Visual Techniques Used in the "Last Supper" Scene

In a film filled with plot and imagery that pushed the boundaries of what the church thought was acceptable at the time, the "Last Supper" scene may have been the most antagonizing scene for the church to watch and contributed to it being banned in Spain. This is kind of a bummer, as the scene features some of the most intricate staging, camera movements, and editing in the movie.

For the purposes of breaking the scene down, I'll start at 1 hr 15 mins in, as the camera pulls away from the beggar eating some custard and we see everyone move to the opposite side of the table to take the photo. Up to this point in the dinner scene, most of the action had been focused on only a couple of people in each frame (the fight over the crying kid, the leper sitting by himself, conversations between people), but here the camera backs away from focusing on one beggar to the entire table. From this point, we can kind of see what's about to happen from an imagery stand-point, and it pays off seconds later with the wide shot from in front of the table.

Of course, we go into this shot immediately after the leper finishes a joke with the line "a chicken", then we are pulled back into this shot of everyone laughing. So we've already found a juxtaposition to the actually Last Supper painting, which was happening under more serious circumstances. The leper's chicken comment is reflected again only seconds later as the camera moves into a close up of the blind man, who takes Jesus's position in this representation, and a chicken (rooster technically, so a boy chicken) crows as close in on his face. The rooster crowing could be seen as an insult towards Jesus, as it calls just as we focus on our Jesus place-holder and there's not really much reason to have a rooster sound in the middle of the night.

This close up starts off a series of inventively edited shots, as our focus moves quickly from the suddenly pious and serious looking blind man back out into a wide shot of the table that more closely resembles the Last Supper painting we're familiar with.

When I first watched this scene, I assumed that this was a freeze frame, which is when a single frame is repeated in the film reel to make the image appear 'frozen' (I'm not sure if this is a freeze frame, as some of the actors seem like they're moving slightly). Of course, this is meant to further connect the scene to the Last Supper painting, which I'm sure the Vatican was happy with. This would definitely be considered blasphemous, as it's mixing the profane beggars with one of the churches most sacred and famous images. From this image, we cut quickly to focus on the two ladies to the left of the blind man then cut back to the wide shot of the table, only this time with the 'photographer' blocking our view. Then we get a good look at the photographer's face, which is quickly covered by her skirt as she takes a photo with her...

....eww. I would go into a quick overview of the sacred verses the profane here, but you can figure it out.