.jpeg)
Of the record-setting four Oscars producer-director-writer-editor Sean Baker won for Anora, the one for editing may be the most significant. Though they get little notice from moviegoers, film editors are the ones who shape a movie's pace and mood and tone, and often the ones who accomplish the director's vision, which is why so many great directors choose to work with the same editor on every film, as Steven Spielberg does with Michael Kahn or Martin Scorsese with Thelma Schoonmaker. If they can, directors often edit themselves, as Joel and Ethan Coen do under the nom de moviola Roderick Jaynes. Anora is the kind of movie that needs the right editor. It's a comedy with elements of slapstick and screwball and a soupçon of rom-com thrown in, but it has dark edges. Too much violence or wackiness or mush or realism and it could go sour. It's also a movie with the right texture, achieved by elements that don't need to be there, like the Coney Island candy shop that plays only a passing role in the plot but adds a sweet little offbeat flavor to the film. To appreciate the way Baker plays with tone in both directing and editing, watch the character of Igor (Yura Borisov), who seems at first to be just another thug, hired muscle to bring Mikey Madison's Anora into line. But Baker manages to insert Igor into the frame just often enough and subtly enough to build him into a character with an essential role at the film's end. If Anora isn't a great movie -- there's nothing of moral or intellectual importance about it -- it does the right thing often enough to qualify it as an exemplary one.
No comments:
Post a Comment