Representation of Space-Time in the Cinema:

The Art of Editing

Edouard Blondeau

“The cinema is the truth 24 times per second”

Jean-Luc Godard

The cinema is inherently linked to a notion of space and time. Cameras, even digital,
work on a 24 frames per second; scenarios describe for each scene when and where
the action takes place : : : The editing is one of the tools who permit to represent the
impression we have of space-time.

The Birth of Editing

At the end of the nineteenth century, the first films of Lumière brothers and Edison
are all short filmed scenes. They last less than a minute and are always presented in
the same layout: a roll of 35 mm film about 20 m (65 ft), which is impressed on a
single shooting comprising a single plan.
In 1896 a shooting incident would have given a new idea to Georges Méliès.
While filming a busy street, the crank of his camera would have been blocked and
restarted a few moments later. When developing Méliès would have found that a bus
had suddenly turned into hearse. Méliès therefore decides to use this method to tell
fantastic short stories. Méliès turns in 1896 a first film according to this principle
entitling Escamotage d’une dame au théâtre Robert Houdin.
It is only the beginnings of editing, exercise currently called “shot-edited”. In
1900, George Albert Smith shows the public the first film, Grandma’s Reading
Glass, containing several successive shots telling the same story in chronological
order. The film editing is born. But Smith does not consider having invented or
discovered anything but is only inspired by the narrative of magic lanterns.

Edouard Blondeau
Paris, France

Emmer M. (Ed.): Imagine Math 3. Between Culture and Mathematics

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-01231-5_ 22, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
306 E. Blondeau

The Fast Forward

The first example of fast forward dates from 1898 in a film directed by Georges
Méliès and called Carrefour de l’Opera. Unfortunately the film was lost and we
don’t know why Méliès accelerated the images, although his repertoire suggests a
comic or fantastic goal.
However we feel that all the early silent films used this principle to give a comic
effect. These films shot at 16 frames per second were also screened at this rate. The
judder observed when passing at 24 or 25 frames per second is not the effect of
accelerated described here. This jerk is due to lack of images when switching to 24
or 25 frames per second. Some images are necessarily doubled for the transfer. The
total duration of the film remains almost unchanged.
Since fast forward is still used for various purposes. Firstly the most obvious is
to accelerate a movement or an event that is extremely slow. Lots of documentaries
use this purpose to see a flower bloom or glaciers melt.
Besides the documentaries, fast forward is used in a narrative purpose. Thus
with a burlesque music, Benny Hill very regularly use accelerated images to his
televisions shows chases. The comic effect is pronounced.
Cédric Klapisch uses fast forward in a different way in L’auberge espagnole.
When Xavier arrives at the Finance Ministry, the images when he walks through the
building are accelerated. This highlights the vastness of the building, but the jerk
of images also gives the impression of a place where the work is repetitive and few
fulfilling.
In Vanilla Sky Cameron Crowe uses the same process with a short-cut editing. At
the beginning of the film when David Aames lives in a nightmare of being alone in
New York, the anguish of the character is accentuated by fast forward.
Fast forward also helps to isolate a character of its environment. In Danny Boyle’s
Trainspotting, after his withdrawal from heroin, Renton plays Lotto. Everybody
around him moves and speaks very quickly while he remains stonily indifferent.
The concept of time is completely different for him and the other characters: Renton
bored while everyone has fun.
A surprising case of fast forward is the French trailer of Femme fatale by Brian
de Palma, edited by Sonia Tout Court agency. The film is fully accelerated to
last 2 min. Only a few shots with the main characters are at normal speed. This
process accentuates the tension and by discovering this trailer, Brian Palma himself
congratulated the authors. A few years later, Jean-Luc Godard also uses this method
for editing the trailer of his film Film socialisme.

The Slow Motion

Slow motion is invented in 1904 by August Musger. Used to show very rapid action,
it is used at first to glorify the heroism and effort. Hugh Hudson uses it regularly
throughout of Chariots of fire. Especially during the final race when Lidell is at a
few meters from the finish line.
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Slow motion is widely used in action movies in order to punctuate the scenes.
John Woo uses it regularly in his films, often coupled with shots of doves flying
away—including Mission: Impossible II when Ethan Hunt enters the bunker to face
dozens of enemies.
It also allows to enhancing the drama of production. Thus, in Platoon, Oliver
Stone uses this effect to accentuate the desperate race of Sergeant Elias pursued by
the enemy.
The climax of slow motion is the bullet time which is obtained with using a series
of cameras placed around the action. They are triggered simultaneously, or with a
very short time differential, allowing after editing to give the illusion of a camera
moving freely around a slowed to the extreme or fixed action. The technique used for
the first time in the short film of Emmanuel Carlier, Temps mort autour de Caro &
Jeunet, is popularized by Matrix from Andy and Larry Wachowski. When Neo and
Trinity are fighting against the matrix, we have the impression that their movements
exceed the speed of light.
This effect, while praising the effort, courage and enhancing the drama of
situations is obviously used in comedies and parodies. In The Mask of Chuck
Russell, the scene where the mask flies across the room and no one can catch it
except the dog, is in slow motion thus increasing the funny side.

