garden in the void

a couple disclaimers:

i'm not generally a cinematography nerd, and in all likelihood i have missed something or gotten it wrong. i noticed a very clear throughline and didn't see anyone online talk about it in as much detail as it deserves, so i took it upon myself.

i know there is also very interesting framing in non-blanc scenes (people have talked about wicks consistently being shot in low angle for example, in contrast to how jud is framed against the flock), but that's outside the scope of this post. i'm just interested in comparing blanc and jud when they're in scenes together right now.

there is also a lot going on in conjunction with the blocking (dialogue, lighting, set design) that i may occasionally mention but not discuss in depth.

apologies for how crunchy the screenshots are, i was taking and editing them essentially on a potato.

let's begin.

first meeting

jud is at his lowest moment, in the depths of guilt and despair. he is kneeling on the floor praying (as blanc will soon point out, he's been kneeling a bit too much). he is crying. the line preceding blanc's entrance is "jesus, help me. show me the way through this, please." explicitly framing him as a godsend.

blanc bursts in and asks if jud is alright. jud says yes, picks himself up off the floor and pulls himself together. they have a conversation that is equal parts friendly debate and jud getting blanc to open up in a really disarming way. during this exchange jud is standing (though hunching a bit to seem more approachable) and they're both shot from similar angles.

then jud starts crying again and he sits down. "i'll lose my purpose and i'm frightened, i don't know how i'll live" he says (also, note the way this frame is basically split in two, with jud trapped in the dark half).

blanc stands over him, until he sits down as well, bringing himself to jud's level as he offers help and compassion. after jud mentions blanc's fame, and as blanc starts talking from a place of authority, about the case and what he wants jud to do, he stands up again.

so already you can probably understand my excitement. the asymmetry is here for sure, but it's not static. it's like a dance, the way they step up and down when it's thematically correct.

the body, the murder weapon, the crime scene

at the beginning of the morgue scene jud is trying real hard to hang in there, he's standing. at the end however it gets too much and he collapses.

blanc crouches down to talk to jud, an attempt at grounding, but he's still higher in frame, and jud is trapped between him and the wall, looking up. it's intense, but measured. the word that comes to mind is containment.

what blanc does here works, because jud affirms he wants to help.

in the next scene at the bar jud and blanc exist in a strange inbetween in the established language. jud starts out sitting while blanc is standing, but he's sitting on a really tall chair, so it's not very noticeable. then he stands next to blanc, but he bends down and around him looking at what he's showing, so it doesn't quite read as equal. i would describe this blocking as transitional.

a scene over we have the gorgeous creation of adam shot, where jud kneels for no reason as he hands blanc the book list and they talk about it. notably though, he's not in emotional turmoil here, he's focused and helpful. it's not a collapse, it's chosen deference.

when they begin to inspect the crime scene, blanc is higher still - this time not because jud is lowered, but because blanc is elevated. they're both standing up straight, but blanc is standing on a platform. remember these steps. these steps are gonna come back in a major way.

blanc gets really into the process, and he verbally directs jud to sit down. jud stands up himself when he feels he has something to contribute.

also, here we have our first brief moment of jud actually being higher in frame, when blanc crouches to inspect the floor of the closet and jud looks in. this comes with jud asking a question that is extremely inconvenient for blanc ("what's possibility four?"), so it's like narrative control is momentarily destabilized.

later on we have some shots of jud close to the ground and blanc standing in the doorway surveying, so it felt important to note the inverse.

jud lowers himself one last time in this scene, to comfort martha when she collapses to the floor. blanc, of course, doesn't step down at all.

by this point he's shown that he's willing to (briefly) come down to jud's level, but he wouldn't do the same for martha. his compassion is selective. maintaining distance and authority is more important.

jud's lead

a short but illustrative scene: jud has a very solid idea that seems to be getting them somewhere, and he starts this scene so excited about that, standing next to blanc.

when it turns out to not be what jud thought and blanc admits the case still looks impossible, jud says "you told me you could solve it. i put my faith in you... oh god..." and he sits down, head in hands.

blanc keeps a hand on his shoulder, and then is the one who urges him to stand up. he was the driving force behind the descent, and so he is with the ascent.

so the dynamic of jud becoming dependent on blanc's guidance is verbalized, then immediately demonstrated physically.

the flask confrontation

i love this part of the movie a lot, so i'm gonna spend a lot of words on it.

