Zoetrope; right from The Murch Family Collection Copyright page: right page © Warner Brothers vi from The Everett Collection viii–ix all © American Zoetrope x by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz
Company. All rights reserved/ © Miramax Films xxii–xxiii © American Zoetrope
First Conversation
2 by Kim Aubry © American Zoetrope
7 from the Archive of Modern Conflict
8 © Robert Doisneau/RAPHO
11 from Photofest
12 from Photofest
13 from Photofest
14 by Matthew Robbins/The Murch Family Collection
16–17 © American Zoetrope
18 from Photofest
21 from The Murch Family Collection
22 left from The Murch Family Collection; right from MPTV
23 left from The Murch Family Collection; right by Francis Ford Coppola
24 from Culver pictures
25 © Films du Carrosse/SEDIF
28–29 left to right, courtesy Dede Allen; from
Photofest; The Ronald Grant Archive
30 courtesy of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
31 by Richard Biggs © American Zoetrope
35 from Movie Still Archives
40 courtesy of Michael Ondaatje
42 both © American Zoetrope/Paramount
44 courtesy Walter Murch
48 by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/ © Miramax Films
52 from Photofest
55 by Wayne Miller/Magnum Photos
56 from The Ronald Grant Archives
57 by Mary Ellen Mark
60–61 all © American Zoetrope/Paramount
62 from Photofest
67 both © American Zoetrope/Miramax
71 © American Zoetrope/Paramount
72 by Jacqueline Lopez
75 © American Zoetrope/Miramax Films
76 © American Zoetrope/Miramax Films
78 © American Zoetrope/Paramount
79 © American Zoetrope/Miramax Films
80 © American Zoetrope/Miramax Films
83 top courtesy of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; bottom by Jack Guez © AFP/Corbis
Second Conversation
86 from The Murch Family Collection
93 from SNARK/Art Resource, N.Y.
94–95 from The Library of Congress
96 from Grierson © From The National Film Board of Canada
97 left from Globe Photos; right © American Zoetrope/Paramount
98 © Steve Schapiro
101 from The Murch Family Collection
106 by John R. Neill © William Morrow & Company, Inc.
108 from Photofest
109 from Photofest
111 courtesy of Michael Ondaatje
113 from Photofest
114–115 from Brown Brothers
120 © Paramount Pictures
121 © Paramount Pictures
126 both from The Everett Collection
129 both by Phil Bray © 1988 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved
132–133 both by Phil Bray © 1988 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved
135 top and bottom © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/ © Miramax Films
138–139 courtesy of The Estate of Elizabeth Bishop
143 from Casa Malaparte Foundation Archives
145 from Olympia Publifoto
Third Conversation
150 © American Zoetrope
153 by Kim Aubry © American Zoetrope
158–59 from Globe Photos
161 top from Photofest; bottom from The Kobal Collection
162 from The Everett Collection
167 by Léo Mirkine/from The Murch Family Collection
172 both © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/© Miramax Films
177 left from Ronald Grant Archive; right from Photofest
179 courtesy of Walter Murch
185 © Universal Pictures
187 from Photofest
188 from The Neal Peters Collection
189 from The Lester Glassner Collection/Neal Peters
192 © Universal Pictures
194 both © Universal Pictures
195 left courtesy of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences © Universal Pictures; right from The Everett Collection
198 from Photofest
Fourth Conversation
200 from The Murch Family Collection
205 by Annette Carducci
207 from Photofest
216 from The Everett Collection
218 from Photofest
220 © Warner Seven Arts
221 from Photofest
223 from Photofest
224 from The Murch Family Collection
228 courtesy of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
230 both by Katherine Louise Scott Murch/ from The Murch Family Collection
232 left from The Murch Family Collection; right by Kim Aubry/American Zoetrope
233 left The Radio by Walter Tandy Murch, courtesy of a private collection; right The Lightbulb by Walter Tandy Murch, courtesy of a private collection
234 © Gaumont British
237 courtesy of Walter Murch
238 courtesy of Walter Murch
240–241 courtesy of Walter Murch
243 from The Murch Family Collection
249 both © Paramount
252 from Photofest
253 from The Kobal Collection
254 from Photofest
255 © Paramount
260 © American Zoetrope/Paramount
263 © American Zoetrope
264 © American Zoetrope
273 © Miramax Films
274 by Phil Bray © Miramax Films/MPTV
L ast Conversation
