By way of explaining this complex, visually rich reflection on image-making, Atom Egoyan provided the following statement at the time of its release: "I have worked in a hotel for five years. I have worked in film for ten. Both of these professions involve the creation of illusion. In one, the territory of illusion is a room. In the other, it is a screen. People move in and out of rooms. Actors move in and out of screens. Speaking Parts explores a terrain which moves between rooms and screens; a terrain of memory and desire. Somewhere in the passage from a room to a screen, a person is transformed into an image. I am fascinated by this crucial moment, and by the contradiction involved in making images of people."