Can the sparest cinematic form suffice to weave through many references? Or would the purposefully pared-back covering emerge as fundamentally necessary in conveying the essence? In Zara Zerny’s documentary “Echo of You,” the minimalism on display, interrupted occasionally by few flourishes, proves a definitive fit for channeling the rich, unassuming, and intimately frank anecdotes and recollections shared by its subjects. All of them are Danish and above eighty, united most in a commonality of widowhood.
One of the men states he doesn’t have to make any effort at remembering the past. Memories are so ‘ingrained’ that they are summoned without a cue in every snatch of the mundane. It could happen in a moment of buying flowers when he would be struck by the thought of his late wife’s preference. The love welling up in all the reminiscences is immense. There’s a strain of disappointment in their realizations that they would outlive their dead partners by many years, although the years since the deaths haven’t been so sordid as they keep trying various ways of living with the void.
Conversations in the film can border easily on the unimaginative talking-head fashion, but the depth of candor with which the people probe a variety of questions, ranging from the first encounter to wrestling with age and mortality and the overwhelming loneliness of being left behind with the passing of the beloved, resists things from settling into the risk-aversely dull. What’s especially fascinating are the confessions of the fractures in the marriage and sparks of infidelity. The point of emphasis is made on the fact that they chose to have an open conversation about their other ‘adventures’ outside marriage. Secrecy would have negated the ultimate and paramount emotional trust they had in their spouses and vice versa.
When the more painful stories tumble out, the film doesn’t underscore the misery but importantly concedes them as part of authentic, rounded portraits. There are oodles of affection and warmth in the reminiscences, but the wistfulness is loaded with the not-so-shiny bits as well. This is a crucial, determining aspect of the film that elevates it several rungs above a mush of cloying, tear-jerking nostalgia. Life and love are a mixed bag, containing joys along with terrible, undesirable add-ons that assert themselves intermittently.
Everything cannot be all hunky-dory in marriages. Echo of You validates this truth without divesting a true, secure marriage of an inherent value of growth and maturity. While the film may initially drive forth the rosy bits, it also inches to the seamier edge of reality. Clashes and patches of staleness will invariably pop up. The fact that the film acknowledges it is a welcome asset. One of the women talks of how her husband vehemently protested against her desire to work. With her husband’s firm opposition against her having a working life, she had even considered divorce.
But how could she have raised her kids if she did? It was only later she got a job. She admits how work has been the happier side of her life. Eventually, her husband confessed how wrong he was in rejecting her desires. When the film indulges in some stylistic detours from the bundle of memories, it places the people against projections of old photographs and videos. They swirl about as if in a trance. The present and the past fuse ever so dreamily in a fleeting instant. Passage of years bubbles to the fore, including close-ups of crinkled, creased skin.
They also talk of lingering traces of their late partners’ spiritual presence. It hovers or may suddenly crash in like a stray cloud. Inviting voices to rent the air. It is like a ‘fata morgana’, one of the men remarks. One of them also amusingly remarks she had to reason her departed partner not to drop in anymore. This supposed supernatural layer is laced in the film with a warm, natural ease of being. There are no preening, showy gestures in the film, just a serene acceptance of relationships in all their beauty and bits of damage that can be amenable to change and repair. Admissions in the film are simple and momentous, like when they remark how they pine for the loving touch that’s disappeared. The beauty of Echo of You lies in the tenderly intimate.
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