Within the scope of the exhibition Nonlinear Editing, Museum De Paviljoens collaborates with Filmhuis Die Blechtrommel to show the film Exotica by Atom Egoyan. This film, like all other films by Atom Egoyan (1960), concerns the themes observing and being observed. The film is shot in a nightclub where men can pay five dollars to have a girl dance an erotic dance and perform a striptease at their table. This form of seduction is called 'Tabledancing'. Observing is allowed, touching is not. In this ritualized, strictly bounded erotic world, things go wrong when the protagonist can not refuse the seduction. Like a thriller, the film reveals the reason why personages behave the way they do. Slowly we gain insight in their secret agenda's.
All films of Egoyan are based on the idea that, in our culture, the word has been traded with the image. The protagonists in Egoyans films have an almost magical belief in the power of images. Often, they confront the world with a photo- or video camera. According to Egoyan, they will not reveal the truth by doing this, but instead create a wall. Egoyan: "Because our experiences are so confusing and mysterious, these technologies are interesting that make us believe to be a mediator. They promise us a de-mystification of life, but instead keep us at a distance."
© Die Blechtrommel