Speaking Parts

Director: Atom Egoyan

1989 / 92min / 35mm

A chilly, coruscating, and unnerving thriller concerned with tangled relationships, emotional displacement, and the confusion that so often occurs between real life and its filmed reflection in a screen-saturated world, Egoyan’s Speaking Parts—shot as though the POV of a surveillance camera—centers on Lance (Michael McManus), a struggling actor who moonlights as a hotel custodian and gigolo, and his co-worker, Lisa (Arsinée Khanjian), who becomes obsessed with finding and watching every film in which Lance appears as a bit player. The third feature from arthouse favorite Egoyan, Speaking Parts confirmed his status as one of the most talented directors of his generation.