![The-Place-Beyond-The-Pines-36.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXypgCExHfcTfuin7S8qggACDf21UnVweWkMf52MXbnkG/The-Place-Beyond-The-Pines-36.jpg)

To return to Pines...

The play with fire story structure of this film is pretty exciting.

Directed by Derek Cianfrance, written by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder (screenplay only).

It acknowledges classic story structure points, but in a somewhat similar way to No Country for Old Men, these points become setup for a twist paid off when the story seems to be handed off from one character to another (in No Country it isn't actually handed off though, as it was Ed Tom's story the whole time, i.e. the opening monologue).

![no-country-for-old-men.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQh3gtABbb1943zW8HAVJmGCykS4LwmiMX7J3ddNbjksu/no-country-for-old-men.png)

Here Cianfrance and team create a triptych. It seems all over maybe at first glance, but after looking further, I see 8 sequences. 

![IMG_20180412_002532.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfJ7eGRw7dMWPLFqiuwGVqrdt2tYxWvrGg6LLNaaiGw9t/IMG_20180412_002532.jpg)

Simpler Version:
![IMG_20180412_002219.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYfW33HPdjrqFCbdTPjYw1iXxatYhJEXL7bvdBcaAVs3H/IMG_20180412_002219.jpg)

Act 1 breaks into Act 2 like a more normal film: robbery, celebration, and a moment with Romina and Jason. Luke is on his way to connecting, to helping, to something he feels he needs to do. It continues some beyond that as a standard action-drama-romance... for a bit.

![1490674271_focusfeatures_placebeyondthepines_ryangosling_evamendes_bradleycooper_derekcianfrance_trailer.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPcJHQECPGPggjMdoee8kAWNRFYShXzfmMUALwqSXAJzn/1490674271_focusfeatures_placebeyondthepines_ryangosling_evamendes_bradleycooper_derekcianfrance_trailer.jpg)

The main question of the film revolves around lineage.
I don't want to try to nail it down. 
Could be something like, "Can I help this baby?" or "Can this child be okay, be safe?" It could later reveal itself as the latter more and more.

![920x920.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmdRD648sSASPPuERYekxv2px5tCxjreYKUfrwxZywpaBT/920x920.jpg)

You think, like most films that the story is contained in timeline, but as it unravels over years, what you think is the core story, core question, something focused on Luke becomes something much bigger. The structure is a twist in of itself. Awesome.

3 sequences to Luke (and Jason)
2 sequences to Avery
3 sequences to AJ and Jason

![1-xExs2oFW6Zo_xwml_pCEUg.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQ8S2a4YpximpTGANpMkP9KFbLFjneUH5SphhS9mQUS58/1-xExs2oFW6Zo_xwml_pCEUg.png)

The question is lineage.
The first three sequences, Luke's sequences, aren't about Luke the apparent "subject" any more than they are about the "object" of the action of the film to that point--Jason, the baby.

We realize that Jason is the subject, or perhaps this is a rare rare film that truly shares two main characters, that the subject is both the father and the son, which either way would or could set a perrrfect stage for the core question of the movie. More specifically, we see that the structure grows from the core question.
Impressive.

![place_beyond_the_pines_4-620x435.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRxW61fLF9jXPKDxsJNWi3TmAk1wavZ7MkN3BPFYEipm7/place_beyond_the_pines_4-620x435.jpg)

We could go on, and probably will, but I'll leave it there for now.

Be well.

Also, for the real answers on all this, ask the filmmakers :-)
Earlier post on Cianfrance's direction in Pines: https://steemit.com/film/@lionsuit/the-place-beyond-the-pines-2012-the-power-of-a-documentary-director