Atom Egoyan (Contemporary Film Directors)

The films of Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan immerse the viewer in a world of lush sensuality, melancholia, and brooding obsession. From his earliest films Next of Kin and Family Viewing, to his coruscating Exotica and recent projects such as Where the Truth Lies, Egoyan has paid infinite attention to narrative intricacy and psychological complexity. Traumatic loss and its management through ritual return as themes in his films, in particular in relation to his own Armenian heritage. In this study, Emma Wilson closely analyzes the range of Egoyan's films and their visual textures, emotional control, and perverse beauty. Egoyan's own comments on his films thread throughout Wilson's analyses, and the book features a recent interview with the director.