after getting spooky in the car, blanc sits jud down to write out the story of the murder. despite being freaked out earlier, and despite very much having things to hide, jud does it without hesitation. (thank you to the person who pointed out their poses in this shot echo the painting of an angel and a shipwreck in the background...)

as jud writes, blanc sits down to wait (very comfortably). then blanc sits down to read it, while jud lies on the couch, now the one waiting (very uncomfortably). and it's just a long stretch of these two people being in different parts of the same room, not talking, but communicating in an extremely intimate way.

when blanc finishes reading and figures out the lie by omission, that jud stole a key piece of evidence, he stands up and looks down at jud, who is lying on the couch. the visual asymmetry is maybe the strongest it's ever been. tensions are high, it's a very vulnerable moment for jud, and blanc is trying to contain his anger.

jud sits up to talk to him, but he barely gets any higher. he's folded like an accordion. he starts out not meeting his gaze.

blanc doesn't lead in with an accusation, he leads in with an attempt to understand. when asked a direct question, instead of giving a direct answer jud asks a reframing question in return ("why did i think i could lie to you and get away with it?") and finally looks up at blanc when he does.

he does attempt to argue back and defend his decision, though he doesn't stand up. that's when blanc can't contain the anger anymore and he starts yelling and throwing papers. jud goes quiet and lowers his gaze again.

they go up to jud's room to get the flask but it's not there. jud is crouching on the floor here and blanc is standing in the doorway looking in.

jud stands up to launch into a half-apology, half-excuse, but blanc shoots it down. the dynamic is pushed against. the dynamic holds.

as his fuckup actually sinks in, jud sits down on his bed. the wall next to it is sloped and blanc is advancing and looming so it looks really claustrophobic.

and what does jud do directly after the roughest, least comfortable prolonged interaction these two have had?

he falls asleep. finally. and blanc finally comes down and sits on the foot of his bed. the confrontation resolves into something softer.

the control held, but so did the trust.

we don't get to know how long they stayed like that. the cut is to much later when both are upright.

investigative teamwork

after jud gets that off his conscience and finally gets some sleep, and as we get to the middle of the movie, we've hit a turning point, and the blocking shifts.

we no longer have all these shots of jud lowered or crowded, looking up at blanc. for the scenes where blanc and jud talk to the flock, to cy, and tear apart the jewel box, they are level and mostly placed side by side. jud is keeping up, he's proactive, he's angry, and it shows up in his posture and how he's framed.

i am gonna track when the new pattern breaks because it's interesting...

he lowers to the floor to talk to cy. as in the earlier conversation with martha, blanc continues to stand over them both, and he's shot in low angle. jud prioritizes meeting people where they are. blanc prioritizes having a complete impartial view.

(oh and welcome back, creation of adam shot. this time with less kneeling.)

jud also sits down to call louise, then stands up and paces when he's talking to her. (and simultaneously the sunlight drains out of the room.)

after the tone of the scene takes a sharp turn and he shifts from investigation mode back into priest mode, jud shuts the door on blanc and presumably spends a long time sitting down as he talks to louise and prays for her. here the physical position changes as his role does.

when blanc comes in, the old framing is back - blanc is standing in the doorway of the room where jud is much lower to the ground.

the rupture

the louise call gives jud clarity, and he abruptly severs himself from the investigation, in the process reading blanc for filth. ("it is a game! solving it, winning it, getting your big checkmate moment!") during the confrontation, they're visually level again, but opposite each other instead of side by side like they were in the teamwork section.

it's interesting how what jud says in the confrontation ("by using me in it, you're setting me against my real and only purpose in life") reframes his own position in those investigative teamwork scenes - superficially, it was more equal, more stable, could easily be read as character growth for jud. instead, he frames it as a loss of identity.

the relationship, in its current form, is not sustainable. jud leaves.

collision again

they first reunite for a brief moment immediately following sam's murder, while jud is lying in the dark on the forest floor, covered in mud, next to his dead body, and blanc stands over and shines a light on him. literally illuminates him at his lowest.

however, i'm sorry, gun to my head i could not find the beautiful frame everyone posts from that scene, so it's simply not going to be here.

next time they see each other is when jud dazedly stumbles into the police station to confess. that's immediately following blanc's "i sincerely with i knew [where jud is]" - a clear parallel to the way blanc shows up as an answer to jud's prayers in their first meeting.

they both start the scene out standing up, until blanc physically shepherds jud to blanc's car, shoves him in the back seat, and instructs him to get down. the dynamic is not quite back to what it was. blanc's behavior is more urgent, more physical, and so too jud's resistance becomes harder to ignore.

