The Invisible Cut
Page 19
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In the sequence just described (Frame grabs #7 to #16), the editor creates a brilliantly constructed series of shots that show both Matty’s sexual manipulation and Ned’s mounting frustration. She does this by developing a pattern of intercutting among three perspectives: Ned’s POV of Matty from the outside looking in, Matty’s POV of Ned from the inside looking out, and interior shots of Matty. What’s amazing, though, is that this sequence was not the result of pre-planning, but instead of plans gone awry:
CL: There was definitely a plan to boom down on him [Frame grabs #1 and #2] a nd have him come forward [Frame grab #6], but the rest of the scene with Matty when he returns to the house [starting at the end of the shot with Frame grab #6] was largely constructed, reconstructed, and rethought out because of the camera problem.… This particular sequence was not intended to be cut this way at all.
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BO: Can you explain?
CL: When this was done back in 1980-81, the Steadicam was a new piece of equipment that wasn’t yet very reliable… sometimes it would work, and sometimes it wouldn’t. We got the dailies of Bill Hurt [Ned] from the outside, the angle going into the house, where he’s pacing back and forth [Frame grabs #10 and #12] and sees Matty Walker on the other side of this front door with the little panes of glass. [Frame grab #7] And he walked back and forth several times and he stopped, picked up the chair and smashed through. [Frame grab #16].
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[But] when we got the dailies the lab called (Technicolor here in New York), they said, “Half of it’s streaking, there’s no image.” I said, “Well, ship what you’ve got, we’ll look at it in the dailies and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do…” I knew that once we wrapped that location — and we were within a day or so of wrapping it — we were never going to be able to go back, because the wrecking ball was coming right away to destroy part or all of the house. The ground under the house where we were shooting had turned into a sinkhole. So I looked at everything and told Larry, “I’m going to take the parts of the takes that we’ve got that work and just string them together, and we’ll look at that in dailies.” So I just cut them together, all of that angle, and we had enough to get him to A to B to C, but there was not one complete take that we could use. [The director’s] idea of being behind Bill [Ned] over his shoulder and literally going with him… having it be a moment that was seen largely from his POV, wasn’t going to happen, so we had to figure out a way that we could cut the pieces together. That meant we were going to have to do the reverses [reverse angles], but we were scheduled to get out of this house. We talked it over with [producer] Fred Gallo and the first AD [assistant director] Michael
Grillo and we said, “Let’s just take the windows and doors and set decorating back to L.A., we’ll figure out which shots we need; we’ll shoot them in L.A. and then put this sequence together there.” This is one of the last sequences that went together because we had that problem. We got these extra shots of Matty, different sizes of Matty, because we were just going to be shooting across Ned, through the window seeing her.
BO: You’re talking about Frame grabs #9, #14, and #17.
CL: We had a medium shot [Frame grab #9] and close-ups [Frame grabs #14 and #17] of her standing inside, yeah. Those were shot after we knew we had a camera problem.
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BO: As well as the shots of Ned from her POV [Frame grabs #8, #11, #13, and #15]
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BO: So if you hadn’t had a camera problem, the entire sequence where he’s pacing outside the house would have basically been one shot.
CL: Essentially a Steadicam shot from Ned’s point of view… we didn’t have anything to cut away to.
BO: You were just going to have that moving camera stay on him until he moves through the doorway towards Matty [Frame grab #18].
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CL: Then he grabs her [at the end of the same shot: Frame grab #19] .
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The Steadicam stopped there… The rest of these [Frame grabs #20 through #29] were shot in the house, the scene that came right after he breaks through.
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BO: A movie critic could look at that sequence and say, the filmmakers’ conception was brilliant, the way they intercut those shots of him pacing outside, her looking at him, then his looking at her as if he’s a caged animal. Don’t you feel that it is a better scene because of the camera problem?
CL: I think so, I really do. And who knows, if we ever had a complete Steadicam shot to look at, whether we would’ve seen that it didn’t work.… I do think it wouldn’t have been as much fun.
BO: It’s also more stylized and in keeping with the film noir genre. It’s movie time: that she’s just standing there like a gilded bird, waiting.…
CL: Waiting for him to do something. He’s not going to open the door.
BO: I can see a little mismatch from the reshoots: In the medium shot of her inside (Frame grab #9), she’s standing away from the stairs at the bottom of the railing, which doesn’t match with where she stands in the Steadicam shots shown in Frame grabs #16 and #18. Also, there is no curtain on the door in the Steadicam shot shown in Frame grab #16, but there is in the re-shoot shown in Frame grab #15.
