Deep cuts: Cross-time editing in The Idol, Fresh and X

Through analysis of three contemporary examples, Alexander Kjems Christensen uses this video essay as a study of a seemingly new and perplexing editing technique where the present is intertwined with the future, resulting in a type of cut that favors neither continuity, nor montage. The essay analyzes three very different contemporary examples and uses them to consider the relationship between Hollywood’s narrative principles as opposed to art house cinema’s poetics.

* * *

Fakta

Film

  • X (2022), dir. Ti West
  • The Idol (2023), dir. Sam Levinson
  • Fresh (2022), dir. Mimi Cave