Conversations with other women, 2005

Conversations with other women, 2005
Director: Hans Canosa
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Yuri Tsykun, Helena Bonham Carter


Stage: Home theatre, late Friday night without a better idea.


Conversations in short: A man runs into a woman at a wedding. They start to flirt and talk and find that they get along. Throughout their discussion, the man talks about certain memories as if they were common to the two of them. We gradually learn that there may have been a previous connection between these two when they were younger. This just leaves more questions as their past is slowly revealed.




Preps: Well, just got off the Artist and I need a mindstretch. I cannot know what is on TV and am definitely not aware what these conversations are about, never heard about it, though it seems like one of lately made pieces. The title is interesting enough to sparkle my interest.


Reality: Partly dissappointed in the first 20 minutes, partly surprised. The surprise is in the photography and the cut photos you see (different aspects of the camera), showing either the same scene 20 years ago, same scene as it could have been, or a different angle of the same scene, happening now. Freezing panel makes you distracted and you are admiring it, stretching your brain cells to figure out what kind of a game is this and what are you supposed to watch, you are asking yourself, while you are running through different scenes.
Luckily enough, the plot is quite simple. two people flirting, ending up in bed, trying to make a big deal out of it. Which is predictable, because they both have a relationship. I believe this piece isn't really the director making you observe the story. It is about the director trying to put different angles inside. And making it brilliantly. I strongly believe also that the distortion / mess he's made with this idea, makes all the viewers think about the next separated photo they are going to see on the screen, instead of watching the movie. A great dillusion, watching the same two people as if they were 20 years younger, having the affair they are talking about right at the present moment of the movie.
On the other hand, it's supposed to make you think before you act, it's supposed to make you believe that the choices you make in your life, should lead you also when you are not in the room with the present choice. Put it differently, the movie makes us think that passion surpasses all decisions you have made with a sane mind, without emotional aspect.
I can personalize with the idea, because to me passion in a fling, relationship or marriage, is vital. If you lose it, you can become a victim to the next passionate moment or challenge, that walks by just in that moment. Regardless of the fact, that you are spoken for. In this sense, I am trying to keep it with all my energy to avoid such situations as the one in this movie. I get the "take the opportunity as it comes along.. or grab the bullet by his horn", nevertheless I think that two adults are responsible or should be held responsible for all the decisions they make.
Now, I certainly think this isn't the path the viewer is going to walk, when he/she sees the movie. Instead of thinking of relationships and their worth, the viewer will check out the different aspects of the movie, photography, scenography, and will try to compare the young lover images with the present ones. Especially women could do this more intensively. Therefore, I believe it's a shame the director took all the extra mile to do these scenes, but in a long run I believe they hurt the inner energy of the movie. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The talk between the two in this short time is, however, remarkable. Some of the greatest things one should learn to tell to another person /partner. Some of the best said sentences in a couple, or old couple. Which are often a failure case, because noone thinks it's not rude to tell the truth.



My personal rating: 6,0 (solid, interesting to watch. Tries to be something like Burn after reading, in the intelligent sense, but fails. I like different perspectives of one scene, however, they drag my attention from the real flow of the story).


Conversations on IMDB

The Bridges of Madison County, 1995

The Bridges of Madison County, 1995
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Annie Corley



Stage: TV selection on my home TV, Sunday night

The Bridges in short:The path of Francesca Johnson's future seems destined when an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she had come to expect from life. While her husband and children are away at the Illinois state fair in the summer of 1965, Robert Kincaid happens turn into the Johnson farm and asks Francesca for directions to Roseman Bridge. Francesca later learns that he was in Iowa on assignment from National Geographic magazine. She is reluctant seeing that he's a complete stranger and then she agrees to show him to the bridges and gradually she talks about her life from being a war-bride from Italy which sets the pace for this bittersweet and all-too-brief romance of her life. Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the details of her life consume her, she writes her thoughts of the four-day love affair which took up three journals..



Preps: A good piece I have seen for several times and I love to see it again and again. Eastwood is my mantra.


