Using a technically oriented approach, focusing as much on the tools and gestures as on the accompanying discourses, this book aims to show how a series of assembling operations ended up constituting an autonomous phase of the post-production process of so-called silent films. Scattered both in the chronology and in the space of this process, this set of practices and procedures acquired different values and statuses over the years, which crystallized, before its conceptualization, in the notion of editing.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Hervé de Luze
Preface by Walter Murch
Introduction: Assemblage contre montage Assembling versus Editing
Chapter 1: Raccomoder et rapiécer Stitching and Patching
Chapter 2: Abouter et coupler Abbutting and Coupling
Chapter 3: Truquer et raccorder Tricking and Matching
Chapter 4: Accumuler et élaguer Accumulating and Pruning
Chapter 5: Alterner et inter(s)caler Crossing and Inter(s)calating
Chapter 6: Ordonner et (encore) raccorder Ordering and (Again) Matching
Conclusion: Montage contre assemblage Editing versus Assembling
Reviews by Domitor Members
“Going beyond the exemplary case of an Eisenstein or a Griffith, this innovative and unique book describes the multiple forms of cutting and pasting that have shaped the practice of film editing. How did it all begin? This book gives the key to the mystery!” (Tom Gunning)
“A huge leap forward in research, which challenges the idea of the “invention” of film editing and opens new perspectives for young researchers in film history and theory.” (Jane Gaines)
“Unexpected, if not unhoped-for, but now necessary, Gaudreault and Le Forestier’s book renews the question of cinema editing by the extent of its historical and technical documentation and by the taxonomy it draws from it.” (François Albera)
