Seven Veils (2023) User Reviews

"You're worthy of being loved."

[Blue-Grotto · 8/10 · 23 October 2023]

There is an enthralling and haunting Hawthorne story where a father, a prominent avant garde physician, is fiercely protective of his daughter. As a child he gradually introduces her to a deadly poisonous plant. By the time she matures anyone who gets too close to her will suffer and die. The poison of the plant is infused in her life blood. The woman is beautiful, and terrible. "Don't you love," he asks "that no one can bring you down?" Her reply cuts to the bone. "Father, I would have preferred to love someone."

Jeanine is a theater director trying, like the woman in the Hawthorne story, to break free from the shadow of heartless people. Suffering abuse from her father, mentor, husband, and now an arrogant actor, - abuse that they call "love" - Jeanine attempts to heal and go beyond them without losing what is essential and good about herself. She struggles to break free from the traps set for her. To find something different.

"Take away one sense and others are heightened."

I love Egoyan films for their depth, surprising twists, and explorations of intriguing themes (passion, wrongful judgments, abuse, attempts to find a way forward after wrongs are done, love, perspectives different from my own, and more). In following a woman adrift after abuse, Seven Veils continues in the typical Egoyan veins. It is set in the Canadian Opera Company building a few blocks away from where I watched the film's world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. While Egoyan spent too much time inside the theater for my taste, I understand why it was done. Egoyan directed the opera company's real life production of Salome and molded much of it into Seven Veils. Even some of the actors in the actual opera are also in the film.

Jeanine is skillfully brought to life by Amanda Seyfried. Off topic - why did Seyfried have surgery? Not that she looks bad now, but she looks so much better in Egoyan's previous film, Chloe. (long sigh)

As I think about Seven Veils I like it more. Moving beyond the trauma of abuse is a fascinating subject. Someone who said they loved me hurt me very much. It is a struggle sometimes to see that I am worthy of love. In Jeanine's battles I see my own.

The Spirit of Salome

[emmamcdonald-47620 · 8/10 · 19 October 2023]

Atom Egoyan's latest feature, Seven Veils, is a fever dream of a movie, fraught with shadow figures and ghosts from the past, haunting the protagonist both on and off the stage. We follow Jeanine, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried, as she directs the opera, Salome, which thrust her late mentor, Charlie, into the spotlight. As the production moves forward, she finds herself grappling with Charlie's ghost, as well as that of her father, both of whom sexually abused her in the name of 'art'.

Seyfried gives an incredibly nuanced performance, able to bring Jeanine to her full, messy potential. There is a phoenix-like nature Seyfried creates in her character, a righteous anger that grows from a flicker to an inferno as the movie progresses, consuming her whole and spitting someone else out. Someone who wants revenge. Someone who wants her abusers to pay for what they have done. Shadows cast on a screen serve as allegory for what Jeanine went through at the hands of her abusers, conjuring up imagery reminiscent of German Expressionism, specifically as seen in The Cabinet of Doctor Calligari. The shadows in Seven Veils are used to tell a twisted story of innocence and the men that take advantage of it, be it in Salome or Jeanine's story. The two are frequently conflated over the course of the film, including how their anger grows and changes. Where Salome kisses the severed head of John the Baptist, Jeanine paints over the face of her father, the man who assaulted her, the white a stark contrast to the rest of the family photo. But though Salome finds herself killed for what she did, Jeanine is freed, able to finally escape the clutches of her father and Charlie.

This film explores how art and trauma intertwine, and how they often bleed into each other, creating something that is a Frankenstein's monster of familiarity. For Jeanine, she sees herself in Salome, and as such, fights to include personal allusions in her version of the play that often come under fire from production managers and actors alike. In addition, Egoyan is able to effectively examine the complex and unhealthy relationships in Jeanine's life via the use of her video diaries, in which she details her relationship with Charlie. She describes how reliant on him she became, and how the relationship consumed every aspect of her life, an unhealthy obsession she tries to convey to Ambur, the actress playing Salome. At one unsettling moment, Ambur decides to writhe sensually on the stage, which upsets Jeanine. It is clear by this point that the opera has grown from more than a performance. It has become a retelling of Jeanine's life story, and yet no one can seem to get the emotion right. John the Baptist, and by extent, Charlie, will always be seen as god-like figures of virtue, where Salome and Jeanine will be condemned as the ones to blame, the ones who let their emotions get the best of them, the ones who are obsessive, irrational. Discordant notes play as Jeanine realizes how she will be viewed, how she has always been viewed. She can never convey the anger that coloured her relationship, how exploitative and unhealthy it was. And where both of her abusers, Charlie and her father, have been absolved via death, Jeanine is left to pick up the pieces of her life that they shattered, left to ponder why they chose her. In addition, this film's realism is enhanced largely through Egoyan's own experience in directing the same opera for the Canadian Opera Company in 2009, with footage from his run used strategically throughout Seven Veils, often seen in Jeanine's memories or dreams of the run with Charlie at the helm.

Egoyan's passion for not only this film, but opera itself, help make Seven Veils into an entrancing, layered film that serves as an excellent exploration of the ghosts that haunt us and how trauma is processed through art.

Masterpiece Egoyan

[harry-60770 · 9/10 · 18 November 2023]

Telling an incredible story that merges beautiful scenes and a rich musical score through what appears to be a typically Egoyan disjointed narrative.

Egoyan's genius is his capacity to depict the brutality of human experiences with tenderness and compassion.

This movie is at par with the best of Hollywood and better still because of its intelligence and the timeliness of its message.

Amanda Steyfried's starring role as Jeanine is absolutely perfect along with a first class cast that will be sure to leave audiences satisfied.

Got to enjoy this movie before its public release and it was truly a treat.

This story has many layers

[rosimmeyer-13775 · 9/10 · 24 February 2024]

Seyfried acting is excellent. Reality turns out to be even more tragic and complicated than the opera plot. Or perhaps we could say, that this is a way to convey a reality as dramatic as an opera, without taking focus from the work they are all doing.

I enjoyed it, though the subject can be hard to watch at moments. The work of a director can be fascinating and I really liked the way she developed it, without second guessing herself even though she is new, even when everybody seems against her, or even when they all try to make fun of her and assume they all know better than her because they are some part or it.