:: rogerebert.com :: Reviews :: Conversations with Other Women (xhtml): At the same time, it's a daring and tantalizing formal experiment, shot entirely in split screen. Sometimes the two adjacent frames show the same thing from slightly different angles, usually with the Man on one side and the Woman on the other. But the divided screen also allows the filmmakers to comment instantaneously on the action in ways that recall the scene in 'Annie Hall' where the subtitles translate the real thoughts behind the words the characters are speaking.
These two are continually revising and adjusting their words and actions, in the present as well as the past tense. So the two sides of the screen are also used to present alternative takes or line readings, suggesting how somebody might like to have said something juxtaposed with what actually came out -- the way that you often rehearse what you're going to say in your head, then say it, then immediately wish you could go back and say it differently.
Or one side may show how something sounded to the person who said it, compared with how it sounded to the person who heard it. Or the film may display two alternate realities, showing a turn the conversation might have taken, and how it actually did in this reality. (And you may not know which is which for a while.)
...this is also a movie that constantly reminds you that you're watching a movie. And that's not a bad thing.
...demonstrate that good talk and human faces are the most cinematic subjects in the world.