I know Fall is in full swing when the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) starts up again and ends just before Canadian Thanksgiving.
Can’t seem to wrap my head around upcoming Thanksgiving, let alone Halloween followed by American Thanksgiving and finally Christmas and another New Year. Ok maybe I’m jumping ahead but it’s all happening way too quickly. Summer just ended and Fall began the very next day. It’s the full circle cycle. I don’t know about you, but I’m surprisingly ready to make the change to cozy sweaters. Last weekend I spent in Whistler with a hot toddy by a log fireplace after soaking in a hot tub. It was the perfect way to transition to cooler weather.
Another great way to spend a chilly afternoon or evening is by spending more time at the cinema. Film Festivals allow you the opportunity to discover unique films from around the world. The Vancouver International Film Festival is considered to be one of the world’s most prominent film festivals and one of the largest in North America. I always look forward to getting my hands on a festival guidebook and taking my time to go through it and marking off everything I want to see,
I just saw the premiere Guest of Honour by celebrated Canadian director Atom Egoyan (Ararat, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter).
I started in theater and I wanted to write plays, but I never really found an original voice as a playwright. I still write plays. I still do theater and opera, but the moment I started making films, which I have to say I started in college because the college dramatic society turned down one of my plays, and out of spite, I went to the film club and said, “Okay, I’ll make it as a movie.” But the moment I held that camera, it just felt like “Oh, this is another character. This is someone watching the drama.” It was always a character for me. I think in the really early films, it literally is the missing person. It’s the person watching. So, it’s what I feel most natural doing. – Atom Egoyan (2014).
Guest of Honour
is a psychological head spin of a story. It definitely has its twists and turns. Jim, the main character (David Thewlis) is a government food inspector who has the power to close down a family establishment at the drop of a hat. It gets interesting where in one of the scenes he’s about to give a restaurant its closing papers, however the owner (played by Egoyan’s real life wife Arsinée Khanjian) talks him out of it by inviting him to a private reception being held at the restaurant. This is where she privately requests that guests treat Jim as “Guest of Honour.”
It gets a little uncomfortable whereby after several glasses of wine he rattles on about some upsetting personal matters. Matters that include discussing his talented composer daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliviera) who is incarcerated for a crime she didn’t commit yet insists she deserves to remain in prison for.
If I could sum up this movie in as few words as possible it would be a”beautifully, complicated, dysfunctional drama.” The best possible kind.
For more information and to purchase tickets please visit:
Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION. 