Answering questions from host Jason Wood the filmmaker used clips from his films to explain how the collision of the natural and the externally controlled impulses combine to construct erotic drama. He said: “Making people aware of the deeply rooted desire they have to escape into a screen image is something I find really stirring.”
Over the course of three decades at the forefront of the international film industry, Atom Egoyan has become one of contemporary cinema’s most celebrated auteurs. His feature films include; The Adjuster, Calendar, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia’s Journey, Ararat, Where the Truth Lies and 2008’s Adoration. And Egoyan has garnered countless prizes and nominations, led by Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival and two Oscar nominations for The Sweet Hereafter.
Egoyan’s elegant and inventive films tend to feature lonely hearts and isolated figures of unfulfilled desire in often surreal and gloomy scenarios. Yet all of his characters are redeemed by his extraordinary compassion for them and insight into their thoughts and feelings. As a result, his films involve a rare mix of intellect, style and great heart.