Exotica (1994)

Director
Atom Egoyan

Main cast
Bruce Greenwood; Elias Koteas; Don McKellar; David Hemblen; Calvin Green

Genres
Drama, Romance

Description
In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's owner, Zoe. Meanwhile Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives. Gradually, connections between the traumatic pasts of these characters are revealed.


Similar movies

The wife of a publishing executive mistakenly believes that her husband's relationship with his attractive secretary is more than professional.
Two young women (Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale) and their friends spend spare time at an exclusive nightclub in 1980s New York.
A psychic advises Carly to book a weekend at the Hotel Exotica to put life in her stale marriage to Doug, an over-worked attorney. He tells her he can go, but when he has to work, she goes instead with Rachel, her sister who's recently dumped her philandering boyfriend. Carly and Rachel arrive, they see couples at play, the atmosphere is charged with Eros, and both have dreams that awaken their sensuality. After their first night, Doug and his partner Frank join them, but Doug is still cold. Frank and Rachel don't get along either. Encounters with the resident fortune teller and with the lodge's hostess help get good things started, then it's up to Doug and Frank, Rachel and Carly.
On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She’s Anna Sergeyovna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He’s unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair. After a short time, she returns to Saratov, he to Moscow, believing it’s good-by forever. All winter he is miserable, enervated, distracted by tristesse. In desperation, he contrives to go to Saratov, surprising her at a concert. Fearing discovery in her home town, she promises to come to Moscow. Will they cast aside reputation to live together, or will theirs be an affair of infrequent encounters in hotel rooms?
A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.
The youngsters puppy love is set against a backdrop of adults that struggle with their own lives. Her fathers feeling of misery and failure at work, her aunts unhappiness as an unmarried woman without kids of her own. His father work at the paintshop-business and his worries about the mentally ill grandfather. Against the adults the young couples love is so sweet and sensual, so innocent and beautiful. As a couple in love, they don't care about anything but themselves and seems totally unaware about everything that surrounds them.
A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, Aubrey, a wheel chair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.
Darryl Palmer (Michael O'Keefe) is a major league baseball player who meets and pursues an attractive singer (Rebecca De Mornay). After some setbacks, the two are married and sent on an emotional journey that sees his career take off, while hers doesn't. When she gives up her dreams to support her husband, she can't escape her own unhappiness. With a separation on the horizon, Darryl must choose between his big-league life and his one true love.
The Seth family reside in Canada. While Mr. Seth has passed away, his mom is still alive, living with her daughter-in-law, her son, Rahul, and daughter, Twinky. Both Rahul and Twinky are of marriageable age. Rahul shocks them all when he brings home a gorgeous Kimberly, who he wants to marry, and does get reluctant blessings from his mom and grandma. Before the marriage does take place, Kimberly p
Set in France during the mid-1970s, Vanessa, a former dancer, and her husband Roland, an American writer, travel the country together. They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner.
Directed by Rajat Kapoor
An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.
An attractive young couple's open relationship is stretched to the breaking point when each partner finds themselves falling in love with other people.
Every choice has a consequence. But what if the flip of a coin could trigger two separate but parallel destinies? Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Kate (Lynn Collins) are a young New York couple at a crossroads whose lives are about to take very different directions. A seemingly ordinary July 4th is cleaved in two by the flip of a coin. One path leads them to gentle discoveries about family, loss and each other on a visit to Brooklyn, and the other plunges them into an urban nightmare of pursuit, suspense and murder in Manhattan.
A May-December romance. Roué Giulio Marengo, a Roman landscape architect unhappy in his marriage, meets Francesca, a young and beautiful Florentine, and then learns she might be his daughter. He resolves to keep his hands off but can't seem to stay away, and she's eager for a lover who's a father figure.
An aspiring young physician, Robert Merivel found himself in the service of King Charles II and saves the life of someone close to the King. Merivel joins the King's court and lives the high life provided to someone of his position. Merivel is ordered to marry his King's mistress in order to divert the queens suspicions. He is given one order by the king and that is not to fall in love. The situation worsens when Merivel finds himself in love with his new wife. Eventually, the King finds out and relieves Merivel of his position and wealth. His fall from grace leaves Merivel where he first started. And through his travels and reunions with an old friend, he rediscovers his love for true medicine and what it really means to be a physician.
