In all the wonderful – and bittersweet – revisiting of Jean-Luc Godard of late, I’ve been thinking about how his incredible contributions and breakthroughs have specifically shaped what became possible in documentary cinema. And in questioning what is really “nonfiction” cinema, I’m drawn to his famous quote, "Cinema is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie."
Michael Haneke later said, “Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.” And maybe the same is true for a cut - a lie in service of the truth. But the poetry of Godard’s quote resonates, and as an editor, it’s important to recognize the reality-altering, space-time-bending power of a simple cut, and hopefully to use that power responsibly.
That leads me to think that from an editor’s perspective "cinema is 24 decisions a second.” Though that’s bit overwhelming, but it speaks to why editing is fraught with such decision-fatigue.