Seven Veils

Bit of an arts buffet this, perhaps too much so.

Atom Egoyan takes the Biblical tale of Salome and John The Baptist, turned an Oscar Wilde play, turned a Richard Strauss opera, turned an Atom Egoyan staging of said opera, into a fictionalized staging of said opera in film form. Whew.

Amanda Seyfried, she of the crazy wide eyes, seems miscast as the dictatorial director. She looks young enough to play her daughter in some unsettling childhood flashbacks. A thing she does not do. Opera is not a young man's game, neither a young woman's, and though Seyfried handles this challenging role superbly, accepting her in the ruthless role is a stretch.

As usual, Egoyan weaves a tangled web of interleaved plotlines, some juicy, some not so much. Power dynamics, sex clashes, hidden histories, career manipulations, bubble up in the troubled staging of Salome. Lots of backstage drama, and plenty of on stage as well. Egoyan cranks out an excellent class in opera directing, and Seyfried shines in fighting to bring her unorthodox version to fruition. The opera looks great, especially the beautiful shadow sequences, and perhaps the stage should have been the focus rather than all the happenings behind the scenes.

Almost everything comes together in the end, but there are too many unresolved plot lines left for an audience to ponder over. A fine attempt, but when all is sung and done, it ends about as well as it did for John The Baptist.

• hipCRANK.

There is an enthralling and haunting Hawthorne story where a father, a prominent avant garde physician, is fiercely protective of his daughter. As a child he gradually introduces her to a deadly poisonous plant. By the time she matures anyone who gets too close to her will suffer and die. The poison of the plant is infused in her life blood. The woman is beautiful, and terrible. "Don't you love," he asks "that no one can bring you down?" Her reply cuts to the bone. "Father, I would have preferred to love someone."

Jeanine is a theater director trying, like the woman in the Hawthorne story, to break free from the shadow of heartless people. Suffering abuse from her father, mentor, husband, and now an arrogant actor, - abuse that they call "love" - Jeanine attempts to heal and go beyond them without losing what is essential and good about herself. She struggles to break free from the traps set for her. To find something different.

"Take away one sense and others are heightened."

I love Egoyan films for their depth, surprising twists, and explorations of intriguing themes (passion, wrongful judgments, abuse, attempts to find a way forward after wrongs are done, love, perspectives different from my own, and more). In following a woman adrift after abuse, Seven Veils continues in the typical Egoyan veins. It is set in the Canadian Opera Company building a few blocks away from where I watched the film's world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. While Egoyan spent too much time inside the theater for my taste, I understand why it was done. Egoyan directed the opera company's real life production of Salome and molded much of it into Seven Veils. Even some of the actors in the actual opera are also in the film.

Jeanine is skillfully brought to life by Amanda Seyfried. Off topic - why did Seyfried have surgery? Not that she looks bad now, but she looks so much better in Egoyan's previous film, Chloe. (long sigh)

As I think about Seven Veils I like it more. Moving beyond the trauma of abuse is a fascinating subject. Someone who said they loved me hurt me very much. It is a struggle sometimes to see that I am worthy of love. In Jeanine's battles I see my own.

The most impressive single thing about this Atom Egoyan film must be the setting, which draws heavily from the recent, real-life Canadian Opera Company production of Richard Strauss's opera 'Salome'. Even a few of the genuine singers are used in supportive roles. The plotline that is embedded within that atmosphere is, however, a fairly conventional one: the young stage director (Amanda Seyfried) must face two big ghosts from her past who are (a) her father and (b) her mentor, himself a legendary director. We;ve seen variations on that many times before. Other things getting in her way -- which would be enough of a challenge by themselves -- are the personal issues and problems of the lead singers and management who want to skew the production their own way. It's well enough done, and it's certainlyl visually impressive. I didn't think however that this role suited Seyfried too well; I though she should convey a more commanding, certain presence, because her character was supposed to be an experienced director already. (Comparison for contrast: Cate Blanchett, the imperious orchestra conductor in Tar (2022)). But there it is -- Egoyan has a strong personal style, and you get what you get.

Author/poet/playwright Oscar Wilde is widely renowned for his observation that "Life imitates art" (or, more precisely, as the full quote maintains, that "Life imitates art far more often than art imitates life"). But is that statement indeed true? In many ways, it seems that both propositions are just about equally valid these days. And that's a pervasive theme - from both perspectives - that runs through the latest feature from writer-director Atom Egoyan. The film tells the story of a theatrical director (Amanda Seyfried) who takes on the challenge of mounting a new production of the Richard Strauss opera Salome (a work ironically based on an Oscar Wilde play of the same name), a revival based on a previous version staged by her former mentor and now-deceased unrequited love. The opera, in turn, serves up a musical interpretation of the Biblical tale of prophet John the Baptist (Michael Kupfer-Radecky) and Judean Princess Salome (Ambur Braid), perhaps best known for her erotically charged "Dance of the Seven Veils" and who asks her stepfather, King Herod (Michael Schade), to present her with the holy man's head on a silver platter when he spurns her romantic advances. Ironically, the director's personal story uncannily parallels that of the operatic subject matter she's now in the process of staging, presenting her, as well as many other members of her cast and production team, with an opportunity to examine themselves, their circumstances and the ghosts of their long-ignored pasts. In a sense, this scenario thus provides all concerned with a chance to work through their respective long-unresolved (and often-interrelated) issues, a de facto form of art therapy not unlike that explored in films like "Black Swan" (2010). Unfortunately, the narrative is overloaded with story threads and at times becomes a little too intricate and cumbersome for its own good. What's more, after a while, the myriad connections linking these various subplots start to seem a tad convenient and contrived to be believable, regardless of how interesting they may each be in and of themselves. This tends to bog down the flow of the picture, which is unfortunate in light of the film's promising premise, intriguing production design, and fine performances by its ensemble cast, particularly Seyfried and Rebecca Liddiard as the production's property master. In all truthfulness, none of this is meant to suggest that this is an awful film; indeed, "Seven Veils" genuinely borders on being a truly engaging, memorable, well-crafted work. However, with so much going on, it tries to cover too much ground, which, if it had been judiciously pared down, could have made for an outstanding release. As it stands now, though, this is a case of an ambitious filmmaker not quite knowing when to quit trying so hard and not realizing that sometimes there's no need to go overboard in trying to impress viewers.

Seyfried acting is excellent. Reality turns out to be even more tragic and complicated than the opera plot. Or perhaps we could say, that this is a way to convey a reality as dramatic as an opera, without taking focus from the work they are all doing.

I enjoyed it, though the subject can be hard to watch at moments. The work of a director can be fascinating and I really liked the way she developed it, without second guessing herself even though she is new, even when everybody seems against her, or even when they all try to make fun of her and assume they all know better than her because they are some part or it.