The Making of a Motion Picture Editor. Thomas A. Ohanian
and that I could splice. But most of the things they asked me about I had no idea what they were, let alone do them! (Both Laugh) But I said yes to all of them. And it’s a bit of advice that I give to students always. I say, ‘If you’ve got confidence in yourself, say yes, and then find out’. And hope for the best!
TO: Sure.
AC: I went to friends of mine who were in proper cutting rooms and spent two weeks with them, learning the routine and that sort of thing. And then I reported to work.
TO: That’s great.
AC: I had gotten the job and an amazing thing happened. It was a film called The End of the River, being produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. I was mostly splicing and hanging up trims. And apparently Michael and Emeric didn’t like the job the editor was doing, so they gave the film to their top editor, who was cutting The Red Shoes—Reggie Mills. Reggie didn’t want to use the first assistant. He said, ‘No, send Anne up with the film’. So, there I was on my very first picture, working with one of the very best editors.
TO: That’s amazing.
AC: Yes, it was amazingly interesting. I wish I were a little more experienced—I would have learned more than I did, but I learned a lot. And I also had the opportunity of helping out on The Red Shoes with some of the splicing and syncing of their dailies. And I got to spend time on the floor watching Mickey (Michael Powell) directing, which was very interesting. And I was very, very lucky because within about five years I was editing. I did a few jobs as a first assistant and then I got a break on a live action Robin Hood that Disney was making.
TO: Okay, so that was The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, directed by Ken Annakin.
AC: Yes. I was cutting the second unit because the editor couldn’t keep up with two units and they liked what I did. And I did some cutting and then went back and was an assistant again.
TO: So, constantly back and forth…
AC: Yes, exactly. I always thought that it was more important to keep working. And then I was working with my friend, Clive Donner, and he was offered Pickwick Papers, but he couldn’t do it. I knew the producer and said to him, ‘Why don’t you put me up for it?’
TO: This was going to be your first feature as a full editor…
AC: Right. So I went for an interview with Noel Langley, who was a first-time director. You know, there’s a lot of luck in not only getting your first feature but also beyond and being in the right place at the right time. It usually works out. Only once in my life have I been offered two really top pictures at the same time. And I think I made the right choice.
TO: I can’t wait for you to tell me.
AC: One was Lolita with Stanley Kubrick and the other was Lawrence of Arabia.
TO: I had no idea…
AC: Yeah. You know, it was funny at that time because Kubrick was a red-hot director. And I was quite tempted.
TO: How did you decide?
AC: My husband said, ‘You can’t even dream of not working with David Lean if he wants you!’ (Laughs) And you know, a funny thing happened. And I haven’t actually told this story before because it only just happened the other day. I was turning out some paperwork here, and I came across some old letters. And one started, “Dear Mr. Spiegel, I’m afraid that I can’t cut Lawrence of Arabia because you’re not offering enough money.” Now it wasn’t worded exactly like that, but I did explain at length that I wasn’t going to work for that kind of money on a film that was going to be working day and night, etc. “Thank you very much. Goodbye.”
TO: That’s amazing.
AC: But the interesting thing is that, because I have it, I never sent it! (Both Laugh) Because if I had sent it, my life might have been totally different! (Both Laugh)
TO: Yeah.
AC: But I know why I didn’t send it when I think about it. I’m sure my husband said, ‘Don’t you dare send that letter!’ (Laughs) But, you know, I was so angry and we were negotiating and they were offering so little money. And typical me—to leap into that without stopping to think…
TO: But it was David Lean. Coming off of The Bridge on the River Kwai…
AC: Yes, but it’s funny. If I had of sent it, it wouldn’t have happened. So, I’m going to give it to the Academy museum.
TO: What a great story. (Both Laugh)
AC: Yeah and I just found it and remembered the story. I haven’t really told it before.
TO: Thanks for telling me. So much has been written about Lawrence that can be found in many books and documentaries. And because I didn’t want to ask you a question that you’ve probably answered hundreds of time, one of the things I’ve wanted to ask you is that when you look at this body of work that you have been involved with, what stands out?
AC: Well, I don’t know if there are moments that stand out—it’s the whole film. After David finished shooting it, we had 16 weeks before the Queen saw it. Which as you know, being an editor, 16 weeks to finish a film that’s three hours and forty minutes? I had the whole picture cut except for the last battle scene, which David was still shooting. He came off the battle scene and straight into the cutting room. And we were working day and night to get the film ready. Seven days a week, 16 to 17 hours a day. And sometimes I think that if we had more time we may have done some things differently. So, we finished the film and everybody’s consensus was that it was a great film, but it was too long. After we had shown it to the Queen, I went back with David and we cut out about 15 minutes from it. And I think I was even more upset than David was about that because I thought all the scenes were great and very beautiful.
TO: Was it overwhelming to get all that material?
AC: The difficulty was that I could make another film out of the outtakes! (Both Laugh) We had such beautiful stuff. The mirage work was amazing. In fact, we cut one of the mirage sequences out just before we finished it.
TO: Was that difficult?
AC: You know, David… I so admired him. He was so brave with taking stuff out. Much more than me and he taught me two or three things about editing that were invaluable. Things like holding shots and visualizing them with music and all sorts of things like that. Whereas I would have been chopping it down a bit more I think. He also taught me to have the courage of my conviction. He said, ‘If you think you’re right, say it! Work on it and show people what you think. And always follow your own truth and be truthful about what you do.’
TO: It’s interesting that when you watch documentaries about filmmaking almost always there is the clip of the match. I watched one the other day on the magic of film editing and of course it was right there. It has taken on such an iconic status in our little world of film editing.
AC: (Laughs) I know! I don’t know why. One of my children said to me the other day, ‘Mum, why is that cut so famous?’ (Laughs) I mean, I couldn’t explain why. Some journalist from Australia rang me up at three o’clock in the morning once to ask me what I was thinking when I did it! (Both Laugh) Ten years later!
TO: That’s hilarious.
AC: I can’t put my finger on the magic of that, really.
TO: A captured moment in a film full of them.
AC: I’ll tell you an interesting thing about it that I’ve thought about since that I didn’t at the time. I was cutting on a 35mm Cinemascope print and because the film was butted together and just had the crayon marks on it where the dissolve was going to be. And when we took it into the theatre, we saw the cut going from the match blowing to the sunrise.
TO: It was going to be a dissolve instead of that cut…
AC: Yes, and we would never have done that had it been on digital because we’d have done the dissolve in the machine, probably, and never really looked at