Faccio la montatrice video da anni, ho letto il libro probabilmente importante di Murch, In un batter d'occhi, eppure queste conversazioni le ho trovate illuminanti. Il modo in cui ogni taglio di un'immagine assume un significato diverso, a seconda del respiro, della pausa o della virgola nel dialogo pronunciato, del battito della palpebre, ti fa riflettere su quanto ogni elemento di un film sia imprescindibile dal resto. Tutto si muove in sinergia, come in una perfetta sinfonia. E questo libro non è interessante solo per chi, come me, svolge questa professione ma soprattutto per chi ama il cinema e la sua filosofia. Un testo ricco di aneddoti, spunti, dietro le quinte dei film più importanti e famosi della storia del cinema.

“A film is born three times—in the writing of the script, in the shooting, and in the editing.”

Walter Murch is a real renaissance man, as interested in art, philosophy, and science as he is in film. I could listen to him all day.

still the finest words on editing i've eyeballed

Very enjoyable book giving considerable insights in the work of a film and sound editor. Murch has always been an innovative artist, and the book is full of the ways in which he's added to the value of a movie by his work. There's detail about specific approaches to problems, and as well as a breadth of vision in regard to moviemaking as a whole. Ondaatje contributes his own thinking about creative work, so there is a real conversation rather than a question and answer book.
Murch has also been involved in restoration work on two major movies: Orson Welles' A Touch of Evil, and Coppola's Apocalypse Now, a film he'd also worked on, in part, when it was first edited. The fortuitous discovery of a 58 page memo from Welles allowed Murch to 'remake' the movie as Welles had intended, added substantially to its already considerable lustre. With Apocalypse Now, a film that was also chopped about when first released because of its length, Murch was able to go back and insert material that added to the overall impact of the movie, and which improves the insights into the characters, especially Brando's Kurtz.
But there's much more in this book: Murch is a man with a wide-ranging knowledge of all sorts of things beyond moviemaking.