In cinematography, the development of film made it possible to capture objects in movement. Contemporary technologies allow editing objects, actions and background in real time with one press of a button. In the late eighteen century, however, filmmakers did not have modern tools to create special effects and were forced to resort to cunning techniques. One of that technique is an editing.
First and foremost, we should define the editing technique. What is editing in a film industry? Editing is a redaction of shots of a film. It can be a replacement, sequence change or cutting. These cuts are known as a transition from one shot to another. A French director Jean-Luc Godard found editing techniques valuable in his film Breathless. It was created on the French New Wave when many filmmakers conducted experiments with editing and Breathless became one of them. In first five minutes of the film we can observe a scene, when the police are chasing the main hero, Michel. The spectators are able to notice that the distance between the police and the camera is shortening not gradually but there is a prompt leap in shots. This type of transition is not smooth and, in film industry, the technique is known as a jump cut.
One of the best examples of jump cuts is the car scene at the twenties minutes of the film. Michel is driving the car but the camera is focused on his companion, Patricia. Between their phrases of the dialog, the audience can notice how changes the position and direction of Particia’s head all of a sudden. The camera is not changing its angle, but there are no shots showing the turn of head movement.
There are a few shot variations that differ according to their framing: establishing shots, long shots, medium shots and close-up. Establishing shots are used for surroundings, building and other cases when there is a need to use a wide angle. Long shots give full-length a person, medium shots frame a person in a shot from the waist up and close-up shots frame the face alone (Brewster, & Jacobs p.12).
In the car scene with Breathless camera is closed-up to Patricia head and shoulders and we can see just a part of the street behind. Jean-Luc Godard did not use establishing shots at all: all we can see is long shots at the most. It impedes the spectators to see the overall scene and do not give the notion of the picture in general. Moreover, the dialog scene in the film does not use the pattern of conversational technique. Usually, the camera depicts both interlocutors or shows the shoulder of the listener when another person is speaking. It allows the audience to see everyone who is engaged in the conversation. In Breathless, the camera switches from one person to the other; in some cases, camera even does not switch at all to show the speaking person. These scenes give a feeling of incompleteness.
Instead of cutting the whole scenes, Godard cut within scenes and within shots. In my opinion, the technique of editing and cutting within scenes was not a good idea and Godard failed to incorporate editing wisely. Th cuts supplant a smooth transition of the film, making the viewers loose connection; the audience does not feel an utter involvement. It constantly reminds the viewer that it is a film, not reality, and, thereby, brings artificiality. Even the demise of the hero does not evoke the feelings and the last scenes cut and lack completeness.
Work cited
Brewster B., Jacobs L. Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film. Oxford University Press, 1997. Print
