Arsinée Khanjian can make a supporting role's grief felt without demanding that a film stop for her. We rate her quiet ensemble work, especially in The Sweet Hereafter; the more rigidly controlled performances are less persuasive.
Fi1m perspective
In The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Arsinée Khanjian plays Wanda Otto, a grieving mother in a bereaved town. Her quietness allows the pain to register without pulling attention away from the ensemble. We were moved by that restraint, which gives Wanda's grief weight without making a display of it. The film's fragmented storytelling sometimes makes us too conscious of Atom Egoyan's careful arrangement, but her performance gives us someone to care about within it.
Egoyan gave her a leading role in Next of Kin (1984), beginning a collaboration whose early performances could be stylised to the point of stiffness. The problem with that early restraint is that we can notice the controlled delivery more than the woman speaking. Calendar (1993), with Khanjian as a translator, allowed a freer, more expressive performance. Her move towards work with other directors from the mid-1990s included Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep (1996). Those collaborations give us a chance to consider her acting outside the habits of the director most closely associated with her.
Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl (2001) gives her another maternal supporting role, in a film whose principal achievement lies with its young leads. We recommend it for its perceptive account of two sisters and the pressure concealed within courtship, with a reservation about the forced later turn. Breillat keeps the sisters at the centre, and our attention belongs there. It is a worthwhile detour through Khanjian's work, but not the performance on which we would base our enthusiasm for her.
The title role in Sabah (2005), a cross-cultural romantic comedy-drama, offers a further departure from the darker material. That is a useful reminder of how narrow a picture the repeated casting as mothers and wives can give. We value the quiet resilience, but would like the freedom to be expressive to count for just as much. Begin with The Sweet Hereafter, provided you can face an evening with that town.
Biography
Arsinée Khanjian is a Lebanese-Canadian actress born on 6 September 1958 in Beirut to an Armenian family. She emigrated to Canada in 1975 and trained in theatre before earning a bachelor's degree in French and Spanish from Concordia University and a master's degree in political science from the University of Toronto.
She is known for her frequent collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Atom Egoyan, appearing in many of his films including The Sweet Hereafter (1997) as Wanda Otto, Exotica (1994) and Ararat (2002), for which she won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Her other credits include Irma Vep (1996), Fat Girl (2001) and Where the Truth Lies (2005). She has also worked in television, on stage and as a producer, and received a Gemini Award for Foolish Heart (1999).
