On Film Editing

3

Smooth Cutting—The Ideal

Film is a deceptive art—in many ways. Its collaborative nature is axiomatic, yet more than in most art forms, that collaboration is hidden from the audience. In a good film, the whole will always be greater than the sum of its parts. Every honest filmmaker strives to make a film which so enthralls the viewer that he lives and breathes only with the beings on the screen. If that viewer, during his first look at the film, is critically conscious of the sets, the photography, the acting, the director’s “touches,” the “brilliance” of the dialogue or the musical score, the good director knows he has come up short of perfection. A film’s first viewing should evoke emotional, not critical, reaction. Nothing so warms the heart ...