CL: There are a lot of mismatches in Body Heat.
BO: But, of course, this is all working beautifully, so the audience never notices.
The dramatic peak of the scene, when Ned smashes the glass, is augmented by the editor’s use of sound. Up until now, the editor allowed the sound of the chimes to play under the action, but once Ned crashes through the door, the pressure inside his head is released and the chimes stop. That’s when the real passion — and the swelling music — takes over and the score continues to play for the rest of the scene. When Ned does finally break that glass (Frame grab #16), the obvious editing choice would have been to stay on Ned as he moves into the house. Instead, the editor cuts back to the same close shot of Matty she used in Frame grab #14. Only this time, in Frame grab #17, Matty’s mouth is parted and she looks aroused. This shot reveals that Ned’s forcing his way in and aggressively “taking her” is a complete turn-on to Matty — and to the women in the audience!
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BO: You could have stayed on that Steadicam shot that followed him inside, but right in the middle of it, you cut again to that close shot of her, this time showing her more excited, looking almost orgasmic. I home in on Frame grab #17, because I think it’s such an editing moment that clearly reveals a female sensibility.
CL: It’s the take when she gasps; yes, I do remember putting that together there. That was her biggest reaction of the shots we had of her.
BO: I think it’s very much a female fantasy, the excitement of being taken, somewhat violently, when Ned smashes through — and guys would not necessarily pick up that.
CL: That’s true.
Then the editor cuts back to the shot of Ned continuing to enter the house (the “in” frame is Frame grab #18). She stays with this dizzying, handheld camera move until Ned grabs her, kisses her and she kisses him back, to show that she is least as much the aggressor as he is (the “out” frame of this shot is Frame grab #19).
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The first shot the editor uses after the kiss is of Matty taking the
initiative again by running her hands down his back and grasping it (the “in” frame is Frame grab #20).
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The next two shots are examples of the film’s playful, contrived choreography — and how it underlines Matty’s “look at me” posing and manipulation. Frame grab #21 is the “out” frame of a shot where Matty pulls away from kissing Ned and flings her body around so her back is up against him, wanting him to look at her.
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The editor milks that moment by cutting to the more distant angle of the same “look at me” pose (the “in” frame is Frame grab #22).
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The editor holds on this shot to show him rub her breasts and then run his hands down between her legs (Frame grab#23).
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CL: What’s really suggestive and unbelievably seductive in my mind is the angle shown in [Frame grab] #22 and #23..
BO: Why?
CL: I guess because first of all, that angle is amazing, you get her long legs, her long torso — there’s something that’s very dangerous, like sex is dangerous.… You don’t know that it’s a setup but you know that this guy is in her house —not that the husband can come home anytime, I don’t mean that — but they both step way over the line, and you know that the rest of the movie is going to be downhill from here. But the danger… and sex are kind of marvelous together.
BO: It is also intriguing because of the way she presents herself to him.
CL: Yeah, I think so. I think because it’s just a very staged moment, but it also says so much about both of them.
BO: His voyeurism and her narcissism.
CL: Yes, and [Frame grab] #22 and #23 is a total noir shot shooting up at the ceiling; it has a big Dutched angle [in which the camera is tilted] that’s an incredibly beautiful Germanic noir, really expressionistic shot. We were seduced by the movie, too, and [the actors] were so beautiful.
BO: You definitely held our attention in that shot.
CL: We held on that shot a long time because he fondles her.
BO: I thought that could have been a difficult cut to make, from Frame grab #21 to #22, to a more distant shot of the same angle.
CL: Oh yes, absolutely. I just knew that their action had to match. You really had to use movement to pull that off.
BO: Did the director intend those two [Frame grabs #21 and #22] to be cut together?
CL: [It was] my choice. Obviously when they come in, he grabs her, they kiss, this follows a progression and then the hands down the back [Frame grab #20] and [Frame grabs #] 21 and 22, these were takes that were taken all the way through, and the action’s the same. If we were talking about whatever scene number this is, this [the above-mentioned frame grabs] would probably be an A, B, and C angle.