Broke and alone on New Year's Eve, Wilson (Scoot McNairy) just wants to spend the rest of a very bad year in bed. But, when his best friend convinces him to post a personal ad, he meets a woman (Sara Simmonds) bent on finding the right guy to be with at midnight.
Birdee Pruitt has been humiliated on live television by her best friend, Connie, who's been sleeping with Birdee's husband, Bill. Birdee tries starting over with her daughter, Bernice, by returning to her small Texas hometown, but she's faced with petty old acquaintances who are thrilled to see Birdee unhappy -- except for her friend Justin. As he helps Birdee get back on her feet, love begins to blossom.
Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St James has things well organized - a loving and very English wife Maud in Gibraltar, and the loving if rather more hot-blooded Mistress, Nita in Tangiers. A perfect life. As long as neither woman decides to follow him to the other port.
Lovelife is a 1997 romantic comedy film written and directed by Jon Harmon Feldman. The ensemble cast includes Matt Letscher, Sherilyn Fenn, Saffron Burrows, Carla Gugino, Bruce Davison, Jon Tenney and Peter Krause. Lovelife was nominated for a Feature Film Award at the 1997 Austin Film Festival, and won an Audience Award at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. The film was winner of the screenplay award at the L.A. Indie fest.
Producer Mel Wexler is putting together "Manhattan," a night-time soap opera that will definitely be the toast of the town. He puts together a stellar cast, however, each member of this cast has his own little secret: Zach is a Hollywood leading man apparently being blackmailed by 2 mysterious women; Jane was a former daytime soap star who had to abruptly leave her popular role due to problems at home; Bill is a male model whose marital status would rather be kept secret by his agent; Gaby is a struggling actress determined to make it on her own; and Sabina is a legendary film star who must now take a role on a television series due to a serious "involvement" in San Francisco. One by one, their secrets unfold in this television movie based on the bestseller by Danielle Steel. (Summary Written by Phil Fernando)
Raju is a joker, a clown. It is what he is and what he always shall be. As his life story unfolds in three chapters, from his school days to the circus to the streets, he must always make people laugh and be happy, no matter how unhappy he is within. Along the way, Raju loves and loses, but must always keep a smile on his face because, in the words of his circus manager, "The show must go on."
Five children in an apparently ideal American small town find their lives changing as the years pass near the turn of the century in 1900. Parris and Drake, both of whom have lost their parents, are best friends; Parris dreams of becoming a doctor, studying under the father of his sweetheart Cassie, while Drake plans on becoming a local businessman when he receives his full inheritance - juggling girlfriends in the meantime. As they become adults, the revelations of local secrets threaten to ruin their hopes and dreams.
Caesar Augustus tells of how he became the emperor to his reluctant daughter, Julia following the death of her husband Agrippa.
In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from the oppressive regime of Batista to the Marxist government of Fidel Castro. Castro's regime ultimately leads the nightclub owner to flee to New York.
Asuka is an aspiring model who moves to Tokyo to pursue her career. She moves into a small apartment with a friend of a friend, Kasumi. A bizarre murder occurs in the hotel across the street. The body was mutilated and repositioned into a lurid work of art. After this, a string of murders start happening all around the two girls, as if some crazed serial killer was following them. At the scene of each crime, the perpetrator leaves a black lip print, and is subsequently dubbed "The Black Kiss.
Things have been tough lately for Amelia. Her best friend moved out of the apartment, her cat got cancer, and now her best friend, Laura, is getting married. She copes with things, from the help of Andrew, Frank, Laura, and a brief romance with Bill "The Ugly Guy" Written by Rose Hilburn
The widow Lilia Herriton meets a young man when she visits Italy and marries him. The man is only a dentist without a good name, and Lilia's relatives are clearly unhappy with her choice. Lilia dies while giving birth to a son, and two relatives travel to Italy to take care of of the baby, expecting no trouble from the father.
Australian teenager Heidi is left with little choice but to leave home after she's caught red-handed with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne, a tourist community. Upon meeting Joe at a bar, she pursues a relationship with him and tries to find something resembling a normal home life. Heidi makes small strides by getting a job and finding a place to stay, but her relationship with Joe must overcome more than its share of hurdles.
When playboy and one-hit-wonder novelist Jack Frost (Jason Behr) learns that his childhood sweetheart is getting married, he tries to drown his sorrows by dramatically escalating his self-destructive drinking and womanizing. Frost's pals try to coax him back from the brink, but only a precocious youngster (India Ennenga) in his apartment building finds a way around his defenses. Monet Mazur co-stars in this drama from director Steve Clark.
Eight-hour epic based on the eponymous book by Leo Tolstoy. Two main story-lines are complex and intertwined. One is the love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov, who is unhappy in his marriage. Another is the "Great Patriotic War" of 1812 against the invading Napoleon's Armies. The people of Russia from all classes of society stand up united against the enemy.
