Atom Egoyan

Professions :

Born :

July 19, 1960

I think the situation in Toronto is such that there are funding organizations which make it easy for a film to raise more money than it needs and very often that works against a film.

organization ghouls thinking

That's a very odd notion because it involves seeing money up there on the screen - if something cost $5 million to make, they want to see that $5 million up there.

vision cost want

When you're working with a smaller budget I suppose one of the things that has to be in your mind when you are writing is that you have to keep the characters down to a minimum.

mind writing character

It is about this very abstract sense of displacement that he feels the moment he turns off the television.

abstract moments television

Working on the themes I was interested in, through the context of a particular family, was a very economical way of dealing with a lot of the issues I was concerned with.

theme issues way

I think ultimately if you have a very high expectation of your audience and you know exactly what it is you're trying to express through the medium of film, there will always be an audience for you.

expectations trying thinking

I make my living doing freelance directing for North American television shot in Toronto, series like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, and so forth.

toronto twilight television

The biggest problem with the independent film sector in Toronto is that they find themselves having to make that budget show on screen.

toronto independent problem

I just think I love the process of making films. It's not tortuous for me at all. I love being with my crew. I love actors. There's a joy to the process.

joy love-is thinking

I believe my signal of maturity as a filmmaker iswhen I'll actually acknowledge the fact that the first take is usuallythe best.

maturity believe firsts

There is a certain moment in the film when the son is in the nursing home and he goes to the television and turns it off because he sees himself in the image.

nursing home son

The film camera's ability to physically move through space, not zoom through space - every time we have a video camera the movement is through zoom; every time we have a film camera it is a physical movement.

cameras space moving

Every actor has a different temperament. Part of my job is to know what those boundaries are. The actor has to know you'll be there at the other end, that you're trying to represent them in the best light, who they are as they're harnessing these roles. The methods vary from actor to actor.

light trying jobs

It was very important that it be done in such a way that it be executed with complete conviction. If I had done it both ways, if I was trying to cover myself in case it didn't work, then it would have been to no purpose.

important purpose trying

You are traveling and see these people shooting the entire experience of going through a city, and maybe in the back of their minds they sustain the illusion that they will edit it all, but I don't think that's it.

cities people thinking

The directing process is often a continuation of the writing. Thi... by Atom Egoyan

The directing process is often a continuation of the writing. This is just a different skill-set.

different writing

I think in the '80s, when I started making films, we were all suspicious of these technologies. We were all convinced they would filter out any emotion and sense of intimacy, and the films I made during that period reflected that. In fact, what has happened is the opposite. I think we're saturated with a degree of intimacy we would never have expected, and we're trying to sort through this idea of complete access to each other's lives on an ongoing basis. Our emotions aren't filtered out at all. They're actually accelerated.

technology trying thinking

I'm obsessed with this idea of storytellers and people who have a narrative, and sometimes sustain a relationship because they're telling a narrative and someone is listening to that. Often the nature of the relationship is determined by how well they tell the story, or someone else's ability to suspend disbelief, or infuse into their narrative something which they may not even be aware of.

determined listening people

We're lucky to be making films. My crew and I have been working together for a long time. I think that that's what emanates.

together long thinking

Sometimes you think you want to know something, but it's actually more exciting and more resonant when you have to try [and figure it out].

want trying thinking

Ariane Mnouchkine

Alfred Lunt

Eve Best

Margo Jones

John Caird

Vincente Minnelli