A jump cut is a cut in film editing where the middle section of a continuous shot is removed, and the beginning and end of the shot are then joined together. The technique breaks continuity in time and produces a startling effect. Any moving objects in the shot will appear to jump to a new position. (Wikipedia)

The first time I really recognized a jump cut was while watching Godard’s Breathless. The most important point is that jump cuts create a feeling of distance of the viewer from the film. For me the jump cut can be best compared to the so called Freudian displacement actitivity. The viewer becomes aware that something is missing which should not be absent. Mostly the jump cut is associated with the discontinuity – a technique in great contrast to the use of continuity in classical Hollywood movies (even if I doubt that).

Let us look at some examples so that you can get a feeling of what we we are talking about here. The next scene is taken out of Breathless, the sequence in which the jump cuts are used starts at [01:32].

In the camera is positioned behind the head of Jean Seberg, showing also her face but keeping the distance at the same time. We recognize the jump cut because some details in the scene rapidly change: the head of Seberg is in different positions in the picture while also the cars and the view of the street in the background change.

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