Jean-Luc Godard's editing in sync with a machine gun [closed]

I remember watching an episode of a TV show reviewing and analyzing films, and in particular Godard's techniques. At one point, while discussing his editing style, a scene from one of his films was mentioned where the cadence of a machine gun firing off-screen dictated cuts of the film in rapid succession.

I cannot remember if there was a jump cut for every bullet sound. In fact, I'm not sure if this even happened as I mentioned, as I watched that TV show quite some time ago. In any case, it was about his jump cut technique. If this did happen, I would like to know the name of the film.

identify-this-movie editing

Best Answer

In his book, Godard on Godard: Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard*, Godard discusses his influences. He mentions (p 132, viewable in Google Books) the aesthetically jarring effect of "machine guns spitting out one bullet per shot" in Sergei M. Eisentstein's October: Ten Days that Shook the World. This was a silent film, so the jump cuts imitated the gunfire. You can see the effect in the film at about 15:33 and 16:57.

This short documentary about Godard's use of jump cuts references Eisenstein, but does not specifically address the machine gun episode.