Lola returns after a two-year unexplained disappearance. When she arrives on Nicolas' doorstep he lets her in, although he's not sure why. And so their low romance resumes just where it ended. The apartment is exactly the same as when she left - same pictures, same furniture, Nicolas is wearing the same T-shirt. Time has stood still, or at least it seems to in Nicolas' "small world”.
Improbably enough, though, Nicolas has written and published a book in Lola's absence. She imagines it to be about their relationship, all that has gone unsaid. Now Nicolas' inapproachability is endowed with a mystery that compels Lola to him. Nicolas allows her to stay because he can't think of a reason not to.
Working without a script, the actors grope for words, attempting communication unaided by studied dialogue. Their conversations are odd, incomplete, and often stifled - punctuated by awkward silence and natural humor. The camera remains static in each scene, with the characters moving in and out of the picture frame. This technique creates separate rooms of each scene, a collage of the whole. The viewer becomes a fly on the wall, a voyeur.
"Second Person" purposefully breaks all the rules of high drama in order to probe the other side of romance, that which simply persists. By using the absurd it gets at something which feels uncomfortably true, even familiar.
Director Biography
Berkeley-based recording artist, film composer, and filmmaker Steven Emerson was a member of the internationally renowned post-punk band True West before beginning his solo music career in New York.
While living in New York's Little Italy in the early 90's, he wrote, directed, and acted in the film Second Person. Emerson’s musical adventure includes recording four critically acclaimed solo albums, performing in 45 states and 12 countries, opening for REM, The Violent Femmes, X, Nick Cave and many others.
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