Film Stew, CA
May 15 2005

Egoyan’s Steamy Truth

Even though the steamy drama Where the Truth Lies still does not have
an American distributor, its maker says he has no plans to defer to
the moral code of the MPAA.

By J. Sperling Reich

The Cannes Film Festival has often been faulted by its critics for
bringing back the same filmmakers each year. Take Canadian auteur
Atom Egoyan for instance; having participated in the festival seven
times before, Egoyan is back again in competition this year with
Where The Truth Lies.

The decision to include Agoyan for the eight time has also led some
attendees to start suggesting that the trend in the festival
programmer’s selections for 2005 is dark movies. Egoyan’s movie is a
modern film noir and, like Woody Allen’s film Match Point, which
unspooled here Thursday, it marks something of a departure from the
filmmaker’s previous work.

Nevertheless, the film’s producer, Robert Lantos, begs to differ.
`Certainly, I think the last time Atom and I were here with a film it
was dark,’ he argued, sighting Egoyan’s take on the Armenian
genocide, Ararat, which appeared in 2002. `From that perspective,
this film is sheer joy.’

That Where the Truth Lies could be construed as a `dark’ film, as
some journalists here in Cannes referred to it, isn’t surprising.
Egoyan has adapted Rupert Holmes novel into a steamy murder mystery
that starts out in 1959, a time when the fictitious comic duo of
Lanny Harris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are the
hottest act in the country.

After their annual telethon for polio raises millions of dollars, the
naked body of a beautiful woman (Rachel Blanchard) is found drowned
in the bathroom of their hotel suite and suddenly, the duo’s
partnership comes to an end. Fifteen years later, Karen O’Conner
(Alison Lohman), a young award-winning journalist, decides to write a
book about the pair and in so doing begins to unravel the true story
of what happened to the murdered woman. Through a circuitous tale of
celebrity, sex, drugs and murder, Karen learns a little more than she
ever wanted to know about the subjects of her book. . . as well as
herself.

What caught the attention of most of the audience at this weekend’s
early screening was how overtly sexual Where the Truth Lies is, and
when questioned about this aspect of his latest film, the 44-year-old
Cairo native Agoyan says this was his intention from the very start.
`I always saw this as a really sensual movie in terms of the sex in
the movie,’ Agoyan explained. `I wanted to create this world that was
intoxicating.’

On that front, Egoyan has succeeded: the production design is lavish,
the score rich and the cinematography handsome. Now, like the
aforementioned Allen, all Egoyan has to do is find an American
distributor and get the film past the MPAA without having to cut any
of the nudity or

Serendipity Point Films
Co-stars Firth, Lohman

numerous sex scenes that pepper the film. Looking ahead, Egoyan says
has no plans to make any cuts.

`That sense you feel that it’s going too far is absolutely essential
to the dramatic intention of the piece,’ he said. `The viewer has to
experience a sense of violation; I wanted it to be unbridled. I
wanted it to feel that anything could happen.’

`That these people could take any amount of drugs they wanted, they
could have any amount of sex that they wanted, that nothing was
holding them back,’Agoyan added. `I wanted to make that sex as vivid
and corporeal as possible. I never think about censors. It’s really
interesting to me how people respond to the sexuality but not the
violence in the film.’

Co-star Kevin Bacon, who joined Egoyan and Colin Firth at the
post-screening press conference, is fully supportive of his
director’s stance. `That’s what I’ve always found strange about the
rating system, that violence is often overlooked,’ the actor
complained. `Another thing is that sex is alright to see as long as
the participants are clothed or some sort of piece of furniture is
put in the way of nudity.’

Not so in Where the Truth Lies. `When we have sex, we’re naked, and
that’s what kind of flips people out,’ Bacon said of the film, before
going on to joke, `I don’t know, in real life sometimes I leave some
of my clothes on, but it is unfortunate that people find that so
disturbing.’

Lantos, who as the film’s producer has every right to be concerned,
waived off any comments about the issues of ratings and censorship.
`It is simply a film for adults and it was always intended as a film
for adults,’ he shrugged.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress