My favorite editing is in F For Fake. The whole movie.
Memento thrives on the creative narrative structure and editing.
Editing is actually one of those categories that they usually get right during Oscar time.
Some other good examples: Traffic, The Departed, Jaws, Run Lola Run, The Prestige
The Dark Knight had a great edit, I’m amazed at how that movie didn’t fall apart because of it. The editing was superlative, this and Wall – E represent hallmarks in film editing this year. You are correct David Lee, it is one of the few categories the academy gets right. Let’s see it nominate these two.
Easy one I loved both the cuts and transitions Welles makes in “Citizen Kane” future great filmmaker Robert Wise cut the film! Masterpiece in every which way and it only won one Oscar! Fucking Shame!
I’ll pick the teeth-jarring parts of “Bullitt” and “The French Connection,” and, of course, the did-I-really-just-see-what-I-thought-I-saw shower scene in “Psycho.” More recently, I’ll go with “City of God” and Pietro Scalia’s masterful work in “JFK” and “Blackhawk Down.”
Resnais’ first 3 (masterpieces all) bring the art of editing to its fullest fruition, in my humble opinion:
-Hiroshima Mon Amour
-Last Year at Marienbad
-Muriel
I enjoyed Requiem for a dreams editing.
It may not be the best editing technique, but I find it very exciting. The “Jump Cut”, first realized in Godard’s “Breathless” was revolutionary for its time. Revolutionary being an adjective used to describe much of Godard’s work.
Speaking of Godard, “The Dreamers” by Bertolucci had great editing. It was very interesting how the editing and mise-en-scene reflected the movies the cinephiles were so obsessed about.
Speaking of Godard, “The Dreamers” by Bertolucci had great editing. It was very interesting how the editing and mise-en-scene reflected the movies the cinephiles were so obsessed about.
I will second Psycho. Hitchcock’s editing makes the tone of that film so much crazier. It’s so manic, yet it’s so precisely executed.
Yeah definitely Resnais, the opening sequence of “Muriel” is unlike anything i’ve ever witnessed before (or since), absolutely amazing, very bold and innovative editing, the intercutting between day and night shots is also brilliant and of course his use of sound and music heightens the effect … but in terms of overall editing i think Resnais’ “La Guerre est Finie” is his most stunning and accomplished work, his use of ‘flashforwards’ coupled with second-person narration and the tracking match-cuts when Diego is imagining what Nadine looks like are incredible, it has never been achieved to that level since (as far as i know anyways) …
Some films also of mention that brilliantly use editing to convey the ‘psychology’ of the story would be Alan Heim’s editing in “All That Jazz” (which “Requiem for a Dream” owes a lot too in terms of the rapid montage sequences), Boorman’s “Point Blank” edited by Henry Berman who also edited Frankenheimer’s impressive “Grand Prix” which totally innovated the use of split screen in cinema (along with “The Boston Strangler” and “The Thomas Crown Affair”. Lester’s “Petulia” is also stunningly edited (and of course photographed by Nick Roeg), ‘Petulia’ like many of Roeg’s own films (“Walkabout”, “Performance” and “Don’t Look Now”) and those of the British “New Wave” seemed to be influenced by Resnais’ distinctive editing technique or “mindscreen” narration to convey a characters inner thoughts/memories etc … some of the great examples can be found in many of Schlesinger’s early films “Darling”, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, or Anderson’s impressive “This Sporting Life” and Richardson’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”.
Also the editing in Lelouch’s “A Man and a Woman” is sublime, particularly the ‘sex’ scene in the hotel room is amazing, the use of sound, music and the intercutting back and forward in time is brilliant and makes for a tender/tragic scene. Another inspired ‘sex’ scene editing sequence is in Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now” which has been dubbed the “dressing-undressing” sequence, it is an absolute revelation, once again a brilliant use of intercutting between time frames (Soderbergh lifted this for the hotel ‘sex’ scene in “Out of Sight”)
Also of note is Godard’s “Vivre sa Vie” – a particularly impressive sequence is the use of rapid cutting to machine-gun-fire in the cafe sequence, it is such a simple idea, but absolutely genius, Agnès Guillemot is a legend!
