Virtuallly anything by Atom Egoyan, in particular *Family Viewing*
and *Calendar,* although the electronic mediation of human experience and,
more pointedly, relationships, manifests itself throughout his work, from
the video therapy sessions and audiocassette-cum-lost son of his first
feature, *Next of Kin,* to the cellular 'phones of *The Sweet Hereafter.*
From a contemporary point of view, I would recommend viewing *all*
Egoyan's films, since video plays crucial roles in all his films, although
in *The Adjuster,* if I recall correctly, we never see a video image, but
hear the soundtracks of the "pirate" videos recorded by the adjuster's
wife, the censor (played by the incomparable Arsinee Khanijian, Atom's
wife), sounds used to complicate the viewer's narrative understanding of
the film until (being the modernist Egoyan is) all the disparate diegetic
pieces fall into place by the film's end.
 
        Oh, *Speaking Parts,* too.
_______________________________________________________________________________
                          William Lafferty, PhD
 
Department of Theatre Arts                           [log in to unmask]
Wright State University                           office (937) 775-4581 or 3072
Dayton, OH  45435-0001  USA                            facsimile (937) 775-3787
 
        The universe was once conceived almost as a vast preserve, landscaped
  for heroes, plotted to provide them the appropriate adventures.   The rules
  were known and respected, the adversaries honorable, the oracles articulate
  and precise as the directives of a six-lane parkway.  Errors of weakness or
  vanity  led,  with  measured  momentum,  to  the  tragedy  which   resolved
  everything.  Today, the rules are ambiguous, the adversary is  concealed in
  aliases, the oracles broadcast a babble of contradictions.
 
                                 --- Maya Deren, from her notes for *At Land*
 
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