In cinema, an L cut, also known as a split edit, is a transition from one shot to another, where the picture transition does not occur coincidentally with the audio transition. This is often done to enhance the aesthetics or flow of the film (for example--a conversation between two people can feel like a tennis match without L cuts. L cuts allow the audience to see the reactionary impulse to speak, or the aftermath of speaking rather than simply the act of speaking.) L cuts are also used to hide transitions between scenes.
An example of an L cut occurs in the film The Silence of the Lambs when Clarice is leaving her first interview with Dr. Lecter. She has just been humiliated and remembers her father arriving home from work one day when she was a child; after he picks her up and spins her around, the camera pans over to a passing truck and tilts up to the sky. Then we hear Clarice's sobs and cut back to her outside the mental institution, leaning on her car and crying.
