Ararat

I haven’t been re-reviewing the films in my “10 Under 50” film series at the Clark so far, because Almost Famous and Three Kings did not strike me anew, though they certainly held up in my estimation. But with Ararat, on first viewing I was struck most by its density, while second time through I was struck by its lucidity. This is a must-see film, but you must see it awake and alert, in a questing frame of mind. The layers of narrative and meaning must be carefully unpeeled, like an onion. At the center is a film within the film, a compelling but somewhat Hollywoodish historical recreation of the Turkish massacre of Armenians in 1915. The main action involves a swirl of characters in contemporary Toronto, most connected to the making of the film or a contemporaneous museum exhibit of the paintings of Arshile Gorky, who was himself an Armenian refugee. As is director Atom Egoyan, his wife and star Arsinee Khanjian, the fictional producer Eric Bogosian, and director Charles Aznavour (you are permitted not to share my frisson of delight that his character is called Edouard Saroyan, same as in Shoot the Piano Player, one of my favorite films by my all-time favorite director, Francois Truffaut.) Egoyan regulars Elias Koteas and Bruce Greenwood supply their reliably fine performances, and Christopher Plummer guests memorably in a crucial role. David Alpay and Marie-Josee Croze are equally memorable as third-generation Armenian-Canadians, step-siblings and lovers, around whom the outer layer of the film revolves. I won’t even try to recapitulate the story, will leave it to you to sort all the meta-levels of subject and media, from photograph to painting to film to video and back to film again. Though a puzzler, this movie plays fair, makes sense, and has a visceral as well as an intellectual impact. If you’re not prepared to do the work, you may wind up with the same lukewarm response as the generality of critics. (2002, dvd@cai, r.) *9* (MC-62, RT-56.)