I’m a cinema completist, because even a forgettable movie can include one revelatory aspect.

Case in point: The Origin of Evil utilizes split-screen in a way that could benefit live-theater recordings.

Movies tend to rely on split-screen for phone calls, merging long distance into a unified visual plane on screen. But The Origin of Evil deploys split-screen for a dinner scene where everyone occupies the same room, combining two conventional approaches to such sequences. In most movies, it’d be a mix of cutting between close-ups to direct our attention, separated by wide-shots where we can decide for ourselves which actor to observe, albeit from a remove that flattens their minute corporeal gestures.

Instead, The Origin of Evil split-screens the close-ups. Much like with live theater, each actor lives their full truth from moment to moment, and our eyes roam where they choose. But The Origin of Evil harnesses the power of the camera to bring us inches from their visages, closer than live theater customarily allows.

So . . . like . . . why don’t more filmed recordings of productions employ this device??