Editing In Jaws

Few films have been as innovative with their editing style as Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960). Its use of jump cuts and non-continuity editing broke many rules of editing and defined the style of the French New Wave to foreign audiences. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) use of editing is quieter and less noticeable, it has a significantly more refined quality. Jaws brilliantly showcases how conventional editing can be used to showcase a pleasing aesthetic as well as elicit the emotional response the director intends in each scene.

The editing in Breathless is non-continuous, the effect this creates on the audience is that it is difficult to ascertain the passage of time passed in each scene. It also establishes a new and interesting style

This scene uses simple film mechanics such as crosscutting and POV to evoke high levels of suspense. The scene mostly cuts between three different perspectives, one of Brody as he sits surveying the beach for dangers, one of Brody’s POV as he looks for signs of trouble, and one of the shark as it searches for prey. The film cuts between these perspectives with a real sense of rhythm and action reaction which is not found in Breathless. When Brody appears tense, it cuts to what he’s scrutinising on, this aligns us with his character which in turn elicits the emotional response that he’s feeling which is partly why the scene is so tense. Once the shark appears we get it’s POV and all of a sudden we have dramatic irony as the audience knows that the shark is about to attack and none of the characters do. This sense of foreboding also increases the dramatic tension in the scene. Showing the sharks perspective is akin to the bomb in Hitchcock’s description of the difference between suspense and surprise. Interestingly this scene also utilises jump cuts albeit in a more refined way than Breathless, the jump cuts are disguised by the effect of a wipe as characters walk across the screen. The jump cuts quickly bring you in to a tighter frame of Brody which gives the sense of tunnel vision that he is experiencing. To further emphasise the nature of this film through editing to give the

The scene is very dynamic so the line changes a number of times, this works because the editor includes shots of characters moving across the line which maintains the spacial awareness this film is so adept at creating. The cuts from low angles of Quint high up and high angles of Brody and Hooper emphasise the verticality in the scene, they also present the power shifts well when one character rises above or below another. The edit of this scene is impressive because despite the camera being so dynamic, at no point is spatial awareness lost. In addition to this the edit is almost invisible in a scene where it could've been very obvious if shots were chosen