A Pizza Restaurant and a Mirrored Column

A few thoughts on framing in "The Delinquents"

In a scene from the Argentinian film The Delinquents (2023), Morán and Román meet inside a pizza restaurant in Buenos Aires. We see them having a muzza and a birra, while they lean against a stainless steel high table anchored by a mirrored column.

It’s a pivotal moment in the film. Morán reveals to his colleague Román that he has stolen money from the bank where they both work, and pressures him into becoming part of his carefully planned crime in exchange for splitting the cash. What makes the sequence remarkable is how the cinematography is structured around the column and the table itself.

In architecture, it’s often said that a column organizes a space (well, some architects would find a column annoying and will try to hide it, but the intelligent ones would see it as an opportunity). Here, as well, the column organizes the cinematography of Inés Duacastella and Alejo Maglio.

The scene begins outside the restaurant, with Morán waiting on the sidewalk.

Román first appears through the reflection on the window glass before entering the frame directly.

The table and column divide the frame into two sides, organizing the conversation almost like a physical shot-reverse-shot axis while separating both characters.

In another angle, Morán stands with the duffel bag between his legs while a beer bottle occupies the center of the frame. The composition remains distant until Morán finally presents the proposition behind his crime.

The mirror produces a second Morán, a reflected double suggesting the split between the ordinary bank employee and the criminal emerging in the conversation.

As Román continues questioning the plan, the camera pans carefully to frame him talking to the “other Morán.”

Later, when Morán instructs Román to look under the table, the camera tilts downward toward the hidden bag of money.

The sequence ends focusing in Román while Morán exits the restaurant in the background.

The duality implied by both the table and the mirrored column continues throughout the film, where both characters maintain a kind of synchronicity. The persistent positioning of the characters on the left and right side of the frame also feels intentional, carrying political connotations that reflect their diverging trajectories throughout the film.

There is a moment where they “share” a lighter through a split screen, only to light their cigarettes at the same time. The scene arrives after following Morán in prison, when the frame slowly slides toward the center to reveal Román in his flat. Later, the frame continues sliding in the same direction until we are left only with Román, continuing on his side of the story for the following minutes. Another similar visual logic appears with a simple and elegant overlay during a bus ride.

The split screen as a transition between characters and spaces, the prison cell and the bedroom.

Román carries the bag of money during a bus ride while Morán gives him instructions.

The Delinquents premiered in the 76th Cannes Film Festival. Rodrigo Moreno’s nearly three-hour meditative heist film later traveled through festivals while earning praise for its loose narrative structure and precise cinematography.