LIME SALTED LOVE is a minimalist, surreal examination of abandonment, guilt, abuse and psychic pain set in this minute's hipster enclaves of Los Angeles. The film, told in rippling flashbacks from its four main characters, drains out of the eyes of the institutionally confined, David Triebel, his guilt-ridden younger brother, Chase, Ellie, his emotionally damaged girlfriend, and Zephyr, the sexual provocateur. In the visual narrative tradition of David Lynch the film depicts the tale of three bonded brothers broken by the accidental death of one and the residual guilt draping the remaining two The film examines how damaged people are hurt even more by their own willful ways. Sometimes it is the smallest things we do to others that destroys them...
A nightclub chorus girl (Joan Crawford) marries into a rich family, and some of its members resent her.
Karan (Alok Nath) lives in a small house with his only daughter, Suman (Bhagyashree). He decides to travel overseas in Dubai, in the Persian Gulf, so that he can accumulate enough wealth to get his daughter married. He decides to leave his daughter with his friend, Kishen Kumar choudhury (Rajiv Verma), wife Mrs. Kaushalya (Reema Lagoo), and son Prem (Salman Khan). Prem is supposed to marry Seema (Pervin Dastur), who is the only daughter of Kishen's business partner, Ranjeet (Ajit Vachani). But Prem falls in love with Suman. He woos her until she also falls in love with him. Kaushalya approves of Suman, but Kishan does not, and asks her to get out of his house and life, as he feels that she has taken advantage of his hospitality. Karan returns and is enraged at Kishan's behaviour. Prem is unhappy with his dad's decision, and he decides to leave home and be near Suman.
Frank Flynn is summonsed from New York by his brother Charlie to Vanuatu. He arrives only to find Charlie dead, and becomes involved with his late brother's partner, Viv, and Viv's unhappy wife, Anna.
A mother's preference for partying, boozing and running around with an assortment of sleazy characters results in her neglecting her nubile teenage daughter, who subsequently finds herself mixed up with horny teenage boys, scuzzy nightclub owners and murder.
Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday. Her late childhood, stint as a prostitute, early tours, marriages and drug addiction are featured.
Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) is a designer from New York City who is sent to Las Vegas to supervise the construction of a nightclub that his firm has been hired to build. Alex is a straight-laced WASP-ish type who, while enjoying a night on the town, meets Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), a free-spirited Mexican-American photographer. Alex and Isabel are overtaken by lust at first sight and end up sp
One year after their royal wedding, King Edvard and Queen Paige of Denmark receive an invitation to attend the wedding of Princess Myra of Sangyoon. Upon their arrival, Paige finds Myra is unhappy with her arranged marriage to the brooding and sinister Kah and is secretly in love with a young elephant handler named Alu.
A mechanic at his father's garage during the late 1970s, Matt dreams about leaving his small town existence and pursuing grander ambitions. But strong feelings for a new girlfriend and deep family ties may prevent Matt's ultimate escape, despite pressure from best friend Schultz to take off immediately. Coming-of-age story in a small town.
Three sideshow performers leave their lives of captivity and form a conspiracy known as "The Unholy Three" - a sideshow ventriloquist, midget, and strongman work together to commit a series of robberies.
In France of the late 19th century, the wife of a wealthy general, the Countess Louise, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off debts; she claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, & her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.
Samantha MacKenzie, the daughter of the president of the United States, arrives at college with a group of Secret Service agents. Samantha, however, resents their presence and decides she wants to attend school just like a normal student. Her father agrees to recall the agents but secretly assigns James, an undercover agent, to pose as a student. They fall in love, but their romance is jeopardized when Samantha learns James' true identity.
Bogey's on the lam and Bacall's at his side in Dark Passage, Delmer Daves' stylish film-noir thriller that's the third of four films Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together. Bogart is Vincent Parry who, framed for murder, escapes San Quentin and soon emerges from plastic surgery with a new face. Bacall is Irene Jansen, Vincent's lone ally. In a supporting role, Agnes Moorehead portrays Madge, a venomous harpy who finds pleasure in the unhappiness of others. The chemistry of the leads is undeniable, and they augment it here with exceptional tenderness. Exceptional too are the atmospheric San Francisco locations and the imaginative camera work that shows Vincent's point of view - but not his face - until the bandages are removed. Lest Irene get ideas, the post-surgery Vincent tells her: "Don't change yours. I like it just as it is."
Victor is a cook who works in a greasy bar/restaurant owned by his mother, Dolly. It's just the two of them, a waitress named Delores, and a heavy drinking regular, Leo. But things change when Callie, a beautiful college drop-out, shows up as a new waitress and steals Victor's heart. But Victor is too shy to do anything about it, and too self-consciously overweight to dream of winning Callie away.
