> What Godard did was to popularize jump cuts by featuring them prominently in his first feature film.

popularised ... pioneered ...whatever, he came up with the term, AFAIK.

Re. sun flares
I think they are great in film when used well (e.g. Beck's 'Where it's at'), it is, after all, not uncommon that our own eyes are over-exposed by the sun. I noticed before that you get a six-pronged star with video footage and, I think, a four-pronged one with film. I'm sure there's a reason for that, but I can't remember what it might be. It's interesting that depending on the amount of light you let into your eye the different 'sparkle' effect you can get out of it. When you think about there are whole industries devoted to satisfying the human love of sparkles - Christmas lights, fireworks, etc.