I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I watched a phenomenal Armenian film by Atom Egoyan from 1993. Great movie with a wonderful presentation of Armenian churches, and nature. Cameraman goes with his wife (Armenian) to take pictures for the calendar, on which are the Armenian churches. They take a guide, who tells them about the history of these cultural sites. His wife is also a translator. The film is interwoven with shooting staff, and current times when the photographer is thinking about his life. He is trying to establish a relationship with many women, and takes them to dinner . It's always another one. The most interesting shots in the film are the scenes which are constantly appears. The same romantic dinner, scenes starts with a bottle of wine ,and her question, can I use the phone ? Each of them do the same, called their lover with whom they talk for hours, until he remembers his life and trying something to write about it. The film impressed me with its concept.

A photographer and his wife take photographs of Armenian churches for use in a calendar. Their driver, a local resident, expounds on the history of the churches while the wife translates. The photographer becomes jealous of his wife's bonding with the driver.This film seems to have near-universal acclaim, with one exception: a reviewer at a certain Washington newspaper who found the film to be too intelligent for the average viewer. Really? The plot is not that hard to follow, and you know what else? Not all movies need to be mindless entertainment.I applaud Egoyan for making smart, and still good-looking, film. I have now seen most of what he has made, and I can't say he has really let me down yet. Some are better than others, but there are no duds. And this is far from a dud.

There are moments in the film of sheer visual brilliance and even a fantastic narrative, though I doubt anyone could ever deny Atom Egoyan is a visually haunting artist. Between the various ruins and moments of real time captured on the trip making the film you see a true landscape, not only of the area, but of its people and what makes them who and what they are.The problem is that with all that greatness are long moments of unneeded scenes or derivative exposition that remove the warm touching moments and at times just bore the ever loving crap out of you. Mind you I'm not anti art or art-esque films, it's just that these didn't really add a magical moment or create an air of mystery to the overall story or film.I feel like the best part of the film was the Armenian man's story. The added problem here is that you only ever hear his stories second hand via the female translator, and they lack the dramatic impact he has when telling them, only you can't understand his words because there are no subtitles.The 5 rating was mainly I just felt like everything good he captured he lost in being a tad pretentious.

Not Atom Egoyan's most 'story-driven' film, but his best from a purely aesthetic/cinematic perspective. His use of non-linear chronology, repeated scenes that slowly give way to understanding, and long drawn out takes that let you really start to feel the moment (how many viewers start to notice the slight differences in the various sheep, or look for their birthdays on the pages of the wall-calendar?) puts this film close to the level of Tarkovsky, Angelopolous, Bresson, etc.While "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter" are, understandably, his better known films (and good ones at that), "Calendar" works even better as the full realisation of theme and emotion using all the elements of cinema working in conjunction.