at nat's house they're even again. actually there are a couple shots where jud is higher, because he's following blanc down a staircase.

jud walks back up the staircase in the brief window of time when blanc is on the phone and isn't watching him, almost like at this point he only has clean autonomy when he's outside blanc's gaze.

blanc chases after him, but jud tells him not to interfere - well, not verbally, he just holds up a hand between them in a "stop" motion and looks at him meaningfully, and that does it. blanc doesn't try to stop him.

jud returns to the church to confess.

and so we come to

damascus

there are a couple more jud + blanc scenes after this section, but in my opinion this is really where everything the movie has been building with the visual levels gloriously resolves, so i'm gonna make it the grand finale of this post.

blanc starts the scene physically level with jud, the police, and the congregation. he desperately tries to argue with them from that level and get jud to sit down and listen, but when it doesn't work he runs up onto the (fuckoff tall) pulpit and starts yelling at everyone. he's very transparently emulating wicks. scrambling to restore control through any method available to him.

it works. everyone goes quiet and sits down. jud also takes his usual chair, but only after making it clear he thinks this is ridiculous.

blanc begins the grand reveal speech (mercifully, in his normal voice). when he addresses geraldine and the rest of the congregation, he's shot in low angle. but when he addresses jud directly, even though physically they haven't moved, the low angle disappears. he's not performing intellectual dominance for jud, he's genuinely engaging with him, so the camera treats them as even.

when jud asks the right questions ("the bigger why, the why that brought you here - why do all this insane, elaborate stuff? the theatricality, the impossible crime. why?"), blanc smiles and comes down from the pulpit, sacrificing a level.

however, he remains elevated over jud and the congregation, because he's standing on that platform, and everyone else is still seated. blanc keeps talking, entirely in his element.

until he looks at martha, the lesson jud's been teaching for the entire movie sinks in, the church is flooded with sunlight...

and blanc steps down and sits on the steps.

intentionally surrendering authority, pride, and control over the narrative in a way that clearly terrifies him, to extend grace to someone he despises.

...it´s a close competition with THAT^, but here is maybe my favorite thing the movie does within this framework:

blanc stands up when martha comes back into the church. martha kneels. jud comes down to take her confession. jud is kneeling. blanc is standing.

but jud is higher in frame.

the implications of that are staggering, because it basically goes against everything we've been shown so far. jud kneeling here is not a loss of agency, it's an affirmation of it. he's doing meaningful work, and in that moment he's elevated in our eyes. he doesn't need to emulate blanc to be respected. he doesn't have anything to prove anymore.

and because i can't help myself...

when blanc reveals martha is dying and geraldine and her boys run out to get medical assistance, as soon as they're out the door and it's only the three of them in the church, blanc crouches on the floor to be at eye level with jud.

he doesn't say anything. he just rests a hand on his shoulder. supportive presence without exerting control. jud gets it.

in conclusion!

this endeavor began with me just seeing a few stills of jud and blanc framed Like That and going "hang on what's going on there", then rewatching the movie with the intention to watch out for those shots and gradually realizing Just How Much Is Going On There.

i started writing this post to document the visual motif, because i was impressed by how consistent and intentional it was. and in the process of compiling, i realized there was actually Even More Going On.

because the characters are not locked into the levels. a pattern is set up, but then it's broken, jud and blanc step up, they step down, and damn near every time they do it says something either about their internal state or the way they relate to each other.

jud comes up to argue with blanc or prove he can keep up with him. jud comes down again because he's lost. blanc comes down to comfort jud (the only character he does this for, before damascus). blanc comes back up to exercise authority. etc.

it's choreography.

and, crucially, the very meaning of the unevenness expands the longer you examine it.

you sort of start out thinking

the guy who keeps kneeling on the floor - he's an emotional wreck, he's dependent on outside guidance, he's surrendering agency

the guy standing over him - he's the one providing the guidance, the one holding the agency, he sets the rules

and that's not exactly wrong. i think i've established that's a big part of it, even. it's just not the whole thing.

because you look a little closer, a little longer, and you also see

jud's willingness to humble himself, to show vulnerability and risk being seen as lesser for it, in service of genuinely connecting with people - that's his quiet strength.

and blanc's unwillingness to do the same, his insistence on staying elevated and untouchable, clutching the reins - that's his main shortcoming in the scope of this story, the one he overcomes in the emotional climax. which he only learned to do from watching jud.

and the blocking has been conveying all of that the whole time!