SPEAKING PARTS (1989) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Atom Egoyan Starring: Michael McManus, Arsinée Khanjian, Gabrielle Rose, Tony Nardi, David Hemblen, Frank Tata, Gérard Parkes, Jackie Samuda, Peter Krantz
"Speaking Parts" deals with a group of five people who have something or other to do with films, and tells a story focusing on their distanced relationships. Each of them have to do with film in one way: Lance (Michael McManus) is a film actor (actually extra), Lisa (Arsinée Khanjian) is someone who watches films, Clara (Gabrille Rose) is a film writer, Eddy (Tony Nardi) not only works at a video store but also shoots videos of weddings and parties; and the Producer (David Hemblen) is...well, the producer.
There is a lot of drama, dealing with many instances of the different relationships these people have. Lance and Lisa work together as maids at a classy hotel, and Lisa is in love with him, but he always shuns her, giving her no less than the silent treatment. Lisa is pretty obsessed with him, carrying around a photograph of him in her purse, and renting all his movies all the time. However, Lance is only an extra in films, but Lisa likes this better. She tells Eddy, who notices she's renting all these films, that talking is not very important.
In the meantime, Lance has auditioned for a role (his first speaking role) in a movie about a man who gives a lung to his dying sister. At the audition, he and the woman he auditions for, Clara, hit a spark, and carry on a sexual affair. He discovers she's the writer of the film, and that it's very autobiographical (we later discover that her brother, who she watches videos of, looks exactly like Lance). When she goes away to argue with the producer of her film, they keep in touch via video confroncing (including some video conferencing sex...).
The film unfolds beautifully, giving us information on a need-to-know basis, and possessing a hypnotic feeling, drawing us into the lives of the five characters, and creating a lot of depth. The film seems to be asking who has control of media, and examines this question from different aspects. Lance tries to help the writer, who has lost a lot of control over the way the film is presented (the producer wants to make it into a talk show format, and change the guy giving his liver to his sister to giving it to his brother), but gets a cold "Who do you think you are?!" from the producer. Eddy is able to ask questions to people at the weddings and parties, but when Lisa tries it out, she accidentally insults her interviewee, who has her newly-wedded husband yell at her horribly. And Clara is never able to get any real control over the film, although her choice at playing her brother (Lance) is duelly noted.
The film is also structured to show the distances between these people, be they emotionally or physically. Lance shuns Lisa, who is always opening up to him ("Let me love you," she says a couple times to him), but he completely ignores her. So she watches his videos constantly, and freezes the frame on him as he's in the background as an extra. Lance is distanced from Clara, as they often talk only over video conferencing (including the distant sex they have), and they grow farther and farther apart over the course of the film). The producer is the most distanced, it seems, as he's only shown on video conferencing until the end, when he's playing another person. At the end, in the final scene, it seems that the barriers have been broken down somehow, and two of the characters who have not been in mutual contact come together, spreading a sense of hope that people can open up emotionally and physically (though not necessarily sexually).
There are some confusing parts of the film, especially towards the end when all things to go very surreal. There's a part where Lisa is watching a tape she has watched obsessively, and finds it starts to talk to her and involve her. While I haven't totally figured this out, it seems that it means that walls of communication are being broken down. And the ending is a quick-cut masterful editing job, featuring a barrage of images, and we're not sure if they're real, on video, or fantasies (like Clara putting a gun to her head).
But even if it can't be figured out totally, we appreciate the way it is presented, as a lovely art form. The film really seems to be about emotional barriers. The film is often silent, with very little dialogue (the first ten to fifteen minutes is a montage of people who all look alike, causing the brain to work overtime), causing it to become complicated, yet hypnotic.
"Speaking Parts" is a giant puzzle piece, a lovely connundrum for the brain to figure out, but with one unifying theme which holds the film together: that people are often islands, and we need to become more unified.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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