Exotica

Author

Atom Egoyan

Call Number

• DVD DRAMA (CEN, OSH)

Edition

Director-approved two-DVD special edition.

Languages

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Performers

Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, Elias Koteas, Don McKellar, Arsinée Khanjian, Sarah Polley, Victor Garber.

Publication Information

[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2022]

Physical Description

2 videodiscs (103 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (color illustrations ; 19 cm.)

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

"One of the defining independent films of the 1990s, Atom Egoyan's mesmerizing international breakthrough Exotica takes the conventions of the psychological thriller into bold new territory--unsettling, dreamlike, and empathetic. At the neon-drenched Toronto strip club of the film's title, a coterie of lost and damaged souls--including a man haunted by grief, a young woman with whom he shares an enigmatic bond, an obsessive emcee, and a smuggler of rare bird eggs--search for redemption as they work through the traumas of their mysteriously interconnected histories in an obsessive cycle of sex, pain, jealousy, and catharsis. Masterfully weaving together past and present, Egoyan constructs a spellbinding narrative puzzle, the full emotional impact of which doesn't hit until the last piece is in place."--Container.

Notes

Originally released as a motion picture in 1994.

Special features: New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by directed by Atom Egoyan and director of photography Paul Sarossy ; audio commentary featuring Egoyan and composer Mychael Danna ; new conversation between Egoyan and filmmaker and actor Sarah Polley ; Calendar, a 1993 feature film by Egoyan ; Peep show, a 1981 short film by Egoyan ; En passant, a 1991 short film by Egoyan featuring Maury Chaykin and Arsinée Khanjian ; Artaud double bill, a 2007 short film by Egoyan, commissioned for the sixtieth anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival ; audio from Exotica's 1994 Cannes press conference, featuring Egoyan, Khanjian, actor Bruce Greenwood, and producer Camelia Frieberg.