If only words could soften the distance between people. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Such is the situation for Thomas and Carla, whose relational rift deepens after Carla is involved in a car accident while travelling with her dance partner to view a house in the countryside.
Allow me a bit of hyperbole when I say that nothing in the world is as complicated as the relationship between two human beings who have decided to tie the knot and build a life together. Okay, what about brain surgery, you ask? Yes, it’s complicated, but there’s training for that. However, no one trains us for when the person we’ve chosen to spend the rest of our lives with is crying—we can talk and, above all, we can listen, but it’s a special kind of helplessness. No matter how much we feel we’re helping, it’s impossible not to feel inadequate. And when nothing seems to work, how about a hug? A hug can heal a lot of pain, but sometimes it’s not enough. We want to overcome the physical barrier and embrace the heart directly. But how, when no one trains us?
Angela Schanelec is back at IndieLisboa after Music (2023) with the magnificent My Wife Cries, which shows us that cinema is truly a machine of empathy. There is no conventional training for relationships, since we are all infinite combinations of personalities, but cinema has everything we need to learn. Just as when we see someone we love crying, if we watch closely and listen carefully, perhaps we’ll learn something and come closer to embracing someone’s heart in the same way that cinema constantly does for us. (Rui Mendes)
