Speaking Parts

Lance, a film extra, hotel sheet-changer and aspiring gigolo, is looking for his first speaking role. When Clara, an idealistic young screenwriter, checks into the hotel where Lance works, he seduces her into casting him in her current film. Meanwhile, Lance’s co-worker Lisa prowls video stores, obsessively re-watching the movies in which Lance appears as an extra. As their lives slowly become intertwined in a tangled web of desire so do reality and communication begin to break down, showing life up for the illusion it truly is.

An intricate, beguiling labyrinth of desire, hewn from the impassive medium of video, Speaking Parts is the apotheosis of Atom Egoyan’s early style. Mysterious, mesmerising and swarming with unforgettable images, it is a true classic of arthouse cinema.