The editor cuts back and forth to more shots of them kissing, her kissing his chest, his hiking up her skirt and sliding his hand under her panties. She then pulls away and initiates another “look at me” move by lying down and hiking up her skirt; but we only see her from the waist up. Then the editor cuts to a distant shot, a reflection from the glass door of Ned sliding Matty’s panties off her knees (the “out” frame is Frame grab #24). The next reverse shot (the “in” frame is Frame grab #25) implies Ned’s continuing to remove the panties by the movement of his arms and her legs.
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CL: The reflection of the action in the windows [Frame grab #] 24, showing both of them on the floor, is the most voyeuristic of all of them. It’s the most graphic, in the sense of graphic design of a shot. The framing of the door, the framing of their action, the frame within a frame.… The most we ever see, really is in [Frame grab #] 24 and whose point of view is it? It’s ours. It’s a real Peeping Tom shot. We’re showing her actually disrobing in the beginning of actual lovemaking in that shot rather than showing it literally, which might have been in [Frame grab #] 25. They shot all the way through in [Frame grab #] 24 and [Frame grab #] 25, but there was definitive selection not to show too much in [Frame grab #] 25. You’re not going to show literally what’s happening.
BO: So there was more graphic footage at the end of that shot [Frame grab #] 25?
CL: It was simulated, but yeah.…
BO: So by cutting away to the panties.…
CL: You’re staying away from the action.
The next cut (Frame grab #26) is to a shot of Ned’s hand dropping her panties onto the floor.
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CL: There’s one shot I would have to say, number [Frame grab #] 26, that I did not want in the movie. I did not like the panties going down, [but] Larry loved it; he said it’s a guy thing, gotta leave it in. I just really didn’t like that.
BO: Because everything else was more implied.
CL: And this was very, very specific. Yeah, he found that to be irresistible.
BO: I guess the panty shot represents more of a guy’s fantasy. What would you have cut to instead of the panties?
CL: I would have just cut to her face.
After the shot of the panties, the editor cuts to a close-up of Matty looking very turned on (Frame grab #27). She then cuts to a close-up of Ned lustfully looking at what he’s just undressed, shown in Frame grab #28). The fact that the audience, once again, doesn’t see her from the waist down but only imagines what Ned is seeing, is another example of the editor’s feminine touch — and the power of suggestion.
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The editor then cuts to the climactic shot: a theatrically-posed high angle shooting down on Matty, her arms and hair dramatically splayed out on the floor (the “in” frame is Frame grab #29). In this shot, Matty is again only seen only from the waist up.
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BO: Did you worry about Frame grab 29?
CL: Yeah, it’s a little posey. I worried about her hair being laid out that much. I tried taking that out. He [the director] didn’t like it, but we would’ve had to go from [Frame grab #] 28 [Ned’s close-up] to the headboard and that’s not right.
After Ned moves on top of her, the shot dissolves to the headboard of her bed.
BO: Did you shorten the beginning of that high shot so you wouldn’t have too much of that theatrical pose?
CL: Yeah.…
BO: Was there any discussion with the director about this foreplay sequence?
CL: I think it was one of those cases where we really needed to see how the film played from the beginning down to this point and this is one of the last things that I cut, so when Larry and I were looking at it one of the first things we saw was, oh whoa, this is way too long. I think that the part where the scene got too long was starting with [Frame grab #] 19 through to the end. I used all the angles, but basically [less] of each shot… and the action was just shortened quite a lot.
BO: When the director hired you, it must have been a plus that you’re not only a woman but also a musician, that you’re more sophisticated about music than most editors.
CL: It was just a lucky coincidence.… When it came time for us to talk about a composer, I strongly recommended John Barry. Larry wanted the film to be as close to the film noir genre as possible, and we knew we needed to have some kind of a jazz score for that, not only because of the steamy and sexual suggestion, but it needed to be evocative of a time when jazz was used a lot in Hollywood scores.… I think one of the biggest contributions to the film was John Barry’s score.
BO: You also have a unique perspective on the connection between music and dialogue.
CL: When I’m editing I would have to say that I’m very aware of the musicality of the language, and I don’t disrupt it, if it’s working well, especially with writer-directors [who] have a strong identification with the language. For instance, in Body Heat , the language itself is seductive because it’s hyper-stylized, and he [the director] used it and didn’t shy away from it. It was absolutely laid out there. He didn’t know if an audience was going to laugh when th
ey heard that arch dialogue or not. But I felt that if we’re going all the way, I have to embrace that language.
BO: How did the audience react to this scene when you previewed it? Could you hear a pin drop?