Great fun read between a now deceased author and the editor who cut some of the greatest movies made in the modern film era, including one of the author's own stories, The English Patient. I loved every page of it and never wanted it to end.

Fantastic book. For anyone working in film I’d say it’s a must read. Even if you don’t work in film but appreciate this art form, this will be absolutely fantastic book to read.

این کتاب خوبیه مخصوصا اگر به تدوین علاقه داشته باشین یا نمیدونین اصن تدوین تو سینما چیه و چرا حتی به اندازه کارگردانی و فیلمنامه مهمه خوندش می تونه خیلی مفید باشه.
و خود والتر مرچ هم به شدت تدوین گر خیلی خوبیه مخصوصا خودم تدوین اینک آخرالزمان و جارهد رو خیلی دوست دارم.
درباره تدوین بیمار انگلیسی هم اوایل کتاب زیاد حرف زدن من خودم فیلمش رو هنوز ندیدم ولی گفتگوهاشون برام خیلی جذاب بود.
ایرادی که من به خود کتاب دارم تدوینشه :)))
آخراش دیگه به نظرم خیلی تکراری شده بود و همینطور خسته کننده و می تونست حذفیات زیادی داشته باشه.
به قول برسون با اضافه کردن نمی توان خلق کرد ولی با حذف چرا. :))

I really enjoyed this. It was like getting to eavesdrop on a conversation between two really smart and interesting people. And, while the conversations centered on film editing, they also ranged all over the place from quantum physics to architecture.

Walter Murch is my hero when it comes to editing. He is so talented, and so reflected upon his choices in editing. In this interview - or rather, conversation, his brilliance and talent really shows. His not just an editor - he lives, breathes, and really understands films, how they work, what they can achieve and how they best tell the important point of life.

It's a very fascinating conversation. Both on films and other things as well... definately worth a read.

I loved this book so much! Exhilarating conversation between two great talents that I tried to enthusiastically describe to other people over dinner. It's an enormous treat to anyone interested in film. I ate it up like butter on toast but for some reason I abandoned the last 10 pages for 2 years, which is why it's languished on my reading shelf -- in this stop-motion time of latter pandemic/endless winter I finished it today.

I found this book in a free box in front of my house, but i would have paid lots for it if i came across it in a store. It was quite water-damaged, which is sort of a shame because not only is it full of wise and interesting words but it's really well-designed and appointed with numerous photos and frame grabs from the numerous incredible films that Murch has worked on, illustrating the concepts being talked about.

Basically, anyone who makes films, especially editors, should read this book. It's just so brilliant. Sound editors too, as well as audio artists, would love this book.

Murch is just a genius, and he's able to articulate his genius very lucidly as well.

I really loved this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys the intricacies of filmmaking - for that matter, read this book if you like making stuff, period.

p.xviii – As a writer I have found that the last two years of any book I work on are given over to its editing. I may have spent four or five years writing in the dark, but now I have to discover the shape of the object I have been struggling to make, its true organic shape, that figure in the carpet. I have made two documentary films, and my fictional works tend to follow this structural process: shooting or writing everything for a number of months or years, then shaping the content into a new form, till it is almost a newly discovered story. I move things around till they become sharp and clear, till they are in the right location. And it is at this stage that I discover the work’s true voice and structure.

Hard to believe how brilliant a thinker Murch is. This is the second book I've read by/about him. Discussions on almost all of the landmark films of the 70's that he was a part of. Ondaatje is a very sensitive and astute questioner, too. I wish that Ben Burtt would do something similar.

My co-worker (who majored in film) recommended Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye to me, but while researching that book on here a lot of reviewers seemed to recommend this one instead, since it covers a lot of the same material plus a whole lot more. This book will leave you in awe of Walter Murch, not just as a genius of film and sound editing, but as a true Renaissance man with interests in science, music, poetry, etc. I especially recommend this book to my fellow cartoonist friends, since there's a surprising amount of crossover between editing film and writing and drawing comics. I also recommend reading it in small doses (I read it every day on my lunch break, usually 5-10 pages at a time), so you can soak it all in.

Interesting read, but a bit chaotic in terms of tangents from time to time.