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ARARAT by
Atom Egoyan |
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Stax: here with my reaction
to the screenplay for Ararat! This 90-page February
2001 draft is by Oscar-nominated writer-director
Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia's
Journey). The cast includes Bruce Greenwood
(Thirteen
Days), Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio), Christopher
Plummer (Dracula
2000), Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line),
Parisian singer-actor Charles Aznavour, Brent
Carver, Raoul Bhaneja, Marie-Josee Croze, Arsinee
Khanjian, and newcomer David Alpay. Many of
these actors have worked with Egoyan before
and are, like the Egyptian-born, Canadian-raised
filmmaker, of Armenian heritage. Ararat is being
produced by Serendipity Point Films and Alliance
Atlantis. Miramax will release the film sometime
in 2002. Production on Ararat began in late
May 2001 on location in Toronto and Alberta
and wrapped up in July. |
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| Atom Egoyan |
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| Bruce Greenwood
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The
primary plot line is about the making of an epic
film on the genocide and how this production and
the historical issues it raises affects the characters
personally. Atom Egoyan cleverly manipulates
structure, chronology, and scene transitions with
his non-linear narrative. He inter-cuts “movie
scenes” of actors playing historical figures with
scenes that feature the actual figures played
by the same actors. For example, Bruce Greenwood
portrays both a movie star named Martin and the
actual character Martin plays, real-life American
missionary Dr. Clarence Ussher. There are several
other dual roles in the story. This "movie within the
movie" is being directed by acclaimed French-Armenian
filmmaker Edward Saroyan (Aznavour) and was scripted
by the impassioned Rouben (Bogosian, I assume).
(Fittingly, the email address provided at Eric Bogosian's official
site begins with "ararat" and his company
is called Ararat Productions.) Edward’s film tells
of Dr. Ussher’s heroic stand when the Turks began
to displace and slaughter Armenian Christians.
It is while they’re conducting further research
for the film that Edward and Rouben attend a lecture
given by Ani, an Armenian-Canadian art history
scholar. |
| Ani’s lecture
and new book explores Armenian artist Arshile Gorky’s painting
The Artist
and His Mother. Gorky’s painting is based
on an actual photograph of his mother and himself
taken when he was a little boy. Gorky and his
mother sat for this portrait not long before the
Turks began their campaign against the Armenians.
Edward and Rouben are taken with both Ani and
with her interpretation of Gorky. They ask Ani
to join their production as a technical consultant
and they also want to work her interpretation
of Gorky into their script. They have a character
of a young boy already written into their story
and will rework him to become young Gorky, one
of many uses of “poetic license” by the filmmakers
that irks Ani.
Despite her objections to the filmmakers' use
of "poetic license", Ani remains with the film
and even gets her teenage son Raffi (Alpay) a
job as a driver and production assistant. Raffi
is profoundly changed by his experience working
on the film. He rediscovers his Armenian roots
and deals with the pain of his father’s controversial
death. The feelings between Ani and Raffi are
tested by the reappearance of Celia, Ani’s stepdaughter
from her first marriage. Both of Ani’s marriages
ended in tragedy and mystery, and Celia bears
a grudge against Ani for what befell her father.
Likewise, Ani is concerned about the growing friendship
between Celia and her son. |
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| Eric
Bogosian |
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| As
for the “poetic licenses” taken by the filmmakers,
Edward and Rouben argue that these alterations,
while historically inaccurate, are “true to the
spirit” of what really happened. Similarly, Gorky
does not merely replicate his childhood photograph
in his painting. He creates an artistic interpretation
of what those memories and events mean to him.
Even Gorky employs artistic license when he erases
his mother’s hands from his painting. The symbolism
of this exclusion gnaws at Ani because, as Celia
points out, it speaks to her own selective interpretations
of the past and to the mysterious reasons for
why she won’t face her first husband’s demise.
If you think that I’ve revealed too much about
this story, rest assured that I haven’t. There
is so much more to Ararat than what I've disclosed.
There is yet another plot line in Ararat. This
one concerns airport customs official David (Plummer?),
his gay son Philip (Carver?), and grandchild Tony.
David can’t accept Philip's having come out and
his living with Ali (Koteas?). This story thread
is worked into the main plot line when Ali, an
aspiring actor who is part Turkish, is cast as
the villain in Edward’s film. Ali’s heritage and
his own contrary perspective on the Armenian holocaust
creates tension between the actor and director.
|
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| Christopher
Plummer |
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| Charles
Aznavour |
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Atom
Egoyan does a commendable job in tying all of
these subplots together. Oddly enough, the script
for Ararat reminded me somewhat of the films of
writer-directors Woody Allen and John Sayles.
Sayles is renowned for interweaving multiple story
lines and for tackling complex historical, political,
and racial issues. Woody Allen also does a masterful
job of balancing numerous characters and subplots
while crafting cerebral, often philosophical stories.
Similarly, Egoyan handles this complex array of
characters, back stories, and controversial issues
with aplomb and skill. I was initially bewildered
by the multitude of characters and subplots but
within fifteen or so pages my confusion passed.
It’s a credit to Egoyan’s economic storytelling
that he’s able to tell a story of such resonance,
complexity, and scope in a mere ninety pages.
I can imagine plenty of American and British filmmakers
who would’ve turned this story into a bloated
two and a half-hour, self-important “epic”.
One of the many themes Ararat is concerned with
is the viewing of history (the history of a people
and place as well as one’s own personal history).
Egoyan's characters want to face their ethnic
and personal pasts but some of them are selective
in what they wish to find. For example, Ani can’t
face the truth behind the deaths of her husbands.
She can mine Gorky’s painting (the film's most
prominent metaphor) for its many "truths" yet
she can’t even discuss certain thematic elements
of it because they strike too close to home for
her. Egoyan seems to be saying that it isn’t enough
for one to know their history but that they must
feel it, too. It has to matter to you.
But at what point does holding onto one's history
(and the pain associated with it) become self-indulgent
and/or self-destructive? A few of Egoyan’s characters
are faced with this. Ararat also explores how
artists interpret their personal and ethnic history
through their work (Gorky through his painting
and Edward with his film). |
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| Elias
Koteas |
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I do have a few nit-picks about
this draft. The characters could sometimes be
preachy and expository. There were passages of
dialogue that sounded more like the eloquent observations
of a writer rather than what real people would
actually say to each other in an argument. I also
think that I might have been confused about some
of the history behind the Armenian holocaust had
I not read up on it before reading this draft.
Egoyan's script includes a good deal of historical
data but I’m not sure if a filmgoer who is completely
ignorant about this chapter in history will comprehend
every detail that’s thrown at them here. The big
picture, however, remained clear. Basically, a
group of people in power viewed a particular minority
group as an obstacle so they decided to exterminate
them. Hopefully, uninformed viewers (and I still
include myself among them) will be so moved by
Egoyan’s story that they’ll want to learn more
about the Armenian genocide on their own time.
I know that I do.
Ararat is a small, personal story
about a large historical event and what it means
to a group of contemporary people. It is a more
intimate look at such epic subject matter than
I expected and it is precisely because Atom Egoyan
focuses on “real” people and their feelings that
Ararat succeeded. This will be a movie you should
see if only because its subject matter is, unfortunately,
still relevant to today. As the recent tragedies
in Rwanda and the Balkans have proven, genocide
isn't just a crime of the past. |
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