Word: egoyan
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SHOULD WINCameron's a pro and deserved one of these for Aliens. But this year, my vote's for Atom Egoyan, who communicated in The Sweet Hereafter an entire town's experience of a single event, exerting a rigorous, wide-ranging psychological acuity for which Cameron didn't even...
...teach what is widely acknowledged to be unteachable. Things are going well for him. His big new novel, Cloudsplitter (HarperCollins; 758 pages; $27.50), about the raging, God-haunted 19th century abolitionist John Brown, is about to hit the bookstores, and he has learned this very day that director Atom Egoyan's movie of his novel The Sweet Hereafter has earned two Academy Award nominations. Another film, drawn from his novel Affliction and starring Nick Nolte, is ready for distribution. He smiles. Equal to equal, a diamond stud in his left ear glinting encouragingly, he addresses the 11 Princeton freshmen...
...deep interest remains, however, and he plans two more novels about the African diaspora, one set in 17th century Africa, the other in contemporary Liberia. For now, he's delighted with the Academy Award fuss about The Sweet Hereafter (in which he appears briefly as a local doctor). Director Egoyan, with whom he worked for two years advising on the script, overflows with praise: "One of the greatest living novelists." That may be gratifying, but Banks knows there's still more work to do. He'll quit teaching after this semester and move with his wife to their house...
...only one featured outside the context of the icy Canadian winter. Everything about the film suggests barrenness. Even the entire color scheme is drab. Although it adds to the effectiveness of the imagery and remains consistent with the film's tone, this tactic further distances the viewer. Egoyan's choices are artistically correct, but often emotionally risky...
...Sweet Hereafter is certainly wellcrafted, and contains outstanding performances by Holm and Polley. But Egoyan sacrifices an emotional relation to the material in favor of an icy and remote perfection...