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Ararat: The Shooting Script
In the Newmarket Shooting Script® series formatfrom the acclaimed filmmaker Atom Egoyan, the Academy Award®-nominated writer and director of The Sweet Hereafter, comes an ambitious film using the fictional production of an epic film about the Armenian genocide to interweave past and present.A film-within-a-film, Ararat is a contemporary story about the making of an epic film about the Armenian genocide of 1915. The plot follows how the making of the film changes the life of an 18-year-old man hired as a driver on the production, as it interweaves between history in the making and the effects of history on modern culture.Ararat's cast includes: Charles Aznavour (Shoot the Piano Player) Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio, Gossip, Deconstructing Harry) Brent Carver (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) Marie-Josée Croze (Maelstrom) Bruce Greenwood (Thirteen Days, The Sweet Hereafter) Arsinée Khanjian (Last Night, Felicia's Journey) Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line, Crash) Christopher Plummer (The Insider) and David AlpayArarat: The Shooting Script® includes the complete screenplay, a selection of 20 black-and-white movie stills, cast and crew credits, as well as an introduction and scene notes by Atom Egoyan.
Author Biography: Writer/Director Atom Egoyan is a celebrated filmmaker worldwide. His acclaimed adaptation of the Russell Banks novel The Sweet Hereafter received two Academy Award® nominations (Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) and won both the Grand Prize of the Jury and the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Egoyan's recent features include Felicia's Journey and Exotica. Cairo-born, Canadian-bred, and of Armenian descent, Egoyan lives in Toronto, Canada, with his wife, actress Arsinée Khanjian, and their son, Arshile.
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
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August 21, 2018
Transcript
The introduction consists the background by Atom Egoyan of what he wanted to achieve with the movie and the rationale behind some of the deleted scenes. My copy of the movie itself (4.2*) has a 2nd disc "Beyond Ararat" which contains these scenes - of these I would have kept the one showing Saroyan taking the pomegranate seeds from his mouth as he exits the airport. I also liked the deleted scene where Tony and David (Christopher Plummer) played with a toy Noah's ark, because of the biblical connection with Ararat, which in turn connects to the heartland of the Armenian people. Another is the scene where Ani stands at the edge of Gorky's studio and converses with his ghost. IMHO this would have been wonderful - immediately before Ani walks through the movie set in the middle of a shoot and the actor playing Clarence Ussher explodes in character emerging into his character as an actor and IMHO the transition to Ani's inner reality would have worked. The beauty of having this on DVD is that that which was left unsaid in the theatrical release can be said in DVD form.
The main part of the book is the shooting script of the film, which is not quite the same as the dialog of the film itself but is still useful enough to follow along and jog memory. There's a small difference I picked up at the beginning where Celia interrupts Ani's lecture. Saroyan is supposed to gently rebuke Celia saying "Miss. We are here to listen to this lecture. Now please..." - the audience begins to applaud. In the movie Saroyan is more abrupt, leaving out "Miss" and "please", the applause is more muted that I would have expected from the direction. But for the most part the script is fairly close, though fairly spare of direction.
This is followed by a selection of still shots from the movie. In the afterword Timothy Taylor interviews Egoyan, mostly dealing with camera issues and what Egoyan was looking for. And whereas I would have assumed that Aznavour's Saroyan was Egoyan's alter in the film, apparently it is Raffi, Ani's son because of his coming to terms with his Armenian heritage. And that works too.
Ararat itself is an excellent film, but is not yet the definitive statement that needs to be made about the Genocide, if that is even possible. Rather the film is more about the current generation of Armenians confronting their past. As for the book, an improvement might have been to have transcribed Egoyan's DVD commentary as footnotes to the script. A useful accessory to the DVD but not absolutely necessary.
The introduction consists the background by Atom Egoyan of what he wanted to achieve with the movie and the rationale behind some of the deleted scenes. My copy of the movie itself (4.2*) has a 2nd disc "Beyond Ararat" which contains these scenes - of these I would have kept the one showing Saroyan taking the pomegranate seeds from his mouth as he exits the airport. I also liked the deleted scene where Tony and David (Christopher Plummer) played with a toy Noah's ark, because of the biblical connection with Ararat, which in turn connects to the heartland of the Armenian people. Another is the scene where Ani stands at the edge of Gorky's studio and converses with his ghost. IMHO this would have been wonderful - immediately before Ani walks through the movie set in the middle of a shoot and the actor playing Clarence Ussher explodes in character emerging into his character as an actor and IMHO the transition to Ani's inner reality would have worked. The beauty of having this on DVD is that that which was left unsaid in the theatrical release can be said in DVD form.
The main part of the book is the shooting script of the film, which is not quite the same as the dialog of the film itself but is still useful enough to follow along and jog memory. There's a small difference I picked up at the beginning where Celia interrupts Ani's lecture. Saroyan is supposed to gently rebuke Celia saying "Miss. We are here to listen to this lecture. Now please..." - the audience begins to applaud. In the movie Saroyan is more abrupt, leaving out "Miss" and "please", the applause is more muted that I would have expected from the direction. But for the most part the script is fairly close, though fairly spare of direction.
This is followed by a selection of still shots from the movie. In the afterword Timothy Taylor interviews Egoyan, mostly dealing with camera issues and what Egoyan was looking for. And whereas I would have assumed that Aznavour's Saroyan was Egoyan's alter in the film, apparently it is Raffi, Ani's son because of his coming to terms with his Armenian heritage. And that works too.
Ararat itself is an excellent film, but is not yet the definitive statement that needs to be made about the Genocide, if that is even possible. Rather the film is more about the current generation of Armenians confronting their past. As for the book, an improvement might have been to have transcribed Egoyan's DVD commentary as footnotes to the script. A useful accessory to the DVD but not absolutely necessary.
Displaying 1 of 1 review