- [Nicole] If you listen to your son or anyone,
then he'd tell you that he'd rather live here!
- Stop putting your feelings about me onto Henry.
- [Nicole] He tells me he likes it better here.
- He tells you because he knows it's what you wanna hear!
- He tells me you're on the phone all the time.
You don't even play with him
- Because I'm going through a divorce in LA
and trying to direct a play in New York!
Which closed because I wasn't there.
- [Narrator] One of the reasons this argument in writer
and director Noah Baumbach's new movie, Marriage Story,
is so intense is because he choreographs
it almost like an action fight scene.
While characters in his films are usually
only attacking each other with their words.
They often move through physical space in a way
that compliments the conflict.
We don't just hear their words
but see on screen as characters attack,
defend themselves and try to back away.
The setting for this scene is fairly simple.
Two characters sit down to talk through their issues in
a last stitch effort to work out their divorce on their own.
But over this six minute argument, Baumbach, uses blocking
and character movement throughout the entire apartment
to bring their conflict to life on the screen.
(chuckling)
- I don't know how to start.
(gentle music)
- Do you understand why I wanna stay in LA?
- No.
- [Narrator] These three shots show us the major arc
of the fight.
Charlie and Nicole start on even footing.
Charlie tries to leave the fight
and finally he goes too far, regretting what he said.
There are five major positions
and the four shifts between these five positions mark shifts
in the topic of conversation.
The first move from position one
in the living room, rotating 180 degrees to position two
in the kitchen marks the shift from discussing why
Nicole wants to live in LA, a big issue in their divorce.
- The only reason we didn't live here is
because you can't imagine desires other than your own
unless they're forced on you.
- Okay.
- [Narrator] To talking about talking about the lawyers
and the divorce itself.
- So whatta we do?
- I dunno.
- Nora says there's no coming back from this.
- [Narrator] As the conversation shifts
from current issues they are facing in the divorce.
- Let's just both agree both of our lawyers
said shitty stuff about both of us.
- Nora was worse.
- [Nicole] Jay called me an alcoholic.
- You pulled the rug out from under me
and you're putting me through hell.
- [Narrator] To past conflicts in their marriage.
- You put me through hell during our marriage.
- Oh, is that what that was, hell?
- [Narrator] The line of action moves again.
Turning 90 degrees from position two in the kitchen
to position three in the living room and Henry's bedroom.
- What's best for him?
- Oh, well, I was wondering when you'd get around to Henry
and what he actually wants.
- [Narrator] The move into their son,
Henry's bedroom is also timed as the discussion shifts
to him and the couples parenting.
The argument escalates as they go
from making indirect accusations.
- And you're like my father!
You're also like my mother!
You're all the bad things about all of these people!
- [Narrator] To more direct,
personal attacks against each other and they move again,
rotating another 90 degrees from position three
to position four in the living room and dining room.
In this moment you can really see
how the shifting conversation is precisely timed
to match the characters movement.
- You're all the bad things about all of these people!
But mostly your mother.
When we would lie in bed together,
sometimes I would look at you and see her
and just feel so gross!
- I felt repulsed when you
touched me! - You're a slob.
- [Narrator] As the argument shifts to Charlie's affair,
he moves around Nicole from the dining room
to the living room, almost 180 degrees from position four
to position five, where the argument will end.
- You always made me aware of what I was doing wrong,
how I was falling short!
Life with you was joyless!
- What, so then you had to go and fuck someone else?
- You shouldn't be upset that I fucked her!
You should be upset that I had a laugh with her!
- [Narrator] We stay in this orientation as things continue
to escalate until they boil over and we end up here.
The changes in position subconsciously mark for the viewer,
changes in topic and we see the characters literally
go around in circles as their argument
goes around in circles.
Never resolving anything,
just spinning further and further out of control.
Along the lines of action in each of the five positions,
there are also horizontal movements or smaller adjustments
to mark the escalation of conflict within each topic.
In the first position, Nicole stands up
and changes her angle of attack as she tries a different,
more aggressive approach to getting Charlie
to understand why she wants to stay in LA.
- My work is here now, my family is here.
- [Narrator] In the second position,
Nicole pushes in closer as conflict escalates.
- [Charlie] How could you have her
say those things about me?
- Jay said them about me too!
- [Narrator] In the third position,
we see several escalations and de-escalations.
There's a push and pull on screen as they escalate
from criticizing each other's parenting
to using their own parents as weapons
of criticism against each other.
- Do not compare me to my father!
- I didn't compare you to him.
I said you were acting like him.
- You're exactly like your mother.
- [Narrator] In this scene from another of
Noah Baumbach's films,
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).
- [Matthew] Thought you were doing the right thing?
- You would've stayed.
- Probably would've, yeah, but I would've felt bad about it.
- [Narrator] We can see the same horizontal push
and pull along a line of action,
used as this argument escalates and de-escalates.
At first, Danny is trying to escape
and Matt isn't letting him.
- But it's a good lesson.
Dad can take care of himself.
You have to take care of yourself.
- No, he can't, Matt.
That's why he's where he is now.
- [Narrator] Later the tables turn and Matt is trying
to escape while Danny won't let him.
- I can understand that.
- Can you?
'Cause my feeling about you is you can't.
It's not your fault.
But, like dad, you make me feel really bad about myself.
- [Narrator] As one brother gains the upper hand
in the argument, the other wants out.
The back and forth, push and pull,
rise and fall of conflict becomes visible on screen.
Blocking like this doesn't just illustrate changes
in the flow of the argument,
it can also reveal emotional subtext.
You might notice in these shifts between positions
that Charlie is the one trying to leave,
moving away from the conversation,
while Nicole is usually the one pushing in,
bringing up new topics and never letting him back out.
This pattern fits the characters position
in the overall conflict of the film.
Charlie wants to maintain the status quo.
He doesn't want to engage in a conversation that involves
understanding why Nicole wants something different.
- It's not what I want, I mean, it's what I want
but it's what was.
Was!
- [Narrator] Nicole wants a better life for herself
and is having to push against Charlie's desires
with the divorce, to get that.
- You remember that summer I visited dad
on Martha's vineyard?
- [Narrator] In another scene from The Meyerowitz Stories,
Jean, tells her brothers about abuse
she was the victim of as a child.
- When I arrived, nobody met me.
I hitchhiked to the other side of the island.
- [Narrator] He emotional discomfort and desire
to distance herself from the conversation
is visually apparent through her movement away from them.
Placing trees as barriers between herself and them.
Back with the brothers fighting in the lawn.
Once neither brother is trying to escape,
the clash turns into an actual fight.
In marriage story, Charlie becomes cornered.
With no where else to escape to de-escalate,
he pushes against the wall
and when Nicole pushes again after this.
- Are you kidding me?
- [Narrator] He lashes out in the worst way he can.
- I'd hope you'd get an illness,
and then get hit by a car and die!
- [Narrator] And we see one of the reasons why
Charlie wanted so badly out of this conversation.
He was afraid he'd be pushed too far
and say something he didn't want to say.
Without his hesitation that we see expressed
through blocking, his outburst would be less sympathetic.
It's not Nicole's fault that he said these things
he shouldn't have and he should take the full blame as
a character but we can understand
that he at least didn't want to or that he was trying
to escape and avoid things going this far,
not wanting to lose control.
In this way, the blocking in the scene is actually vital
to the scene successfully
communicating the emotional subtext
and this physicality that Baumbach brings to these scenes
just makes them that much more engaging
and visually interesting.
Combine it with performance, editing and cinematography
and all these things work together
to make the scene resonate with viewers.