20/44
A serious theater director is tasked with re-enacting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Some disturbing memories from her past will allow her repressed trauma to color the present. The Best and Worst of TIFF 2023 (2023). There is a gripping and haunting story about Hawthorne, in which a father, a prominent avant-garde physician, fiercely protects his daughter. As a child, he gradually introduces her to a poisonous plant. By the time she reaches adulthood, anyone who comes too close to her will suffer and die. The plant’s poison is infused into her lifeblood. The woman is beautiful and terrible. "Do you not love me," he asks "that no one can bring you down?" Her answer is bone-chilling. "Father, I would rather have loved someone." Jeanine is a theater director who, like the woman in the Hawthorne story, is trying to free herself from the shadow of heartless men. Suffering abuse from her father, mentor, husband, and now an arrogant actor, – abuse they call “love”; – Jeanine attempts to heal and overcome it without losing what is essential and good about herself. She struggles to free herself from the traps laid out for her. To find something different."Remove one sense and others are intensified." I love Egoyan films for their depth, surprising twists, and their exploration of intriguing themes (passion, misjudgments, abuse, attempts to find a way forward after mistakes). ). Following a woman adrift after abuse, Seven Veils continues in typical Egoyan vein. It takes place in the Canadian Opera Company building, a few blocks from where I watched the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. While Egoyan spent too much time in the theater for my taste, I understand why it was made. Egoyan directed the real opera company’s production of Salome and transformed much of it into Seven Veils. Even some of the actors from the real opera are in the film. Jeanine is brought to life with skill by Amanda Seyfried. Off topic – why did Seyfried get surgery? Not that she looks bad now, but she looks much better in Egoyan’s previous film, Chloe. (long sigh) The more I think about Seven Veils, the more I like it. Moving past the trauma of abuse is a fascinating subject. Someone who said they loved me hurt me deeply. It’s a struggle sometimes to see myself as worthy of love. In Jeanine’s battles I see my own.