Oscar-nominated filmmaker in Dublin for Irish premier of his film
A packed house at the Irish Film Centre last night welcomed filmmaker Atom Egoyan to his screening of ‘Felicia’s Journey’, his latest film based on the novel by William Trevor. ‘Felicia’s Journey’ has been an interesting one for Irish audiences in general, because part of the film was shot in Cork last year, and features Irish actors Gerard McSorley and relative newcomer Elaine Cassidy (first seen in Geraldine Creed’s ‘The Sun The Moon & The Stars’). The film’s screenplay was written by Egoyan, but based on a novel by Irish writer William Trevor – the subject although Irish based, deals with many of Egoyan’s favourite interests, as most of his films do – culture and marginalisation, memory, emotional lives and (video) technology.
Egoyan brought us through his early life and work, in Victoria BC, and Toronto, where he studied Trinity College – his first love was theatre, and Samuel Beckett’s work. On discovering that the college theatre has a full schedule when he started, he went to the film society to produce his script (more or less out of spite !), picked up a camera, and realised that this was the instrument he could work with. Unlike theatre, where he found himself constantly waiting for other people to do things, with film he found that there were no real delays, and he could produce for himself, quickly and cheaply. From here Egoyan made ‘Family Viewing, ‘Speaking Parts’, ‘The Adjuster’, ‘Calendar’, ‘Exotica’ ‘The Sweet Herafter’ and ‘Felicia’s Journey’. ‘Exotica’ was his breakthrough film internationally, that led to a short but intense flirtation with Hollywood – this was ‘his time’, which upon reflection, opened his eyes to the industry in Hollywood. The irony was that his next film ‘The Sweet Hereafter’ received two Oscar nominations – for best screenplay and best director. He enjoyed the evening, knowing that Titanic could hardly be beaten by his effort, and got a kick out of the Canadian industry pushing for the ‘two’ Canadian nominations – Titanic (Cameron is Canadian) and ‘The Sweet Hereafter’.
‘Felicia’s Journey’ is a great film – Bob Hoskins and Elaine Cassidy give great performances, the supporting cast is excellent, and true to Egoyan’s previous films, it reflects Egoyan’s great interest in the tension and dichotomy between the realism and magic of the moving image.
‘Felicia’s Journey’ is distributed in Ireland by Clarence Pictures, and opens here on October 8. IFTN’s interview with Atom Egoyan will be published in October to co-incide with the release of his film.
DH 26.8.99