The Flashback

This method is popularized by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane. The entire plot is based
on a series of flashbacks that make it possible to better understand the personality
of Charles Forster Kane.
In Memento, Christopher Nolan uses the flashback to the extreme by telling the
story of Leonard upside. The principle works because Leonard, the main character,
has a memory of 15 min and he wants to know why he is in this situation.

The Flashforward

Flashforward is the reverse process of flashback. Often used at the beginning of

movies, this effect presents either a future which could be changed or focusing the
audience on how it happened. For example Fight Club from David Fincher begins
with the start of the last stage when the narrator is attached on a chair in the last
floor of a building.
Use of the most successful flashforwars is made in La jetée directed by
Chris Marker whose Twelve Monkeys from Terry Gillian is the remake. The hero
remembers the murder of a man he saw child. This man is only himself years later.
308 E. Blondeau

The Split Screen

Split screen is a visible division of the screen in several simultaneous shots. For the
first time used in 1913 in Suspens from Lois Weber, the split screen is popularized
at the end of the 1960s by several studio-made films.
Brian de Palma is one of directors who use regularly split screen. In Blow out,
the scene showing Jack understanding what happened is split. One shot shows Jack
listening to the sound of an accident and the other shot shows the accident mentally
reconstructed by Jack.

The Jump Cut

This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time. It is a manipulation
of temporal space using the duration of a single shot, and fracturing the duration to
move the audience ahead.
Jean-Luc Godard is the first to use it in a narrative way in A bout de souffle. When
Michel speaks in the car, several jump cuts give the impression that the journey lasts
because we don’t know how many times pasts during the ellipsis.

Extension of Time

The editing permits to make the story last longer than the reality. For example in
Goldfinger from Guy Hamilton, the bomb explodes in 4 min. But these 4 min of the
countdown lasts in reality 8 min which is the time necessary for James Bond to fight
Oddjob and for the army to penetrate inside Fort Knox and neutralize the bomb.

Time to Conclude

So the editing permits to play with the notion of space-time. However other tools like
set, sound or special and visual effects are also used to divert space-time. In THX
1138 from George Lucas the set of jail is uniformly white so that the main character
loses his benchmark for judging the distance or the flow of time. The visual effects
of 2001: a space odyssey from Stanley Kubrick give also the impression to assist to
the big bang. And in La haine de Mathieu Kassovitz the beeps of the clock sound
like a countdown.
Representation of Space-Time in the Cinema: The Art of Editing 309

Filmography

1. A bout de souffle – Jean-Luc Godard (1960), editing: Cécile Decugis

2. Blow out – Brian de Palma (1981), editing: Paul Hirsch
3. Carrefour de l’Opéra – Georges Méliès (1898), editing: Georges Méliès
4. Chariots of fire – Hugh Hudson (1981), editing: Terry Rawlings
5. Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941), editing: Robert Wise
6. Escamotage d’une dame au theâtre Robert Houdin – Georges Méliès (1896), editing: Georges
Méliès
7. Femme fatale – Brian de Palma (2002), editing: Bill Pankow
8. Film socialisme – Jean-Luc Godard (2010), editing: Jean-Luc Godard
9. Fight Club – David Fincher (1999), editing: James Haygood
10. Grandma’s Reading Glass – George Albert Smith (1900), editing: George Albert Smith
11. Goldfinger – Guy Hamilton (1964), editing: Peter Hunt
12. L’auberge espagnole – Cédric Klapisch (2002), editing: Francine Sandberg
13. La jetée – Chris Marker (1962), editing: Jean Ravel
14. La haine – Mathieu Kassovitz (1995), editing: Mathieu Kassovitz and Scott Stevenson
15. Mission: Impossible II – John Woo (2000), editing: Steven Kemper and Christian Wagner
16. Matrix – Andy and Larry Wachowski (1999), editing: Zach Staenberg
17. Memento – Christopher Nolan (2000), editing: Dody Dorn
18. Platoon – Oliver Stone (1986), editing: Claire Simpson
19. Suspens – Lois Weber (1913), editing: Lois Weber
20. The Mask – Chuck Russell (1994), editing: Arthur Coburn
21. Trainspotting – Danny Boyle (1996), editing: Masahiro Hirakubo
22. Temps mort autour de Caro & Jeunet – Emmanuel Carlier (1995), editing: Emmanuel Carlier
23. Twelve Monkeys – Terry Gillian (1995), editing: Mick Audsley
24. Vanilla Sky – Cameron Crowe (2001), editing: Joe Hutshing and Mark Livolsi
25. THX 1138 – George Lucas (1971), editing: Georges Lucas
26. 2001: a space odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968), editing: Ray Lovejoy