Ararat

     Ararat is a film depicting the Armenian Genocide, which the Turks still deny ever happened. The movie basically skips around a few stories, which tie together completely. An artist, Arshile Gorky's, time painting a picture of him and his mother, while he currently living in New York, taken back in Armenia. He ended up killing himself. The stories that tie into that, are first mostly, the time of the Armenian Genocide, in which Gorky lived through, and the story of a boy, Rafi who is on a mission to find out the meaning behind the connection of the genocide and his father's death and life. A few more characters also have parts in the last story in where they also connect with other things that happen throughout the film.

     This film is a bit confusing because it jumps around a lot. I think the director did that purposely to keep the audience on it's toes. You must pay attention because all of this is important to how things happen today. That seems to be the message that Atom Egoyan, the director of Ararat, is trying to put out there. In this film, there is a film being made about the Genocide, and what happened from the fictionalized point of view of Gorky. In this film being made, Rafi's mother is the art historian consultant of the movie.

     Emotions of this film are mainly rejection of truth and then what the real truths really are. The scenes depicting the genocide are from the film being made during this film. They have a yellowish tint to them, rendering the strong emotions about the genocide. Hatred and self-worth from the Turks are what is mainly causing the genocide to happen.

     In this film, the actual one, there are a lot of close up shots that are of the faces and body parts of the actors. This is used to emphasis the actions being made and words being said. These closeups are helpful to determine which parts of the story are the most important ones. Over the shoulder shots seem to be a favourite of Atom Egoyan. In almost every single conversation in this movie, there is at least one over the shoulder shot. There also seems to be, however, a lot side shots and full shots of everyone in the film. You get to be very familiar with their profiles, as well.

     There is one scene where there a mixture of a long shot, medium shot and rack effect throughout the entire scene. It is a sex scene but, in the background there are a bunch of plants (marijuana) and it is an interesting scene to me because they were able to incorporate the rack effect with the medium/long shot where your attention actually goes to what is in the background for a second or two. The mood in this scene is active but, at the same time it is an intimate scene. However, Rafi is distracted because of things he is thinking about.

     The element where they keep skipping around in the stories helps to move the movie forward. In the scenes where they are actually on the 'battle field' of the Armenian Genocide, the camera is shaking a bit, trying to pull you into the picture. So that you feel like you are a part of it, and are actually in the film. With that in mind, they also do a few pan shots of the surrounds of the main characters when they aren't speaking. They zoom into the characters so that the audience is concentrated on the character and not what is going on around them, but what they are doing. What their mission is.

     This film seems to be a mission for everyone who is a character. They are all in the modern times, and they all pretty much have worked on the film being made in this film. So, they are accustomed to the older clothing that was worn back in the 1920's, when the Genocide happened. There also seems to be an element of the older clothing style in what they are wearing as modern clothes. When depicting Gorky in the 1930's in New York City, it is exactly what you would expect a man of that time to wear. However, he is dressed down a bit, because he is painting. There are multiple scenes of him, but only one actual thing he s doing in all of them. Painting the picture of him and his mother. If you want to study good cinematography and learn how to really draw the audience in, you need to scrutinize the work of Ararat.

     This is a review from last year, one of the movies we probably wont see this year. I just decided to put it up here to have something in the mean time.

     So, until next time--