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Martin Scorsese's long-time editor talked Raging Bull, the move to digital and the art of cutting while at the Venice Film Festival where she has picked up a lifetime honour.
Thelma Schoonmaker, the acclaimed long-time editor for Martin Scorsese, has now added another recognition to her long list of wins and nominations -- she was awarded Tuesday with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 71st Venice Film Festival.Schoonmaker said at yesterday's press conference that she thinks editing can still be a misunderstood art -- she noted it is much easier to understand lighting, camerawork, acting, set design and costumes than editing. Still, she does not like to think of it as an invisible art because "we like to slap the audience in the face sometimes with a cut that really is not invisible".Schoonmaker said she has noticed recently that editing has gained more recognition "because people are beginning to understand how important it is to filmmaking," perhaps because they are dabbling in editing at home and they understand how hard it is."It's very hard to describe it," she says of learning the craft. "You would have to sit in the room with us and you would be very bored but it's mysterious because it's very creative and I think it's the best job in the world."It was while on a six-week course at NYU that she was introduced to Scorsese. "Someone had cut his negative incorrectly and [I] was the only person who knew how to maybe fix that," she recalled of the start of their 50-year working relationship. "I had no idea I would become a film editor. He taught me everything I know and once I was introduced to it, I became addicted, of course, like most filmmakers," she...