13/12
A serious theatre director is tasked with re-staging her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Disturbing memories from the past allow her repressed trauma to color the present. This is Amanda Seyfried’s second time starring in a film directed by Atom Egoyan since Chloe (2009). Mentioned in Amanda the Jedi Show: I ALMOST Walked Out | The Best and Worst of TIFF 2023 (2023). This is Hawthorne’s fascinating and disturbing story, in which the father, a distinguished avant-garde physician, is fiercely protective of his daughter. As a child, he gradually introduces her to a deadly poisonous plant. By the time it matures, anyone who comes near it will suffer and die. The poison from the plant is infused into her blood. The woman is beautiful and terrible. “Do you not love?” asks, “That no one can bring you down?” Her answer hits the nail on the head. “Father, I’d rather love someone.” Jeanine is a theater director who, like the woman in Hawthorne’s story, is trying to free herself from the shadow of heartless men. Suffering from abuse at the hands of her father, mentor, husband, and now an arrogant actor—abuse they call “love”—Jeanine is trying to heal and move beyond it without losing what’s essential and good about her. She’s fighting to free herself from the traps that have been set for her. To find something else. “Take away one sense, and the others are heightened.” I love Egoyan’s films for their depth, their surprising twists, and their exploration of intriguing themes (passion, misjudgments, abuse, trying to find a way forward after wrongs have been done, love, perspectives other than my own, and more). Following a woman adrift in the aftermath of abuse, Seven Veils continues Egoyan’s signature vein. The action takes place in the Canadian Opera Company building a few blocks away from where I saw the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. While Egoyan spent too much time in the theater for my taste, I understand why. Egoyan directed a real production of the opera Salome and largely reimagined it for Seven Veils . Even some of the actors from the real opera are in the film. Jeanine is skillfully brought to life by Amanda Seyfried. On a side note, why did Seyfried have the surgery? Not that she looks bad now, but she looked much better in Egoyan’s previous film, Chloe . (long sigh) When I think about Seven Veils , I like it better. Moving beyond the trauma of abuse is a fascinating subject. Someone who said they loved me hurt me deeply. Sometimes it’s hard for me to see that I deserve love. In Jeanine’s battles, I see my own.