Walter Murch (1)Critiques

3.5

This is not so much a book by Walter Murch as it is a transcribed lecture of his, with an introduction and some added notes on digital editing at the back end. The main lecture is excellent and provides a lot of really valuable insight into the process and philosophy of film editing. Murch has a really unique outlook that makes what he has to say a joy to absorb.

The latter part on digital editing, in spite of having been revised, is already way out of date. As a result, a lot of it is a bit of a slog. It isn't without some valuable insight, but it is the first half of the book that's worth the price of admission.

2131

El montaje es uno de los elementos más importantes dentro del proceso creativo y técnico del cine; tristemente ignorado por muchos, es en la sala de edición donde se da el ritmo al material filmado y se termina de escribir lo concebido dentro del guion. Walter Murch, editor habitual de Francis Ford Coppola, escribe un interesantísimo ensayo sobre el montaje, que primero fue la transcripción puntual de una conferencia ofrecida en Australia. Con los años, el libro se ha ido actualizando hasta llegar a la nueva era del montaje digital; como bien apunta el autor, hoy, “ya nadie monta en celuloide”. Las ideas expuestas en el texto ahondan sobre los misterios de la edición: ¿qué se toma en cuenta para que los planos se yuxtapongan en cierto orden, y qué determina su duración? ¿cuál es la importancia y efectividad del corte? Sin pretender desarrollar un manual o un libro teórico, el estadounidense Walter Murch confiesa sus métodos personales a la hora de montar una película, y revela las conclusiones que obtiene de dicho trabajo, una labor ardua y minuciosa.

A girl saves a fantasy land from conquerors.

3/4 (Good).

Visually, it's very cool. The story is unremarkable, and it gets pretty slow in the few scenes without Wacky Creatures.½

A nice testimony of a talented editor and his insights on the practice of montage. Very curious to see the dilemmas of the transition from film to digital.

I see why it is a classic, but it left me feeling a bit meh. In a world where everyone is drugged to compliance, and sex is forbidden two people stop taking all their drugs and fall in love. Escape and tragedy are also part of the experience.

Still, on another level, the overmedicalisation of most of humanity continues and Television is often the opium of the masses. We live lives where we drift exhausted from home to work and back again and wonder what it's all about. Is it different enough?½

A must-read for anyone even remotely interested in film production. The discussions with Murch, a veteran picture and sound editor, not only provide interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes about several films (including "Apocalypse Now", "The English Patient" and the "Godfather" trilogy) but shed light on the process of editing -- all the decisions involved when you're given a jumble of footage and have to piece them back together into a coherent, cohesive narrative that may or may not resemble the original screenplay. Even when I disagreed with some of his theories, which is rare, I always appreciated the intelligence and perceptiveness with which he explained them. I'm not familiar with Ondaatje's novels and poetry, but he asks good questions and has some insights of his own regarding the differences between literature and film.

A man in a far-future dystopia is arrested for not taking enough drugs.

It's a speculative rating, really. Since the DVD just has the director's cut (with cartoons drawn on top of everything), I can only guess what the original was like. It seems very interesting, and surprisingly intense for such an eye-roll-inducing set-up.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: D
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.4/4½

A consistently thought-provoking conversation between two great artists, both undoubtedly in love with the moving image. It uses film editing as a starting point for an original disquisition on the art of film and artistic creativity in general, with many wonderful insights. Movie references abound; this is an undisputed gem of a book that no film-lover should miss.

A great essay about film editing.

You don't need to be a film editor to enjoy this book. It is science, psychology, history and art appreciation all rolled into one.

See What I Have Been Watching, July 2010 at From Word to Word

A wide-ranging discussion between two artists, as much about sound editing as film editing, and how both writing and editing deploy tactics gleaned from psychology or musical forms to establish meaning, pacing, pattern. There are anecdotes from films (from Murch's portfolio and films by others), usually highlighting a specific scene or situation, with correspondingly specific insights into the effect achieved or avoided.

But even with such fascinating discussions from cinema, the book is really about how two interesting individuals think in general. I'm left motivated to follow up on various film studies references, but also novels and historical works mentioned in the course of their dialogues.

Especially incisive is the allegory [210-214] of physicist John Wheeler's parlour game, Negative Twenty Questions, to explain the creative process responsible for wonderfully successful films, as well as failures that prompt the viewer to wonder how anyone, ever could have been persuaded that the idea was worth pursuing. Irreplaceable. Similarly but less developed in their discussion is the idea of cinematic notation, corresponding to musical notation, and how that technique (once developed) could foster innovation and sophistication on the order of polyphony, pattern, harmony in film. Murch suggests [296-301] the I Ching may serve as an interesting foundation for notating the dynamics in a scene, between characters, as expressed in their staging and actions. Provocative but preliminary.

The quotes I focused on tend to be Murch's in this book and he clearly is a polymath mentality. I wonder how much Ondaatje's eclipsed presence is something Ondaatje fashioned deliberately, as the author of the book.

He communicates the editor's Sysiphusian task with technical insight and humor.

Murch has taken years of experience in the film industry and poured them into this work of theory and art. Deep enough for those well-versed in film arts yet still appealing to those outside that world. Well written and thoroughly engaging.

Thought-provoking theories from a veteran editor and sound designer. A must-read for folks in postproduction.

Austin Kleon rec