Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
David Hemblen | ... | Stan | |
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Aidan Tierney | ... | Van |
Gabrielle Rose | ... | Sandra | |
Arsinée Khanjian | ... | Aline | |
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Selma Keklikian | ... | Armen |
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Jeanne Sabourin | ... | Aline's Mother |
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Rose Sarkisyan | ... | Van's Mother |
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Vasag Baghboudarian | ... | Young Van |
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David MacKay | ... | Man Behind Counters |
Hrant Alianak | ... | Administrator | |
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John Shafer | ... | Private Detective |
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Garfield Andrews | ... | Hotel Bellboy |
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Edwin Stephenson | ... | Video Salesman |
Aino Pirskanen | ... | Mistaken Woman | |
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Souren Chekijian | ... | Priest at Funeral |
Van's father, Stan, is fond of video, always taping scenes of daily family life. But he does not take care of Van's grandmother, Armen. Although he could afford having her at home, she is spending her days watching TV in an old people's home. Van often visits her. He meets Aline, whose mother is in the next bed. Van wants to get his grandma out of the old people's home. Aline will help. Actually, Van, whose mother left, years ago, is looking for a real family life. Written by Yepok
"In the mode of a shoestring production, FAMILY VIEWING makes a good fist of probing the fundamentals of watching and being watched, all the scenes in Stan's condominium apartment are grainy, low-resolution home video footage that slowly unravels the insalubrious sides behind a closed door: Van's transgressive attachment with Sandra is semi-incestuous (Rose is charismatically affectionate to countervail the relationship's uncomfortable intimacy); Stan's sexual proclivity involves making home videos of his sex act and enacting phone sex with Rose through a third party (which is also Aline's avocation to earn extra money), the peculiar attention to unorthodox sexuality and social malaise has been one of the leitmotifs among his corpus, and here, Egoyan shows his acute acumen and felicity that leavens the narrative with strangely invoked aplomb and a knowingness that is devoid of neither mean-spirited judgements, nor simple sensationalization."
read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks