IF ONLY TRENT LOTT HAD PRAISED MAO:

Mao and the Godfather (Edward Driscoll, 1/09/2003)

I was recently sent a copy of The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje to review for Blogcritics. It's a series of interviews with Murch on the artistic choices that he made when editing the classic films he's worked on over the years, including Francis Ford Coppola's best films--The Godfather movies, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now. Those are all staggering movies (The Conversation is criminally underrated), and Murch is, without a doubt, one of the most talented editors to emerge in the "new Hollywood" of the 1970s. And it appears to be a well-written, very readable book, which, while I haven't finished digesting it (I'll post a proper review of it on Blogcritics--this isn't it), I can easily recommend to any film buff.

But the photo above, which I scanned from the book, "knocked me for six", as the English would say.

First of all, you've gotta see the photo and Brother Driscoll's very sage comments.

Second, you'll not regret listening to this interview with Mr. Murch from NPR's Fresh Air. One of the best things about it is that you hear his sound editing without being distracted by the pictures. The effect in the scene where Michael Corleone kills Sollozzo and McCluskey is especially remarkable.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 9, 2003 7:11 PM