Ang Lee’s “Hulk”… Seriously. Best thing about that movie.
Stone’s JFK is unmatched. (Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia, editors)
And I’ll agree with WONDER6789 above — what is essential to the viewer about Resnais’ LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD owes so much to the way it is cut. Bravo.
Some that I love for their editing:
Bonnie and Clyde
Cabaret (All That Jazz is also in this league)
Z
Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy (some have complained about them being overdone, but I still find some sequences very exciting)
They Shoot Horses Don’t They (was 1969 some kind of film-editing Renaissance?)
City of God
Persona
Rope (LOL)
Mary Poppins (still the best live action/animated sequences I have seen)
Woodstock
And of course, as mentioned above, Goodfellas, Psycho and Citizen Kane
The love scene after Heath Ledger’s character meets Charlotte Gainsbourg’s in I’m Not There, it, along with the following sequence is basically a music video to the song “I Want You.” Definitely captured the essence of the relationship!
Joshua W. got it right with “F for Fake.” The editing creates a pace different from any other film.
Films that can seemlessly move onto a dream sequence without the audience realizing (8 1/2, King of Comedy) are also great representations of the power of good editing.
No Country for Old Men is one of the most impressively edited films I’ve seen since Murch’s work on Apocalypse Now. It’s unfathomable that the Coens did this themselves because if you didn’t know better you’d think this was done by master editor.
F for Fake
Muriel
La Guerre est Finie
Don’t Look Now
The editing in Chantal Akerman’s films is beautifully precise. Sans Soleil is another marvel of editing.
I also found the editing in Petulia very interesting and surely the main influence on Roeg and Don’t Look Now (both films mentioned above). What about the feel for shot length and when to cut, not simply spectacular montage sequences or temporal switches. Are films like L’Avventura and Pather Panchali examples of skilful editing, as i took them to be on further viewings? And Ozu’s sense of rhythm? Ford had already done the editing in his mind when shooting, to avoid interference.
Yes, Ralch, there’s much to be said for (often overlooked) precision. And talking of Marker, he was involved as script-writer on a film by Joris Ivens, A Valparaiso, where some of the editing, smooth matches, interesting conjunctions etc, impressed me.
>>My favorite editing is in F For Fake. The whole movie.<<
Yup.
>>My favorite editing is in F For Fake. The whole movie.<<
Yup.
I like the jump cuts in Julien Donkey-Boy.
and
The fine use of the superimposition in Teshighara’s Woman in the Dunes.
I know it was already mentioned a few times. But if you haven’t already watched the special features on the 2nd disc of the criterion edition of Last year at Marienbad, you must do so now! The editing is astonishing. I love the techniques used to film this movie. I highly admire these sort of techniques as opposed to the over computer generated techniques of todays movies.
Not sure if it counts purely as editing, or as more of a small part of the film’s larger conceptual exercise, but I love the way “Man With a Movie Camera” used editing to juxtapose images, and to create compelling rhythms. My favorite exercise in non-narrative editing. I’m going to see Fata Morgana soon… I’ll see if that is comparable somehow?
Rope
Alanedit
This is a wide raging one, and my favorite. Editing is invicible when it’s good, poignant when it’s effective, and distracting when it’s bad.
Master Editors include Walter Murch (needs no introduction), Michael Kahn, Thelma Schoonmaker, Verna Fields, Jerry Greenberg, Stewart Baird, the list goes on and on. I really love strong editing, and really believe it is the editor who creates the magic moments not the director. This is up to debate, but the editor’s role should never be diminished to the success (or failure) or a motion picture. It’s more than just pacing, it’s the assemblage of what the story’s universe is supposed to be, how the story is told by the careful relation of sound and image.
To me what exemplifies good editing is the scene in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta goes out high paranoid the helicopter is out to get him. The entire sequence captures the downward spiral of the character and frames the narrative to it’s thematic means, and it’s all due to the way Thelma Schoonmaker cut that scene. I never felt like a criminal till I watched it, it really brings you into this man’s world and onto his point of view. Magnificent.
See moments in every Kubrick film for further examination…