‘Conversations with Other Women‘ is a film that surprised me. I had read about it, probably too much, but anyway, the hype around it was already quite high, and I expected this 2005 film by Hans Canosa who has directed only three feature films in total so far (this one is being the second) to be an interesting but rather arid cinematic exercise. Using the process of splitting and reconstructing the screen from two different frames for almost the entire duration of the film promised to tire me out from a certain point in time. The surprise was to discover a film that offers much more authentic emotion than I expected. Does the split screen technical gimmick that some consider brilliant, others annoying and tiring help or disturb? Honestly, I’m not sure, but I believe that I also discovered a serious root and motivation for using this method in the story itself that is told in the film.
The heroes of the film are identified only as Man (Aaron Eckhart) and Woman (Helena Bonham Carter). They meet at a wedding in a hotel in New York, and in the first scenes we have the impression that we are witnessing an idyll between two mature strangers (about 37-38 years old), which will end as a one night stand in one of the hotel rooms. The two do end up in the room and in the bed, but on the way we discover that they knew each other, that they had been married, probably a first love marriage, 15 years ago, which quickly broke up. The passion seems to have a chance to rekindle between the two, who came alone, each for his own reasons, at the wedding, although each of them has a different relationship, apparently comfortable and stable. Is there a second chance? Is what they live really a passion that erupts again, or just the revival of youth memories?
The film asks some interesting questions about youth and maturaty and the ages of love, and it does so through dialogues and situations that manage to be both intelligent and sound natural. The two actors act perfectly rendering the attraction, the hesitations, the hopes, the remorse of such a situation. It would have been enough for a good movie or a quality romantic play. ‘Conversations with Other Women‘, however, has greater ambitions, and manages to be more than just a good romantic film. Using the split screen allows the director to break the convention of objectivity of the camera. Each of the two characters has his/her point of view, his/her feelings, his/her memories. They are together physically, but that doesn’t mean that they are feeling together. Like in many relationships the two partners are not always in harmony of feelings, do not always understand what the other feels. Excellent editing makes the images blend perfectly most of the time, but when the synchronization doesn’t happen the distortions make sense, expressing the emotional differences between the two protagonists.
Hans Canosa has not directed a new film in a decade. I hope that he did not abandon his career as a film director, but only carefully prepares his next production. I look forward to it.