Behind the Seams: A car crash in layers

➽ In truth, an extremely long, unbroken sequence that moves from location to location and dips in and out of scenes of crazy violence is rarely filmed as one actual shot but rather stitched together out of shorter elements (1917, Birdman, and even Alfred Hitchcock’s oneshot classic Rope all feature imperceptible cuts that maintain the illusion of a single uninterrupted take). Gavras won’t say exactly where his stitches are—“A magician’s not going to tell his tricks,” he admits—but such cuts tend to come during fast pans or instances when a large figure (such as a passing actor or a column) briefly enters the frame and obscures some of the action. Often, the deception is a must to ensure safety. It’s why, Boucard says, the car going into the station doors

was achieved in layers:

The camera movement was perfectly repeated first with the actors, then with the car, and the two resulting shots placed on top of each other during editing. The effect works so well because it’s a slightly blurry background action and doesn’t draw attention to itself—we’re still watching the actors.

Each character is shot differently. The camera focuses intently on Karim whenever he’s onscreen and tracks smoothly along with him, conveying his total control over his surroundings (Gavras compares the character in these early scenes to Russell Crowe as Maximus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator). For Abdel, however, who is desperate to quell the uprising and talk sense into his brother, the camera is far less steady, often roaming around him as if replicating his anxiety and confusion.