Book Reviews
Revisiting Some Classic Texts of Film Editing
The re-publication of this invaluable tome by Karel Reisz and Gavin Millar is a cause for celebration among editors and filmmakers.
Month: May 2012
Features
Keeping the Story Moving: I. James Wilkinson (1897-1967)
Picture editor Irving James Wilkinson has unfortunately become the most obscure of the three original founders of the Society of Motion Picture Film Editors (SMPFE). Many sources, including the Guild’s own historical records (which were cited in the story on the beginnings of the SMPFE in the JAN-FEB 12 issue of this publication) had him confused with a similarly named contemporary, the sound editor James R. Wilkinson.
Union Made
Elmo’s World: From Covered Wagon to Worldwide Travel, the Recollections of One of the Guild’s Earliest Members
I was born on April 30, 1913, in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. I’m 99 years old. I guess you’d say I’m old. Weightlifting for me is standing up… I’m so old they’ve discontinued my blood type… I can remember when the Dead Sea first got sick… Jokes, no matter their quality, should make you laugh. And laughter keeps you young. And I love to laugh.
Tail Pop
Norman Z. MacLeod’s ‘Topper’
Ghosts. I guess we’re never very far from them. You can’t really see them, but they’re always there. They’re quiet. Every now and then, one pops up, moves the furniture and leaves. You turn around to see the drapes swish and your life has changed. What was that!?
This Quarter in Film History
Shipping Out and Shaping Up
In many American homes in the early 20th century hung a framed poem by Rudyard Kipling, If, which begins with “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…” and ends with “You’ll be a Man, my son.”
Features
‘Film Comment’s’ Top 75 Picture Editors
Thirty-five years ago, our colleagues at the prestigious film journal Film Comment in New York published a special 24-page section celebrating film editors — “Prime Cut” — which appeared in its March-April 1977 issue.
Features
Editorial Patriarch: Philip Cahn (1894-1984)
To those who knew him best, film editor Philip Cahn, who was born June 18, 1894, in New York City, was not a rabble-rousing sort.
Features
75 Best Edited Films: By the Numbers
The 75 Best Edited Films’ years of release range from the 1920s to the 2010s — with 3 titles each in both of those decades. Most of the films cited are from the 1970s (17), followed by the ‘90s (16), the ‘60s (13), the ‘50s (8), the ‘00s (7), the ‘80s (5) and the ‘40s (3). Curiously, there were no films chosen from the 1930s.
Letters to the Editor
Sound Articles Ring a Bell with Readers
Letters regarding our articles on sound editing history as well as our political content.
Features
A Company Man But A Union Man: Ben Lewis (1894-1970)
In a way, Ben Lewis, one of the three founding members of the Society of Motion Picture Film Editors (SMPFE) — now the Motion Picture Editors Guild — was the quintessential company man, working 45 of his 52 years in the cutting room at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
