Calendar (1993)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Calendar (1993) – A. Egoyan

Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan (known for Exotica, 1994, and The Sweet Hereafter, 1997) here explores ethnic identity in the context of interpersonal relationships – but he does it very obliquely, to be sure.  Egoyan himself plays a photographer hired to shoot a calendar’s worth of pictures of ancient churches in Armenia.  He brings his Armenian wife along to translate (for he, himself, has assimilated to Canadian culture and can’t speak the native tongue).  Their driver (Ashot Adamyan), cum guide, an Armenian national, interacts exclusively with the wife (Arsinée Khanjian, Egoyan’s real wife).  This sets up a certain tension between husband and wife, as Egoyan begins to get jealous and petulant (offscreen).  But the scenes of the calendar shoot in Armenia are interspersed with videotape, presumably shot on the trip, being rewatched by Egoyan at some future point (and sometimes rewound or fast forwarded), always with Arsinée as the main focus.  Some answering machine messages start to piece together what this future entails – husband and wife are separated with Arsinée still in Armenia, possibly with their guide.  Another sequence of shots shows Egoyan eating dinner with a succession of beautiful ethnic women who each abruptly ask to use the telephone, leaving Egoyan at the table, drinking wine and eventually writing letters to his wife.  The answering machine again reveals that these women may be actresses auditioning for Egoyan rather than dates.  So, this is largely an experimental feature (at only 73 minutes) with some cognition required to uncover its themes and meaning. To the extent that Armenian identity is what joins and separates the three main characters, this is a very modern and relevant film.  What does it mean to be from somewhere, if you have never learned (or at least not maintained) that place’s language, norms, or culture?  At a base level, this seems inauthentic.  Yet, others may still treat you as a member of that cultural group, for better or for worse.  Egoyan’s film only scratches the surface of these complexities, although its mysteries may reward further scrutiny.