The time-freeze is a classic cinematic device. Remember the scene in The Matrix where Morpheus is introducing Neo to the central concept of the Matrix code? He gets distracted by the woman in the red dress, then Morpheus freezes the scene? Iconic stuff. Film nerds can trace this behaviour back to the French silent movie Paris Qui Dort of 1924 – or, of course, there’s the Adam Sandler movie
Click. Although it’s probably best to pretend that last one never happened. The point is that, thanks to this cinematic and televisual trope, we have an ingrained sense that when something significant happens, our brains should be able to stop time entirely for a moment in order to allow us to process precisely what we’re seeing.
Of course, time is a tricksy mistress. Take
