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Edge Codes.Com: The Art Of Motion Picture Editing: Review

EDGE CODES.COM: THE ART OF MOTION PICTURE EDITING
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Alex Shuper's solid, if hyperactive, documentary uses every trick in the film editor's book to celebrate this too-often underappreciated aspect of moviemaking. No matter that directors like Russia's V. I. Pudovkin acknowledged as early as the '20s that movies were built in the cutting room, or that sophisticated prankster Buster Keaton was already crafting uniquely cinematic gags built around editing transitions. The glory and accolades went first to actors, then to directors; film editors, who determine order and rhythm of shots, which in turn creates meaning, emotional texture and impact, remained unsung heroes. Shuper assembles a large cast of filmmakers, historians and theoreticians to explain the history of editing, starting with the crude early days when, explains Thelma Schoonmaker (whose credits range from RAGING BULL to THE AVIATOR), editors estimated how much film they needed for a particular scene like tailors — 9 feet of footage for a kiss, less for an action sequence. She doesn't connect her metaphor to the axiom that women, traditionally shut out of most behind-the-camera jobs, were allowed to edit because putting pieces of film together was like sewing. Shuper assembles clips from films as various as THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and THE MATRIX (1999) as he covers historical milestones like the innovations of early Russian filmmakers Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein, who championed a form of "intellectual editing" in which the meaning of a series of scenes is greater than the sum of its component shots, or the French Nouvelle Vague. The startling "jump cuts" in Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut's BREATHLESS (1959) defied longstanding Hollywood wisdom that good editing made shot transitions as seamless and unnoticeable as possible and ushered in a new age of brash, self-aggrandizing cutting. Shuper examines the technology, from the days of scissors and glue to the electronic editing systems George Lucas was instrumental in developing — who else would come up with a name like "EditDroid?" It's a shame that Shuper is worried that the wealth of historical detail and bold assertions — the connections between TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (1935) and modern-day news coverage, for example — won't be enough to hold viewers' attentions. His relentlessly "clever" visual style — if director Norman Jewison is talking about split screen, he's shown in split screen; when MATRIX editor Zach Staenberg discusses his work, he appears inside a TV set watched by Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves — is gimmicky and more than a little headache inducing. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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