Speaking Parts, Atom Egoyan, 1989

Arsinee Khanjian plays a nearsomnambulistic maid who carries a torch for aspiring actor Michael McManus. She obsesses on McManus by renting tapes of the films in which he s appeared as a nonspeaking extra. As McManus ignores Khanjian while wooing wouldbe filmmaker Gabrielle Rose (he wants to star in a film based on Rose s lifesaving organ donation), Khanjian develops a sort of rapport with video store manager Tony Nardi, who also harbors dreams of becoming a filmmaker. The most curious (and, to some, maddening) aspect of Speaking Parts is that all the characters physically resemble one another. What this has to do with Egoyan s message, if any, is unclear, but it sure works towards the director s goal of assuring that the viewers are constantly aware that they re watching a movie and not Real Life.