A moment frozen in time.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: REEL WORLD - Movie-freeze frame effects in movies

A MOVIE FREEZE-FRAME is when a single film frame is repeatedly printed so that the action seems to freeze on the screen. This formalistic (self-conscience signature) device, like slow motion or a rapid montage (quick series of edits) can be used for various dramatic effects. What follows, in chronological order, are four of cinema's most celebrated and varied examples.

First, and arguably the world of film's most famous, is the freeze-frame finale of Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" (1959, which began the "French New Wave" cinema movement). The often-autobiographical picture movingly chronicles the troubled Parisian childhood of an unloved boy (Jean-Pierre Leaud) and culminates with his escape from a reform school set in the French countryside. After an extended amount of time is spent tracking the child's desperate flight on foot, he finally reaches the sea. In an otherwise documentary-like style, the movie ends with Truffaut's landmark freeze-frame close-up of the boy looking back in direct address at the camera (ultimately, the viewer).

Reaching the shore is a bittersweet achievement. The youngster had longed to see the ocean. Yet, the barren beach now is a dead end--there is nowhere else to ran. Moreover, the ambiguous nature of his haunting frozen-in-time expression has multiple potential meanings--a realistic twist to a formalistic device. One possible explanation would be the universality of this freeze-frame doubling for the time(s) anyone ever has felt hopelessly trapped, if stunned into paralysis, like a nightmare as where one neither can scream nor move. Yet, for others, the boy's frozen direct address gaze is an indictment of all viewers (society): how can this neglected child have been allowed to fall through the cracks of the human community?

A second pivotal freeze-frame moment occurs a decade later with the conclusion of George Roy Hill's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). The "French New Wave" had a profound impact upon the "New American Cinema" of the late 1960s, of which "Butch Cassidy" is a prime example. Beyond a shared belief are anti-establishment stories and anti-hero characters, and nothing better showcases the two movements' parallels in visual techniques than Hill replicating Truffaut's freeze-frame finale to end "Butch Cassidy."

Based upon William Goldman's Academy Award-winning script, Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) are two likable bandits trying to become unstuck in...