That’s great.
FB: And from that time on, it was great. And you know, it was the same with Cimino. I didn’t know him.
TO: Okay. You first worked with him on The Year of the Dragon and then The Sicilian.
FB: Yes. And I wanted to see at least one set of dailies with him.
TO: And another thing that I wanted to bring up is that these films were after Heaven’s Gate and there was a lot riding on these films for him and there must have been some pressure.
FB: When I arrived in New York, he had shot Year of the Dragon in Vancouver. So there were already 70 reels of dailies.
TO: Okay, so I always try to figure a minimum of nine minutes out of a ten-minute roll. So that’s at least 630 minutes.
FB: Yes, but that was just for two weeks! (Both Laugh)
TO: God bless you!
FB: Yes. (Both Laugh) So I asked Michael if we could look at one scene together. And the next day he said he didn’t have any time and that I should move out to Wilmington to start working.
TO: Okay, this was Wilmington, North Carolina. He was shooting in Vancouver but they were going to use the soundstages in North Carolina.
FB: Yes. And that was the first film where I was just in the States by myself. And then I started hearing all these stories about the editors on Heaven’s Gate.
TO: And you thought, ‘What have I gotten into?’
FB: What have I gotten into? Yes! (Both Laugh) And then Michael says, ‘You go and start editing.’ So, I started and the continuity girl was fabulous. And for every shot, I would have one page and she had written, ‘Michael likes the reading of that sentence, he likes that, he doesn’t like that.’ So I thought, ‘Well, I may as well edit the way I like it, and then we’ll see.’ So, he arrived in Wilmington and I wanted to show him some cut scenes. And he said, ‘Oh, there’s no hurry.’ I thought, ‘He’s postponing! Maybe he’s going to send me back home!’ (Both Laugh)
TO: He probably just wanted to postpone!
FB: Yes. And almost every night I was having dinner with Michael and I asked him when he was going to come and see. And this time I told him that he had to come. So he said, ‘Fine, I’ll come tonight.’ He arrived with ten people around him, sits at the KEM and I showed him a ten-minute reel. He looked at it and didn’t say anything. And then he went back, full speed, and looked at it again. And then he said, ‘How long did it take you to cut that scene?’ I said, ‘This one, three or four days.’ And he turned to all the other people and said, ‘It’s great. It’s great.’
TO: What films did you work on that you thought should have done better?
FB: I mean, the one, to me, is Across the Universe. Because everyone who has seen it calls me. Because I was sure it would have been universal. The Beatles. I just don’t understand why Sony just didn’t do anything to market it.
TO: What have you learned during your editing career that wasn’t so apparent when you started?
FB: The amount of hours. Very often, the non-recognition of what you bring to a film.
TO: Okay, Missing. Critically acclaimed when it came out. Hey, look at this: it opened tomorrow, a day after we’re talking now.
FB: Missing, to me—I mean the performance of Jack Lemmon was so great…
TO: They’re in the stadium, he has a pipe and his voice hitches, it breaks, it cracks. It’s remarkable.
FB: He’s absolutely, really, extraordinary.
TO: I learned that the film was smuggled into Chile so that people could see it. Which is amazing.
FB: It remains a remarkable film. And I think it also helped Americans because it told the story through the eyes of just an ordinary, American middle-class family. And I thought it was such an intelligent way of telling the story.
TO: And this was 16 years before the truth finally was revealed to the world about these thousands and thousands of people who had gone missing.
FB: Yes.
TO: The gunshots that you hear in the distance on Missing are almost a character in the film. They’re ominous.
FB: Yes.
TO: And you don’t have to hear a lot of them.
FB: No.
TO: Sometimes they sound far away. Sometimes they’re a little closer. And as a viewer, you dread hearing those as do the people on the screen.
FB: The woman (Michèle Boëhm) who was doing the effects for Costa was a great sound editor. She worked on many of his films, going back to Z.
TO: We haven’t talked about Frida.
FB: Yes, I loved it. When I was in Mexico with Costa for Missing, I had seen paintings from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, so I knew about her. So when Julie said she was going to do the film, I was thrilled. She shot in Mexico and even in the (Frida Kahlo) museum. You know, with Julie I did two films about Shakespeare—Titus and The Tempest.
TO: You’ve worked with her four times.
FB: I think she’s a remarkable person and she is so creative. Titus was her first film and it’s just amazing the imagination she has. The visual style is amazing.
TO: Why do you keep editing?
FB: Because I still love doing it. Because I’m probably good at it—yes, I think I’m good at it! (Both Laugh) I still do it will passion. If I didn’t, I would stop.
David Brenner
Los Angeles, California
Partial Credits: Justice League, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Escobar: Paradise Lost, 300: Rise of an Empire, Man of Steel, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 2012, Wanted, The Patriot, Independence Day, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July, Talk Radio.
One of the most important things that David talks about is how persistence is key to a prosperous career in editing. It’s a lesson in the lows and highs of the profession. While he thought it would be hard to talk about editing, he did a marvelous job of relating what it is like to be one of the top editors working today.
TO: David, you are an Academy Award recipient for your work on Born on the Fourth of July. How did you get your start in the film business?
DB: I got out of college and I knew that I wanted to be in film, somehow. I was at Stanford, but it didn’t have a great film program at that time. So I applied to USC and UCLA but I didn’t have
