SUTURE AND CLASSIC CINEMA

(from Kaja Silverman, The Subject of Semiotics, Oxford, 1983)

"Classic cinema": a technique in film that conceals the "cinematic apparatus" (the "apparatuses of
ennunciation") thereby concealing from the viewer that passivity of the viewing position and denying any
reality outside of the fiction. The classic "rules" help create the sense of a continuous narrative that let the
viewer comply with this denial.
"Theoreticians of cinematic suture agree that films are articulated and the viewing subject spoken
by means of interlocking shots. . . . Shot relationships are seen as the equivalent of syntactic
ones in linguistic discourse, as the agency whereby meaning emerges and a subject position is
constructed for the viewer." (Silverman 201)

RULES OF CLASSIC CINEMA

1. Shot/reverse shot: "a cinematic set in which the second shot shows the field from which the first shot is
assumed to have been taken."
2. 180 rule: "dictates that the camera not cover more than 180 in a single shot. This stricture means that
the camera always leaves unexplored the other 180 of an implicit circle. . . . The 180 rule is predicated
on the assumption that a complete camera revolution would be "unrealisitic," defining a space larger than
the "naked eye" would normally cover. Thus it derives from the imperative that the camera deny its own
existence as much as possible, fostering the illusion that what is shown has an autonomous existence,
independent of any technological interference."
3. The cut: "guarantees that both the preceding and the subsequent shots will function as structuring
absences to the present shot." i.e., as you realize that one shot does not show you everything, the cut
seems to supplement that absence, fulfilling your desire to know, to see all. Classic cinema conceals the
cuts.
4. The 30 rule: "at least 30 of space must separate the position of the camera in one shot from that
which follows in order to justify the intervening cut." Violation of this rule draws attention to the cut.
Film theorists argue that to violate these rules creates an anxiety in the viewer and an intense wish to
reestablish a continuous narrative.