Jeanine, an earnest theatre director, has been given the task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, she allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away.
세븐 베일즈, 莎樂美的七重紗, 七层纱, Семь вуалей
Canada
Toronto International Film Festival
Canada
Atlantic International Film Festival
Canada
Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival
Canada
VIFF
Germany
Berlin International Film Festival
Hong Kong
Hong Kong International Film Festival
China
Shanghai International Film Festival（4K）
Indonesia
Jakarta World Cinema
Russia
Canada
China
Germany
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Russia
In a memorable scene, Atom Egoyan, the Canadian poet of technophobia, finally turns his caustic gaze to podcasters.
Amanda Seyfried is an opera director who is using a production of Salome to exorcise personal trauma. Like Harry Block before her, she seeks order in her art while there is disorder in her life - but unlike him, runs up against unsympathetic producers, human error, the collaborative nature of her chosen art form, the dictates of the text, and the vicissitudes of the current moment. That this was made while Egoyan himself was staging Salome at the Canadian Opera Company, and incorporates behind-the-scenes footage of that production, adds metatextual interest.
As usual with Egoyan, it can be hard to tell what is…
In 2022-2023 Exotica director Atom Egoyan was asked by the Canadian Opera Company to mount his own gruesome and radical version of Salome here in Toronto (a strange and violent "love story" referred to in the film as the "first sex crime"), and while he put that show together he simultaneously conceived of and shot this film. Reteaming with Amanda Seyfried after the wonderfully weird Chloe over a decade ago, here she plays something of a meta stand-in for him as a "crazed, enchanted" director tortured by both the ghostly legacy of artists who have mounted this show before her and her own traumatic, patriarchal ones that have become entwined with the expressionist imagery of the opera itself (I heard…
Egoyan's heavy narrative-driven and personage aggregating style sits well with the opera house setting, covering several layers of storylines he's putting out there. his films are always a ride you'll board, and have to go along for the better or worse. the decisions the films do, the roads they take are meticulously planned as construction sketches, and you'll always feel this, the more important it is a capable actress like Seyfried can carry this.
Guys Salome was kinda not okay.
Script is a little messy but I did enjoy the parralels from her life to the stage. Just wish it had closed out with a bit more oomph
I was fortunate enough to be able to ask Atom Egoyan a question at the end of this screening for Seven Veils, pertaining to an almost mythic character whose spectre casts a heavy shadow over the entire film without ever been seen or heard. What Egoyan's lengthy, specific answer to this and the other questions made clear—and what at least moderately improved my outlook on the film as a whole—is that this is a filmmaker who thinks very, very deeply about his stories and ideas.
That may not be evident upon viewing the film in isolation, for in typical Egoyan fashion, Seven Veils presents itself in the form of a sort of blurred, disjointed puzzle. Occasionally, it's amusing to try…
Might be in the minority on this one because most reactions and reviews I've seen have been mostly positive, but I couldn't stand Seven Veils. I just have no idea what the point of it was or what it was trying to say even though I appreciate the way the film was made after doing some reading up on it. Everything is so jumbled and for a film that you'd expect to be mostly straight forward, it shockingly confusing and very hard to follow. It doesn't help that it moves at the pace of a snail, it's boring, and feels about double the length it actually is. The only reason I'm not rating this lower is because of Amanda Seyfried's…
I was a bit mixed on Atom Egoyan’s SEVEN VEILS but ultimates ended up leaning positive mostly for how well Amanda Seyfried throws herself into the role of an opera director tormented by abuse & looking to incorporate her life traumatic experiences in her art. Slick cinematography but narratively all over the place.
