Pays : Canada
Genre : Drame
Durée : 1h40
Date de sortie : 24 Septembre 2009
Avec : Arsinée Khanjian, Scoot Speedman
Réalisateur : Atom EGOYAN
Un adolescent, Simon, réinvente sa vie sur Internet. Son histoire entraîne de vives réactions à travers le monde. Mais le regard des autres peut-il l’aider à faire la paix avec lui même ?
(L'avis exprimé par les rédacteurs de cette rubrique est indépendant du travail et des choix du Jury oecuménique.)
22 mai 2008
Atom Egoyan aime les films-puzzle où de multiples fils se lacent et s’entrelacent, dessinant une tapisserie complexe dont les motifs, chronologiquement séparés, se font signe et se répondent d’un endroit à l’autre de la trame.
Il ne faillit pas à cette approche dans ce nouveau film splendide dont le thème de base est celui de la vérité et de ses altérations, thème qui se décline en de nombreuses variantes mêlant et entremêlant la circulation de l’information (et de la désinformation) sur le web, la communication entre générations, la recherche d’un passé effacé, et la reconstruction de l’identité du héros, Simon, à partir du rétablissement de l’image faussée de son père.
Et si l’écheveau de départ peut sembler inextricable, qui montre Simon lançant à travers l’immensité de la toile du web une information volontairement fausse concernant un acte terroriste auquel aurait été associé son père, tout s’éclaire peu à peu et prend (pour le spectateur comme pour Simon) la lumineuse simplicité de l’apaisement retrouvé. Il y a longtemps que l’on sait qu’il faut parfois plaider le faux pour savoir le vrai. Non seulement Atom Egoyan met ce principe en application, mais il fait naître du choc entre mensonges et affabulations la lumière conduisant à la vérité.
22 mai 2008
For over twenty years Atom Egoyan has been making significant films which often contain themes of family relationships – and an interest in how developing technology influences ordinary life. He has remarked that when he was making Speaking Parts in the 1980s, with video and the beginnings of what became the internet, people were witnesses to an increasing availability of images whereas at the beginning of the 21st century, people are creating images and making them available, both instantly and universally.
The film is both an intellectual puzzle as well as an emotional challenge. And very satisfying on all counts.
Devon Bostick convincingly portrays Simon, an adolescent who is concerned about the death in a car accident of his parents. His dying grandfather (Kenneth Welsh), whom he is filming in interview, accuses Simon’s father of being a killer since he doted on his daughter and belongs to a middle-eastern culture and religion. The opportunity is provided by a creative teacher (Arsinee Khanjian) for Simon to rewrite a story as if the parents in the story (the father being a terrorist bomber) were his own, enabling him to reflect on them. He also places the material on the internet where it is the subject of a great deal of teenage discussion and argument as well eliciting interviews from holocaust survivors to holocaust denyers.
The situation is further complicated since his uncle, despised by his own father, has been rearing him since his parents’ death. A situation to test his tolerance is arranged – and he fails. However, by a series of what seems coincidences but which are not, Simon is able to free himself from his grandfather’s influence (which has specific Christian overtones), reconcile with his uncle and discover more complex truths than he (or we) anticipated.
Adoration is a word with transcendent overtones. Egoyan is using it in a more this-worldly sense, a sense of respect, of awe, of connection and of meaning.
