37/10
A serious theater director is tasked with re-staging his former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Some disturbing memories from his past allow his repressed trauma to color the present. This is Amanda Seyfried’s second time starring in a film directed by Atom Egoyan since Chloe (2009). Quoted in Amanda the Jedi Show: I ALMOST Got Out | Best and Worst of TIFF 2023 (2023). There’s a gripping and disturbing story from Hawthorne in which a father, a prominent avant-garde physician, is fiercely protective of his daughter. As a child, he gradually introduces her to a deadly poisonous plant. As she grows up, anyone who gets too close to her will suffer and die. The plant’s poison seeps into her lifeblood. The woman is beautiful and terrible. “Don’t you love,” he asks, “that no one can bring you down?” His answer is sharp. “Father, I’d rather love someone.” Jeanine is a theater director who, like the woman in Hawthorne’s story, is trying to break free from the shadow of heartless people. Suffering abuse from her father, mentor, husband, and now an arrogant actor, abuse they call “love,” Jeanine is trying to heal and move on without losing what is essential and good in her. She is trying to free herself from the traps they have set for her. To find something else. “Take away one meaning and the others intensify.” I love Egoyan’s films for their depth, surprising twists, and exploration of interesting themes (passion, poor judgment, abuse, trying to find a way out of a wrong, love, perspectives different from mine, and more). Seven Veils continues to follow a woman drifting after abuse in typical Egoyan vein. It’s set in the Canadian Opera Company building a few blocks 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 can see why. Egoyan directed the opera company’s current production of Salome and shaped much of it into Seven Veils. The film also features some of the actors from the actual opera. Jeanine is skillfully brought to life by Amanda Seyfried. Off topic: why did Seyfried get surgery? Not that she looks bad now, but Chloe is much more beautiful in Egoyan’s previous film. (long sigh) When I think about Seven Veils, I like it more. Overcoming the trauma of abuse is a fascinating topic. Someone who said they loved me hurt me deeply. Sometimes it’s hard to see that I’m worthy of love. I see myself in Jeanine’s struggles.
