Academy Award winning editor Walter Murch, whose film credits include the acclaimed re-edit of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, details his craft in an upcoming book Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design.
Coming July 15 from publisher Faber & Faber, the 368-page hardcover is billed a a masterclass on movies and how they are made by the triple-Oscar winner of the Godfather films, Apocalypse Now and The English Patient.
Together with Francis Coppola and George Lucas, Murch abandoned Hollywood in 1969 and moved to San Francisco to create the Zoetrope studio. Their vision was of a new kind of cinema for a new generation of film-goers. Murch’s subsequent contributions in film editing rooms and sound-mixing theaters were responsible for ground-breaking technical and creative innovations.
Working with producer Rick Schmidlin; Bob O’Neil, Universal Pictures’ director of film restoration; and Bill Varney, Universal’s vice president of sound operations, Murch was a key figure in the much-lauded restoration of Touch of Evil in 1998.
In Suddenly Something Clicked, Murch discusses the re-edit of the 1958 film.
Universal Pictures had yanked Touch Of Evil from Welles and made significant changes. Welles objected and wrote a 58-page memo outlining his objections and suggested alterations, which the studio ignored. Murch was hired to re-edit the film based on the memo and to restore it to something closer what Welles conceived. In Suddenly Something Clicked, Murch not only details the changes that were made, but quotes from the Welles memo.
The publisher states that in Suddenly Something Clicked “Murch invites readers on a voyage of discovery through film, with a mixture of personal stories, meditations on his own creative tactics and strategies, and reminiscences from working on The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, Lucas’ American Graffiti, and Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley. Suddenly Something Clicked is a book that will change the way you watch movies.”
According to Pro Video Coalition, Murch, 81, started compiling notes for Suddenly Something Clicked a dozen years ago, but sat down seriously to write it during the COVID-19 pandemic. His endeavor ultimately ran long and was split into two books.
Suddenly Something Clicked is the first stage, covering picture and sound post-production. A second book on writing, casting, direction, production, cinema aesthetics, and philosophy will be published at a later date.