Reality:

This is one of the most beautiful and most sad love stories of all times, in my opinion. It's all about making decisions and to follow your true love (or what you would like it to be) or not. Leave your life behind, along with your kids and a husband, or not. Blame the new guy for coming all the time you are with him or make yourself happy. Is it really that you would like to make yourself happy, is another question.

There are several perspectives, from which you can observe this particular piece. One of them is the straightforward one - a guy walks in a semi dead marriage and makes a revelation with Francesca. To himself and to her. And after four days they split and never get over it. The idea in this scenario is that she leaves the love to waltz away not knowing what would happen if it happened at all.

The irony is in the fact that most relationships start off like this, like a rocket and it's later that we figure we were living a bit in the clouds (or a lot in the clouds). And if those two really matched as it seems in the movie, it would work. What if they didn't - little they knew about each other and what it would be like living together.
Still, she was willing to escape for a brief moment and would leave it all behind. I think that up to some point Eastwood would have persuaded her to go with him, if he was a bit more insisting on this.
It's a good way to think about love and a disaster to your heart if you can impersonate yourself inside the story, if you ever loved someone and thought it would be it and yet, let it slip away. Regrets is what we all have for bigger or smaller things, sometimes they seem life important.

This is one of more romantic dramas I have ever seen on screen. A beautiful cast with Streep and Eastwood, making their energies fly away in the clouds and bringing the essence of love we are all seeking to the screen. However, if your momental status of love is a disaster, this movie could enhance the depression you are having. And vice versa.

Beautiful scenery, scenes beyond erotic, so sexually pleasing it is a pleasure to watch it. Dialogues are witty and intelligent. I adore watching the two chat about things.

This is one of the more remarkable ideas Eastwood brings to the table at the first dinner:
"I don't think obsessions have reasons. This is why they are called obsessions."

I adore it, from the beginning to its end. In many ways it makes me cry. And in many others, it makes me dream away.



My personal rate: 8,5 (a good romance, it will make you think about your virtues and things you seek in life and love).

Bridges on IMDB

Unfaithful, 2002

Unfaithful, 2002
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Olivier Martinez, Richard Gere, Diane Lane



Stage: Home TV selection

Unfaithful in short: Connie Sumner has a loving husband, a beautiful home, and a wonderful son, but she wants more. When she's approached one day by a handsome stranger while trying to hail a taxi, she becomes obsessed with him and eventually starts an affair. But her selfish actions soon catch up with her.



Preps: Now why haven't I seen this one already? Cannot believe I missed something with Richard Gere (I am a big fan of his charm, as well as some others I never afford to miss)..


Reality: A hard and solid drama. Woman, getting into a relationship with a complete stranger to spend days with him having sex in his appartment, while a handsome and rich /overloaded and overworking husband is at work. Taking care of a small child inbetween. Plus, the stranger is incredibly sexy and appealing. Now, how to cope with this? What is the moral of the story? Do bad girls get punished? Do good husbands get punished for not being at home while the life is happening?

Sometimes we could see our lives as something that passes by while we are killing ourselves to make a living. In this piece, you see a solid family breaking apart because of an affair. Could she not have it? Of course. The matter of a choice, that may not be simple, but it's quite obvious she's playing with fire for choosing to have an affair. How do we come to this if we have a prerequisite she has - on the outside the image of a perfect life? Can a handsome stranger happen to anyone? Of course he can or she can. The thing is what to do with him/her once it appears in front of us.

The movie suggests one version of this. However it will make you rethink your ideals and your values. It will make you think that everything will turn allright, when the movie will take a deep turn and make you think again. How about killing the guhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify that is having sex with your wife? Who's the bad guy now? Risking everything you have because your feelings have overtaken your mind - one option. Another is to stay blind and say nothing. But then.. you could end up empty.

Good and solid cast, scenography, dialogues. And passion between the triangle.. extremely good and vivid. Diane Lane in the role of a passionate wife and mistress. And Olivier Martinez as the sexy french guy every person would like to have for a second. A nice setup for a fraud and a good delivery in the end. You need to see it in order to rethink the way you are living, more in terms of why you are living this way and what would you do if..


My personal rate: 7,0 (good drama / thriller. With an amazing turnaround)


Unfaithful on IMDB