Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Far from the Madding Crowd
2015 · Thomas Vinterberg · Far from the Madding Crowd on Sightlines
4 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch how much open land surrounds Bathsheba at each decision. (camera)
The anamorphic frame keeps placing her against acreage that stretches wider than any one person should stand against, the land pressing in as much as any suitor does.
Payoff: The land here works as a stake in the story, not as scenery behind it. In the reading: the encompasser (synsign). Deleuze calls a setting this total a synsign, an encompasser so complete it calls the action out of the people inside it.
Notice the film cut from firelit close rooms to open fields. (cutting)
Vinterberg keeps swinging between intimate two shots indoors and sudden wide compositions of green Dorset miles, almost like a rhythm of breathing in and out.
Payoff: The alternation itself sets the film's pace, tightening and loosening like breath. In the reading: respiration-space. Deleuze calls this alternation respiration space, the vast milieu and the taut line of action pulsing back and forth.
Watch how close each suitor stands to Bathsheba. (staging)
Oak keeps a respectful working distance, Boldwood approaches through formal rooms and ceremony, and Troy closes in fast with no preparation at all.
Payoff: Each man's physical distance from her argues his intentions before he says a word.
Listen for long stretches with no music at all. (sound)
Armstrong's score drops out for extended passages, letting wind, sheep, and farm labor carry the sound entirely, so the music means more on the rare occasions it returns.
Payoff: The quiet makes you hear the land as work, not just as a pretty setting.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch how close or far each suitor stands from Bathsheba in every scene.