How Cuarón builds tension in Children of Men
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
2027 is around the corner and thank God babies are still being born. That is not the case in the 2006 Alfonso Cuarón film Children of Men. Children of Men is bleak and depressing. It is without hope. Without hope, that was lost, long time ago, because children are not being born anymore. The world has gone to shit. The world has gone to shit because there are no children. There are no Children of Men. ↩ Reply
Alfonso Cuarón likes his long shots. I think the way he thinks about it is something like this: If you can not cut, don't cut. Obviously a lot of this cinematography style comes from the cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ( known in the industry as Chivo ). This Child of the Lithuanian Jewish Men is known to work with directors that like long shots. Cuarón is but only one example. He also did the cinematography on Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant that has a similar average shot-length to Children of Men, Cuarón's Gravity that starts with a 17 minutes long shot, and he also worked as a cinematographer on Alejandro González Iñárritu's best picture winner film Birdman that is pretty much done in one single shot ( minus one cut for an emotional effect ). In Children of Men the longest shot is roughly about 7-8 minutes long. But damn, this shot is complex. c:0 ↩ Reply
There are many movies that have long shots that are somewhat simple. A lot of times, those long shots are just 2 actors having a conversation. That kind of thing is usually shot in one take anyway. The actors, if they know their lines, can do the whole thing from the beginning till the end in one go, kind of like in the theater. But what Cuarón and Lubezki achieve here is not the same thing at all. ↩ Reply
The best example of the the kind of shot, this 7-8 minute shot in the heart of Childrnen of Men is, would be the 3 minute shot in Steven Spielberg's film Adventures of Tintin. Spielberg likes a similar type of long shot to Cuarón. Except in Spielberg's case, he doesn't want you to notice them. The 3 minutes shot in Tintin is the exception. In Tintin Spielberg decided to do a complex, layered chase-scene, with multiple characters all chasing and fighting over 3 precious pieces of MacGuffin paper, all in one shot. Cuarón decided to do something similar. The shot is about two groups of characters fighting over a third, precious, MacGuffin character, while in the middle of the uprising, that are fighting against military. It is an utterly insane, layered war scene. Yet Cuarón goes for 7 minutes of an unbroken shot through all of it. ↩ Reply
Yes, technically it is a gimmick on Cuarón's part to do it like this, but watching this scene with people who don't seem to care about what Cuarón is doing is quite interesting. They don't really notice that the shot is so long. They just notice the rising tension, the rising intensity. And because there are no cuts, it feels more like you are there with the characters, experiencing this intensity. It feels more visceral, like this. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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c:0 February 21, 2026 This Child of the Lithuanian Jewish Men is known to work with directors that like long shots.
⤴ ViewWait, that's my line. I am the reviewer who points out all the descendants from Lithuania, usually Jewish.
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