Transcendental Film - Hans Canosa's Conversations with Other Women

By Candace Cannon
Collegian Reporter
February 28, 2007

A man at a wedding sees a woman in a bridesmaid’s dress off by herself, seemingly avoiding all those around her. After a few drinks, he gathers enough courage to approach her. The two surprisingly click and spend the remainder of the night together, regardless of their respective romantic ties back home. On the surface, this may seem like a typical love story, but Conversations with Other Women offers so much more than that.

The Man (Aaron Eckhart) and the Woman (Helena Bonham Carter), both of whom remain nameless throughout the film, capture the viewer’s attention with realistic and well-delivered dialogue that slowly reveals, through subtle insults, inside jokes and sexual innuendos, that the two share a past.

The most obvious aspect about the film is the spilt-screen technique used by director Hans Canosa. By using this method, Canosa is able to show the couple’s past relationship, while simultaneously showing their interactions in the present time. For the most part, Eckhart is filmed on one side of the screen, while Bonham Carter appears on the other.

The split screen technique also works to create a distance between the two characters, who appear, at times, far away from one another, but it also allows the viewer to constantly see their reactions and movements. The technique also presents a variation of events as perceived by both characters, either with the same line repeated over (differently each time) or the changing of a story’s details due to loss of memory. The two screens are edited together very well and flow from scene to scene, creating an interesting dynamic.

Underlying most of the movie is whether or not the Man and Woman will sleep together (which seems inevitable), and what will happen in the aftermath, considering both characters have their own lives. But, as the movie progresses, and the viewer learns more about the history of these two characters (with the help of Nora Zehetner and Erik Eidem playing the younger versions of the characters), the deep hurt and pain caused by this “chance” meeting and the years of being apart is ultimately revealed.

Gabrielle Zevin’s script requires a lot from the actors, setting up false perceptions that eventually become something else, but the actors handle it masterfully. Bonham Carter is at her cynical best and Eckhart is especially effective playing against his oily persona to deliver an extremely honest and heartfelt performance.

In the end, although Conversations with Other Women was not given a full theatrical release, it is definitely a hidden gem and a film worth seeing. It is similar in execution to Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and its sequel After Sunset, so, if they were movies you found enjoyable, then Conversations with Other Women is definitely worth your time.

cannonc1@lasalle.edu