Calendar (1993)

Featured Audience Ratings

• E.J. B

  
  Egoyan's small indie is about a man on vacation with his wife in Armenia. The two are having problems in their marriage, and the main character suspects his wife is flirting with their tour guide. Told through several scenes that use repetition, and through the perspective of a… More
  Egoyan's small indie is about a man on vacation with his wife in Armenia. The two are having problems in their marriage, and the main character suspects his wife is flirting with their tour guide. Told through several scenes that use repetition, and through the perspective of a picture camera, this film can be quite pretentious and annoying at times, but its an extremely unique work, so I recommend it based on that.

• Eric B

  
  This tale of a photographer's deteriorating relationship with his wife is more intriguing for its structure than its plot. Writer/director Atom Egoyan plays a photographer recalling how his marriage unraveled during an overseas trip to shoot old Armenian churches for a calendar.… More
  This tale of a photographer's deteriorating relationship with his wife is more intriguing for its structure than its plot. Writer/director Atom Egoyan plays a photographer recalling how his marriage unraveled during an overseas trip to shoot old Armenian churches for a calendar. His wife acts as his translator for the journey, but her affections gradually turn from him to their local guide. Since Egoyan's own wife portrays the role and he is of Armenian descent himself, the situation has obvious personal resonances. The story is told via flashbacks, one for each church. The contemporary setting finds Egoyan's post-marital character enduring a string of tedious dates, repeatedly alienating women with awkward conversation and then losing their attention as they excuse themselves to make a flirtatious phone call. As the women chatter away in the next room, he pulls out his writer's pad and the next flashback unfolds. It's eventually suggested that the photographer may be staging this repeated scene -- possibly with prostitutes -- to somehow gain creative inspiration. Typically for Egoyan, the events are more than a little ambiguous and hampered by an atmosphere of numb, repressed introspection. In the case of "Calendar," weak acting is another problem. Still, the film is worth seeing, and it's quite short so it doesn't wear out its welcome.

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]In "Calendar", a photographer(Atom Egoyan) is in Armenia taking photographs of churches for a calendar with the help of his partner(Arsinee Khanjian) who translates for their driver(Ashot Adamyan). The following year, the calendar hangs in the home of… More
  [font=Century Gothic]In "Calendar", a photographer(Atom Egoyan) is in Armenia taking photographs of churches for a calendar with the help of his partner(Arsinee Khanjian) who translates for their driver(Ashot Adamyan). The following year, the calendar hangs in the home of the photographer as he has dinner with various women.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Written and directed by Atom Egoyan, "Calendar" is not only about the relics of the distant past, but those of the recent past and the present, also. Egoyan does a much better job here of paying respect to Armenian history than in his misguided "Ararat." [/font]

• Dimitris S

  
  The optical purposes of a study on architecture and the historical treatise of a long-forsaken land.We come full circle the moment all seasons approach their climax,Egoyan's static camera focuses in the buildings and their caressing stature instead of the human beings.A contrast… More
  The optical purposes of a study on architecture and the historical treatise of a long-forsaken land.We come full circle the moment all seasons approach their climax,Egoyan's static camera focuses in the buildings and their caressing stature instead of the human beings.A contrast which fits Egoyan's overtones and the oozing atmosphere that encompasses this exceptional film.