Contemporary Candian Film and Literature (Fall, 1999)
Exotica
by Atom Egoyan
Plot summary from IMDB
Francis (Bruce Greenwood ; tax auditor, the father who loses his wife and daughter)
Eric (Elias Koteas; DJ of the Exotica; ex-lover of Christina)
Thomas (Don McKellar; owner of the pet shop)
Christina (Mia Kirshner; strip-dancer, used to baby-sit for Francis)
Tracey (Sarah Polley; Francis' niece); Harold, Tracey's father and Francis' brother
Zoe (Arsine Khanjian; hostess of Exotica, pregnant with Eric's sperm)
Inspector & Customs Officer
 

I. Images of "traditional" (nuclear family) Home: How are the families (Francis', Tracey's) presented?

  1. Francis's home -- with only photos and a baby-sitter there with "the baby."
  2. Tracey's home  -- poor, noisy, with only a father on wheelchair.
  3. Christina's home --beautiful facade
II. Betrayal of traditional relationships -- What does it mean when Francis, after being thrown out of Exotica, said that we don't get asked to be brought into this world, and nobody asks us to stay, either?
  1. The familial relationships between Francis, his wife and his brother.
  2. The loss of Francis' daughter.
  3. The broken family of Christina's.
  4. Zoe's mother's betrayal of the girls in Exotica.
  5. The broken relationship between Christina and Eric.
  6. "The touch"?
III. Exotica vs. Central Inspectors:
  1. The contradictions in Francis' life: a tax auditor during the day, performing his private rituals at night.
  2. Exotica:
  3. The use of mirrors in Exotica and by the customs officers.  Do they differ?
III. "Exotica" and the other Exotic places: What gets to be established after the destruction of families?
1. "Exotica"
-- stereotypes of school girl: What does Christina do about her role as an innocent school girl?  
"What is it that gives a schoolgirl her special innocence?''
"they look at you with those big eyes, their whole life ahead of them, while you've wasted half of yours.''

--the relationships there:

between Zoe and Christina; Zoe and Eric.
-- Performance of rituals by Francis and Christina.
-- Obsession of Eric by the past.  Also Francis'.

2. Thomas' ritual of getting his dates with free concert tickets.

3.  Do these people break out of their rituals or repeating the past; establish a new kind of relationship, or just performing and pretending?  
 

IV. Memory, Photographs and Videos:


How is memory treated in this film?  Through the characters' obsession and rituals and what else?  
Why does the film ends in the past?  Is that another kind of stasis in the past?


The Egoyan Nucleus
Exotica (1994)