8. Jean Luc Goddard Is Lazy - Invents Jump Cuts
Jean Luc Goddard is arguably the most famous French director of all-time, and is certainly the most influential filmmaker to emerge from the "French New Wave" period. And that's party because, aside from creating the classic that is
Breathless, the man innovated a bunch of new techniques that we're still using today. One of those very techniques is known as the "jump cut," which is basically when a shot of action cuts to later action of the same shot without, like, a care in the world. You'll spot this happening from time to time in indie films, 'cause it's "cool," though Jean Luc Goddard didn't invent the technique to be cool at all - he invented it because he was asked by his financer to make
Breathless shorter and he couldn't be bothered to re-cut his movie. Instead, he just took out some sections and the "jump cut" effect was born. So next time some hipster filmmaker razzes on you for not understanding the French New Wave and the importance of jump cuts, punch him in his stupid face. Oh, we mean.. uh, link him to this article.