Greatest Match Cuts

Graphic Match/Match Cut - any cut from one scene to another which carries over objects or shapes that occupy the same space so as to suggest a relationship between the two scenes or objects, or to create a visual overthrow to establish a continuity of action rather than the abruptness of a Jump Cut.

Perhaps the most famous example of this technique is 1 minute into this clip from Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) where an edit cuts together Lawrence blowing out a lit candle with the desert sun rising from the horizon. Director David Lean credits inspiration for the edit to the experimental French New Wave. The edit was later praised by Steven Spielberg as inspiration for his own work.



Rivalling Lawrence of Arabia for fame is this match cut from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) in which a primitive ape discovers the use of bones as weapons and throws a bone into the air after killing another ape. When the bone reaches its highest point, the shot cuts to that of a similarly-shaped space craft.



Alfred Hitchcock included two brilliant match cuts in his films North By Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). In the first (4:50 into the clip) Cary Grant is pulling Eva Marie Saint up from Mount Rushmore before it cuts to him pulling her onto a bed on a train. In Psycho (2:40 into this clip) right after Marion Crane is murdered in the infamous shower scene, the camera shows blood flowing down the drain of the tub, then cuts to a shot of Marion's eye.






Even Coronation Street have managed to get in on the act with a fantastic match cut right at the end of this clip.