278 by Richard Blanschard/courtesy of Walter Murch
284 by Richard Blanschard/courtesy of Walter Murch
286–287 left by John R. Neill © William Morrow & Company, Inc.; right by Richard Blanschard/courtesy of Walter Murch
288–289 both by Richard Blanschard/courtesy of Walter Murch
291 from The Van Schaick Collection/courtesy of The State Historical Society of Wisconsin
293 left by John R. Neill © William Morrow & Company, Inc.; right top by Richard Blanschard/courtesy of Walter Murch; bottom by Richard Blanschard/from Globe Photos/Rangefinders
295 from The Lebrecht Collection
300 from The Everett Collection
301 left from Photofest; right by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/© Miramax Films
302–303 left from Photofest; center from The Everett Collection; right by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/© Miramax Films/The Neal Peters Collection
311 from the Everett Collection
312 top by Phil Bray © 1988 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/ The Kobal Collection; center row left from Globe Photos; center and left by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/© Mira-max Films; bottom © American Zoetrope
313 top Portrait of Joseph Cornell by Walter Murch from Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Benton; center row left © Warner Brothers; center and right © Metro Tartan/Block2/Paradis/Jet
Tone; bottom from the Everett Collection
314 by Susan Sterner/A.P. Wide World Photos
317 by Susan Sterner/A.P. Wide World Photos
318 top from The Everett Collection; bottom by Phil Bray © 1988 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved
320 top by Annette Carducci; bottom courtesy of Walter Murch
340–341 by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/ © Miramax Films
342 by Phil Bray/Globe Photos/Rangefinders
343 courtesy of Walter Murch
Front Cover
Top row left © Metro Tartan/Block 2/Pa
radis/Jet Tone, right by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/© Miramax Films/The Neal Peters Collection;center row left to right, from The Everett Collection, The Neal Peters Collection, the Ronald Grant Archives; bottom row left from Photofest, right by Phil Bray © 1996 The Saul Zaentz Company. All rights reserved/© Miramax Films/Neal Peters Collection
Back Cover
Top from the Neal Peters Collection; center row left from Photofest, right The Murch Family Collection; bottom row left from Photofest, right © Metro Tartan/Block 2/Paradis/Jet Tone
Spine
Left © Miramax Films, right top from Globe Photos, center The Lester Glassner Collection/Neal Peters, bottom by Annette Carducci
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
La Jetée by Chris Marker, edited by Jean Ravel (1963); The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by Michael Powell, edited by John Seabourne (1943); The Lady Eve by Preston Sturgess, edited by Stuart Gilmore (1941); Les Enfants du Paradis by Marcel Carné, edited by Madeleine Bonin and Henri Rust; The Searchers by John Ford, edited by Jack Murray (1956); The Hustler by Robert Rossen, edited by Dede Allen (1961); Edvard Munch directed and edited by Peter Watkins (1974); The Tree of Wooden Clogs, directed and edited by Ermanno Olmi (1978); Yeelen (Brightness) by Souleymane Cisse, edited by Dounamba Coulibaly (1987); The Grifters by Stephen Frears, edited by Mick Audsley (1990); To Live by Zhang Yimou, edited by Du Yuan (1994); and Ekti Jiban,directed and edited by Raja Mitra (1988).
This is a Borzoi Book Published by Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright © 2002 by Michael Ondaatje
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Material on page xviii is from a conversation between Walter Murch and Michael Ondaatje, hosted by Muriel Murch, on the art of editing in film and literature. The conversation was recorded at KPFA Radio 94.1 FM in Berkeley, California, with recording engineer Jim Bennett. This programme was first aired on KPFA on March 26, 1997. An edited version can be read in Projections 8, published by Faber and Faber, London, 1998.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ondaatje, Michael.
The conversations: Walter Murch and the art of editing film/Michael Ondaatje.—1st ed. p.cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-51817-0
1. Murch, Walter, 1943—Interviews. 2. Motion picture editors—United States—Interviews. 3. Motion pictures—Editing. I. Murch, Walter, date II. Title.
TR849.M86 O53 2002
778.5'35—dc21
2002021526
v3.0