The cognitive dimension of film cuts

Abstract

The change of shot by a cut creates a gap in the spectator’s cognitive system, which the technical-discursive strategy of the raccord or cut seeks to absorb through the representational praxis. In conjunction with recent findings in neurocinematics about the cognitive mechanisms in the cinema spectator, we trace the cut from the suture concept proposed by Oudart, invoking the centrality of absence in the construction of our kinematic perception, allowing in this way the emergence of a veritable conceptual reformulation of the cut, which goes beyond its dimension as a strictly cognitive input. In this paper we propose a new approach to the neurocinematic advances, asserting the necessary productive acceptance of the existing considerations in the preceding cinematographic theory.

KEYWORDS: cut, editing, neurocinematics, cognition, spectator, cinema.