Exotica
Canada
1994
103 Min
Color
1.85:1
English, Hebrew
Synopsis
Eric and Christina both work at the night club known as Exotica. They share a complex history that dates back many years. Francis, tax auditor by day, and Exotica patron by night, relies on the club to fill emptiness left in his life by his absent family. Zoe the pregnant owner and operator of Exotica, runs the club as she runs her life – marshalled and emotionless. And, Thomas, the pet shop owner, is infatuated with exotic animals and exotic people. –Cannes Film Festival
Director
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan’s parents were painters and he studied International Relations and music at the University of Toronto where he began making short films: “Howard in Particular” 1979, “After Grad with Dad” 1980, “Peep Show” 1981 and “Open House” 1982.
While he has several distinguished Television and Opera works on his resume and such pictures as his debut “Next of Kin” 1984, Berlin and Moscow International Film Festival-winning “Family Viewing” 1987 and “The Adjuster” 1991 – his most critically acclaimed creation is The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and his most famous work is the astonishingly clever film-in-film Ararat (2002)
4 time Cannes Film Festival winner and the most famous Armenian filmmaker since Sergei Parajanov, the Egypt-born, Canada-bred, Oscar-nominated master of indie cinema, has collected an impressive 4 awards from the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.
A 7 time recipient of Canada’s top Genie Awards, he is a remarkable figure in contemporary… read more
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DT
11Mar13
Lurid melding of storylines and portraits, drifting in and out of the eponymous strip club Exotica - the intertwining lives of the sub-urban underneath. As intoxicated in its mise en scene - exotic colours, floating camera, shifting focus - as its stoic clientele, and of their detached yet conflicted lives that, through its aesthetic - that of a (dis)connected urban jungle - and however outwardly distant or scant, are in time seductively conveyed to the viewer. A tonal complement to Cronenberg’s Crash, re: sex as outlet for trauma.
Malkin
17Jul12
People in torment, orbiting one another, linked only by memories and by the cold hard cash which they insist upon paying. Commerce as connection and the inevitable, inescapable sense that their days are slipping away, counting down. Each person has their own baggage and the best we can do is skim along the same path for a little while.
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Maury Chaykin, 1949 - 2010
By David Hudson on July 27, 2010
"Award-winning actor Maury Chaykin, a familiar face in Canadian movies and TV shows since the 1970s, died Tuesday on his 61st birthday
The Auteurs Daily: Toronto. Chloe
By David Hudson on September 17, 2009
"These days, I'm not convinced Atom Egoyan could even get The Sweet Hereafter right," writes Tom Carson for GQ, "and since that's still the
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Great Movies
By tuyabid on June 25, 2012
With a title called Exotica, I’m sure it’s an adult film or Playboy Magazine special. Well, it’s all that jazz! This is a rich, textured, beautiful but sad and painful film to watch… read review
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