Theory Of Subtle Framing

In my original review of "The Theory Of Everything" which you can find here http://ablogaboutfilms.blogspot.co.uk/…/the-theory-of-every… I wrote about the way James Marsh plays on the framing of the film to communicate subtle short ideas which is appropriate considering the film is about the difficulty of communication in this rare marriage. When writing I had one shot in my mind and it was this shot. You see Jane and Stephen are on the opposite sides of the frame yet not only that Stephen is closer to the frame than Jane so we have two layers of distance working together (foreground and background, right & left) to show the distance between Jane and Stephen as their marriage deteriorates but the back of Stephens chair is responsible for the division in the frame emphasising how Stephen's condition is responsible for the split in the marriage but importantly both characters appear happy in the image Jane is content reading her book and Stephen is smiling whilst looking at his screen showing that the distance between them is increasing but they are still both very happy in their own worlds.