Books on Cinema

Walter Murch is one of the most respected film editors and sound designers, one of New Hollywod's central figures, having worked with Francis Ford Coppola in, for example  The Conversation  (1974)   and  Apocalypse Now  (1979) and George Lucas in  THX 1138   (1971) and  American Graffiti  (1973), in addition to having taken part in the restoration of Orson Welles's  Touch of Evil  from the notes that he had sent to Universal. He also edited The English Patient (1996) an adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's famous novel. During several years, Murch and Ondaatje reunited for a series of interviews in which both discussed their crafts and the similarities they observed in editing and literature. Those interviews were collected in The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film . In it, Murch comments some of the scenes in certain films that he worked, and shows an enviable knowledge of painting, music, among other arts an...

Walter Murch is one of the most respected film editors and sound designers, one of New Hollywod's central figures, having worked with Francis Ford Coppola in The Rain People (1969), The Godfather  (1972), The Conversation (1974)   and  Apocalypse Now (1979) and George Lucas in THX 1138   (1971) and American Graffiti (1973), in addition to having taken part in the restoration of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil from the notes that he had sent to Universal. His book In the Blink of the Eye is both pertinent to pen and camera artists, to readers and audiences. In it, Murch exposes his philosophy of editing, his set of thoughts on how to find the identity of a film from a series of chaotic excerpts when the screenplay does not provide all the answers, how small details (one shot before another) can change the direction of the scene and, consequently, the audience's response to it. Full of analogies that show what kind of editing problems can arise and what are...