MEET THE RECIPIENTS OF CINEMATOGRAPHER – DIRECTOR DUO AWARD

Thursday November 3rd, 2016

They are Paul Sarossy and Atom Egoyan! The Canadian filmmaking duo started working together with 1989's Speaking Parts, while their last film, so far, was 2015's Remember. During more than three decades of their collaboration, they shot twelve features and several other projects, including a television adaptation of Samuel Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape. They understand each other without any words, just like the best cinematographer – director duets in the history of cinema, but the most important feature of their collaboration is the fact that after all these years of telling engrossing stories they did not lose the ability to talk to each other and thus influence each other's visions. As a result, they are able not only to create absorbing, multilayered images that surprise with their visual complexity and speak louder than words, but also to keep things afresh in each and every project they dedicate their time and experience to. They have shot films in four different decades but not even once did they repeat themselves, or rest on their laurels, but instead every time developed an exciting and unique visual language.

During its twenty three previous editions Camerimage Festival had acknowledged many distinguished filmmakers with the Cinematographer – Director Duo Award. It will be our pleasure to welcome Paul Sarossy and Atom Egoyan into this wonderful company.

 
Atom Egoyan and Paul Sarossy,
photo credit: Rafy
 
Everyone who saw at least some of the films made by Egoyan and Sarossy knows perfectly well that they often tell stories that are neither easy, nor even pleasurable to absorb, for they are concerned with the greatest human flaws and weaknesses, as well as putting their protagonists in the most extreme emotional situations. The stories of individuals and whole communities that do not cope with the unprocessed traumas and sudden events affecting the whole worldview in a matter of seconds. The films of emotional and psychological isolation which most often assume the “broken” perspective of the characters – the narrative is non-linear, the key plot pieces of information flash by, barely noticed in the ordinariness of the world depicted on the screen, and the catharsis does not appear in the most suitable moments. At the same time, however, there are no shallow assessments or judging people by their actions in Egoyan and Sarrosy's films, rather a desire to humanize the characters, understand why they became who they are.
 
Still from "Exotica"

Hence, their films need great cinematography which will be the audiences' guide – even if unconsciously – through the narrative twists and turns, depicting in a strictly visual manner the depths of the protagonists' personalities. As in two of their most important films of the 1990s: Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. The first one tells a story of several desperate loners who seek mental refuge in carnal desires, whereas their individual worlds collide in the visually stylized erotic club, a place where emotional cruelty mixes with moments of tenderness. Egoyan and Sarossy show their characters in such a way the viewers' perspective changes from one minute to the next, while we get to know their real intentions only in the finale. In The Sweet Hereafter, for which Egoyan was nominated for two Academy Awards® (Best Director, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published), the most important event is not depicted before the middle of the narrative, when we already know everything there is to know about it. And yet, we are still not prepared for what we see. It is a bus accident in which fourteen children die, while the film itself tells a story about different ways of coping with the loss, as experienced by their loved ones.
 
Still from "The Sweet Hereafter"

In both films Sarossy's camera lets us take a peek into the characters' souls, gradually revealing what they try to hide from the world, quite often also from themselves. During the most emotional scenes the camera does not resort to cheap tricks, but instead lets them all resonate in their full capacity, regardless of how difficult and painful they might be. In the moments of silence and reflection, it creates a space to breathe and at the same time it shows how the characters are consumed by their loneliness that cannot be solaced in any way imaginable. The same could be observed in the two most commercial projects of the duo: neo-noir Where the Truth Lies and erotic thriller Chloe. The former saw Egoyan and Sarossy at their best with playing with color, light and darkness to create for Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth a world of glamor and sensual illusions in which their characters lost their true identity. The latter is a story of a woman who suspects her husband cheats on her, so she hires a classy escort to seduce him and prove her point – the camera stresses the perverse relations between the characters before they themselves become aware of them, thus providing the audience with an advantage that is crucial to the overall reception. In Egoyan and Sarossy's films everyone, including the viewer, is both the manipulator and the manipulated.
 
Still from "Where the Truth Lies"

Throughout the Canadian duo's films (though, it is worth mentioning that Sarossy has Estonian and Hungarian roots, while Egoyan is half-Armenian, half-Egyptian, therefore the theme of problems with assimilation is quite important to the overall meaning of their films), the truth, or a truth, is flawed and does not set anyone free. It is a part of the process which is far more complex. Their most recent feature film, Remember, sees an old Holocaust survivor committing a crime in the name of settling the score which is several decades old, but neither the audience, nor the protagonist knows if this vendetta has a real purpose, or it is simply a fabrication of the withering human mind. In turn, in Ararat, Egoyan's most personal project to date, the duo reminded the world of the Armenian Genocide which happened a hundred years ago throughout the Ottoman Empire – though they did it from a point of view of a fictional Armenian film director who wants to shoot a film about this tragic event, but he encounters numerous obstacles. Including the different morality of our times, and the modern technology's trap of trivializing the truth in favor of an attractive fiction. Similar thing was achieved in Adoration, a tale of a young boy who writes a school essay based on a deliberate lie – but the moment it hits the internet it stops being a lie and becomes an event that requires individual interpretation and thus evokes genuine and true emotions.
 
Still from "Chloe"

Atom Egoyan was always interested in what makes human being a human being, in all of our species' defense mechanisms, both conscious and subconscious, the ability to overcome the obstacles or use them to build physical, mental, or technological walls. From the very beginning of his career, Paul Sarossy was fascinated by the endless possibilities of creating new and original storytelling techniques through the visual tools of cinematic language. They met at a film school in the beginning of the 1980s, but nothing sparked back then. Thus Egoyan shot his first two films with Peter Mettler. But when the cinematographer could not work on Speaking Parts, as he was preparing his directorial feature debut, Egoyan started looking for a replacement. During that time Sarossy had only shot a B-movie Revenge of the Radioactive Reporter. But despite the initial anxiety, they decided to trust each other, and started the collaboration that enabled them – from Speaking Parts and 1991's The Adjuster to 2014's The Captive and the previously mentioned Remember – to create their own style. The rest, as they say, is history. Its makers will soon arrive in Bydgoszcz to take part in Camerimage and receive the Cinematographer – Director Duo Award.
 
 

FINANCED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND NATIONAL HERITAGE OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND AS PART OF THE TASK: CO-ORGANIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2024

CO-FINANCED BY: THE CITY OF TORUŃ AND KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE REGION

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