks beamish! I've seen The Sweet Hereafter, and was planning to watch this one since it seems the most interesting on the surface, and then go back to the beginning with the double feature DVD that includes Next of Kin and Family Viewing

[John Cope]

I've been meaning to get to Egoyan's work for years, having only seen his most famous film many years ago. I guess I'll take this is an opportunity to jump in (he says, after compulsively requesting the entire filmography from closest local library).

I would watch it all from beginning to end just to see the development and occasional occlusion of seemingly signature themes (the elements that seem to so clearly define so much of his work from Next of Kin on get progressively more sublimated and implicit).

[zedz]

Calendar really deserved its own spine. It's a wholly separate work that feels very different from Exotica.

I think it's his best film by some margin, but I'll take it any way it comes.

I was cooling on Egoyan by the time of Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, and the handful of films I've seen from after that have been poor to dreadful, with the exception of Sarabande, which I really liked at the time.

[beamish14]

En Passant is Egoyan’s segment from the omnibus film Montreal Stories, which is a very elusive film that I’ve always wanted to watch, as I’m also a big fan of contributors Denys Arcand (who, like Egoyan, has a cameo in Barney’s Version) and Lea Pool

[Rupert Pupkin]

is it the first time that a 4K restoration of Exotica is done ?
I bought the first blu-ray release which was a Canadian (Alliance) one and the transfer looks a bit blurry, although pretty fair HD. It looks like it could be done better (better grain-film-like and HD details)
Then Artificial Eye came out and judging by blu-ray.com review and captures I assumed that this was from the same master.

So, this is a premiere by Criterion ? (this new restoration) or has this already been release in other country as a "4K restoration" ?

I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that "Exotica" is not released as an UHD/Blu-Ray. Like Vilmos Zsigmond photography in Blow Out is more than welcomed as a UHD.
I sincerely hope that the blu-ray "only" release is not the sign of a disappointment in terms of PQ.
I mean the Exotica club, the difficulties of encoding the lights with smoke scenes of the club, and the presence of Mia Kirshner made it a UHD essential. (I remember how I begged J.Mulvaney when Criterion went into Blu-Ray about Exotica- and his answer was not a no but it took time to see it coming)
(I have nothing against "The Sound Of Metal" but I don't remember having seen anything particular about the photography of this movie (but perhaps it was streamed in UHD so it is a kind of "package" for Criterion) (by the way, I found the other movie with Riz Ahmed "Mogul Mowgli" more interesting and less predictable; because of the rap pakistan scenes (which is a bit funny when you know the first draft of The Beatles Get Back)

This is the best introduction into Atom Egoyan's world. And Atom Egoyan is more than welcomed into Criterion catalogue. At that time I remember the "hype" in Cannes about this movie.
I have always loved Leonard Cohen song "Everybody's Knows", the original haunting opening soundtrack, the perfect balance between Atom Egoyan's own obsessions, the David Lynch-like atmosphere (even Arsinée Khanjian's wife in this movie looks a bit like Isabella Rossellini), the interconnection between characters-roots-family (until Egoyan's remake of French movie "Cholé" with Emmanuelle Béart ("Nathalie"), the use of video like in M.Hanneke early movies (Benny's Video).

By the way, "Where the Truth Lies" in scope is really good in WEB 1080 release; a blu-ray release would be great.

[swo17]

Yeah, neither of the previous Blu-rays have looked that great

[knives]

I’m probably the lone opinion in this, but I’d argue his recent features are all excellent and some such as Remember are as good as the classic stuff.

[R0lf]

I sincerely hope that the blu-ray "only" release is not the sign of a disappointment in terms of PQ.

The screenshots they posted on Twitter are all mellow yellow so it seems like this is, unfortunately, the reason.

[Rupert Pupkin]

I sincerely hope that the blu-ray "only" release is not the sign of a disappointment in terms of PQ.

The screenshots they posted on Twitter are all mellow yellow so it seems like this is, unfortunately, the reason.

could you please post the link of these screenshots ?
isn't the half-HD video scene excerpt on Criterion.com web site an excerpt from their transfer ? this looks with slightly more grain than the Artificial Eye blu-ray release even in half HD-resolution.
So this is not the same transfer ? if this is again a yellowish transfer this is sad.

[R0lf]

It’s here: https://mobile.twitter.com/criterion/st ... jph7ACKDfA

EXOTICA hasn’t previously looked like this and the colour on these shots is uniform yellow right down their thread.

[_shadow_]

Wow, they've really managed to strip the color palette back to just A and B.





The overall concept for the cover is nice but however much the artist hates Mia Kirshner, he seems to hate Elias Koteas even more.

Still, things could be worse...

[John Cope]

Calendar really deserved its own spine. It's a wholly separate work that feels very different from Exotica.

Yes, this is true. Or at least it seems that it should have been included on a more Armenia-centric film such as any of the earlier ones, even The Adjuster. Ideally it might have been included as a double feature with Egoyan's later and still entirely unavailable Citadel which it is formally very similar to and which is, according to the few I know who have seen it, similarly exceptional in its artistry.

I’m probably the lone opinion in this, but I’d argue his recent features are all excellent and some such as Remember are as good as the classic stuff.

Oh, I'm with you there entirely. I've kept up this defense online now for what feels like a decade or more and I guess it is. As mentioned above I think Chloe and Devil's Knot in particular are genuinely great, incredibly underrated films and I think very highly of most of the rest, especially Ararat regardless of its flaws and overreach. Still just waiting for the consensus to shift some as I continue to chip away at it.

As to the quality of the previous Blus, I have them both and think they are both quite good but then I've been watching this over the years on VHS, laser and DVD so every progression feels momentous. If the new one is better quality than these previous two then that's great and I welcome it; if it isn't I can live with that, though obviously it would be a disappointment.

[colinr0380]

I have to admit to shying away from Devil's Knot in particular due to the scathing reviews it received at the time of its release. How does it compare with the Paradise Lost documentaries on the same subject?