Lingering Fascination

Lingering Fascination

The first few scenes are always the most important ones because they have the significant role of setting the pace and background for the entire movie. As a viewer, I look to the first few scenes as a baseline for the characters. In Bonnie and Clyde’s first handful of minutes, the viewer is drawn in by the strange, disjunctive editing techniques. Of course, the director incorporated some classical Hollywood styles of continuity, but what made this film famous are the unexpected uses of disjunctive, obvious cuts. The way the director chose to edit this film, particularly this scene, parades the deep fascination between Clyde and Bonnie, and also between the viewers and the two characters.

From the very beginning of the film, we see editing techniques that were classical Hollywood. For example, right after the credits when a brief background was given of the characters, the screen then fades to the start of the movie where Bonnie’s lips are in the mirror. We can assume this is Bonnie even though we haven’t formally been introduced because she is one of the most important people in the film. Automatically, the audience falls for Bonnie because she is extremely attractive and also because she is vulnerably naked.

Her mood is directly displayed by the disjunctive editing of the next shot. She gets up from the chair and falls down to the bed; we don’t actually see this happen, but through a jump cut, we assume that the character is very anxious and restless. All of her movements through her room portray this mood. The audience sees another jump cut when Bonnie starts pounding on her bed frame, portraying a feeling as though she’s wasting her life away.

The next shot is a young man outside near Bonnie’s mother’s car. She seems confused, but the editing is continuous throughout, suggesting a calm approach to the situation. She calls out to him and when he first sees her, she is standing in front of the window, still naked. Clyde is partly...