Mrs. Anna Leonowens and her son Louis arrive in Bangkok, where she has contracted to teach English to the children of the royal household. She threatens to leave when the house she had been promised is not available, but falls in love with the children. A new slave, a gift of a vassal king, translates "Uncle Tom's Cabin" into a Siamese ballet, expressing her unhappiness at being with the King. She attempts to escape with her lover. Anna and the King fall in love, but her British upbringing inhibits her from joining his harem. She is just about to leave Siam when she hears of the King's imminent death, and returns to help his son, her favorite pupil, rule his people.
A young girl turns to a department store Santa in the hopes that he will help find a new husband for her divorced mother.
In this sexually frank French drama, the aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. The dialogue-heavy film focuses intently on the love triangle, with Marie increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika. As the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.
Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.
In Panama, Maggie King meets soldier Skid Johnson on his last day in the army and reluctantly agrees to a date to celebrate. The two become involved in a nightclub brawl which causes Maggie to miss her ship back to the States. Now stranded, she's forced to move in with Skid and his pal Harry. She soon falls in love with Skid. Skid gets a job playing the trumpet at a local club and becomes a big success. Fame and fortune go to his head which eventually destroys his relationship Maggie and his career.
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
Lady Constance Chatterley is married to the handicapped Sir Clifford Chatterley, who was wounded in the First World War. When they move to his family's estate, Constance meets their tough-yet-quiet groundskeeper, Oliver Mellors. Soon, she discovers that the source of her unhappiness is from not being fulfilled in love, and in turning to the arms of Mellors, she has a sexual awakening that will change her thoughts forever.
Mitsu works in a factory and has a crush on Tsutomu, a young man she met on the Tokyo streets. One day the two go out, and after some deception, Tsutomu manages to have his way with her. Coming from a broken home, he is frightened by love, so he cruelly allows her to wake up alone. A month passes and a more grown-up Tsutomu returns. The lovers joyously reunite and move in together. All is blissful until both notice a strange sore on Mitsu's arm. The doctors diagnose it as leprosy. Without telling Tsutomu, Mitsu checks into a leper sanitarium. Hanging out with society's pariahs gives her much insight. She discovers the old lepers to be wonderful people. In turn, Mitsu becomes their source of joy and renewed hope. Still, she misses her Tsutomu. One day, the doctors inform her that they erred and that the sore is not leprosy. Happily she heads back to her true love until she realizes with a guilty pang that to return to him would mean unhappiness for her newfound friends
Viennese doctor Josef Bruer meets with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to help him deal with his despair.
Plagued by the abuse of her past and the turmoil of failed intimate encounters, Laura struggles to find a lover and a sense of normalcy. Her beacon of hope comes in sixteen year-old Eva, a talented pianist disillusioned by the life her mother imposes upon her. An unlikely relationship is formed between the two and Eva becomes an obsession to Laura. In light of Eva's unhappiness, Laura convinces her to runaway to her house and they soon find themselves caught within an intense entanglement. Manipulation, denial and codependency fuel what ultimately becomes a fractured dynamic that can only sustain itself for so long.
A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.
A girl named Jung-min writes to a young man named Hyun-jun, who is serving in the army. She lies about her age and claims to be a teacher. As Jung-min turns twenty, a 30-year-old man, who has eyes filled with sadness moves into her village. Every night, he sends letters through a pigeon to a deceased woman he loved dearly. He sends them high up in the sky, knowing that he will never get a reply. Then one day, like magic, he receives a letter. The letters sent through pigeons reveal someone's loneliness and sadness. And the two people meet each other by sheer chance..
When a struggling publisher discovers his only successful author is blocked he knows he has to unblock her or he's finished. With her newfound success, she's become too damn happy and she can't write when she's happy.The only trouble is, the worse he makes her feel, the more he realises he's in love with her.
In a crowded city like Hong Kong, former lovers often cross each other's path. One night, a former couple (Eason Chan and Karena Lam) reunites for one night as they talk about their past, their present, and the possibility of a future. Elsewhere in the city, a laundry shop girl (Kay Tse) has a crush on a customer (Eddie Peng), carrying on her days fantasizing about adventures with an inanimate version of him. Meanwhile, Po (Jacky Heung) runs into a childhood friend and reminisces about the days of him as a teenager (William Chan) and his own infatuation with his best friend's mother (Kit Chen). Back in the present, Po is contacted by a stranger (Mavis Fan) with a secret about two people they know very well…
As Noah and Wade prepare to marry in Martha's Vineyard, the personal problems of their friends - and the unexpected arrival of rapper Baby Gat - threatens to permanently end their relationship.

© Valossa 2015–2024