Mark Helfrich is basically Brett Ratner’s personal film editor, but for today let’s forget the negatives and focus on the positives as Helfrich guides us through this year’s Best Film Editing nominees, which means There Will be Blood, Into the Wild, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and No Country for Old Men.
Unfortunately the first two explanations are a little boring, but the final three are very interesting.
However, perhaps the best part comes at the end when Helfrich says, “The better directed a film is, the easier it is to edit. I often wonder why they don’t give Best Editing awards to those editors who save films in the editing room. [Those that] take really horrible footage and end up with something tolerable or even good. Those are the real heroes of the editing room.” Hmmm, could he be talking about himself and the last nine Ratner films he edited? I just think that is quite the coincidence considering he has edited all but one of Ratner’s feature films, and Ratner is something of a… hack?
Outside of Ratner flicks, Helfrich has edited Predator, The Last Boy Scout, Showgirls and Scary Movie. Damn, he really has a sketchy filmography eh?
Bourne won the Oscar if you were wondering as you are watching, even though The Diving Bell and the Butterfly should have won (at least I thought so).
