Murch

Starring: Walter Murch

Directed by: Edie and David Ichioka

Distributor: Studio Ichioka LLC

Rated: NR

Note: Murch will be screened during the Milwaukee International Film Festival, September 20 – 30 at various venues. Disclosure: Russ Bickerstaff is a member of the festival’s jury.

Nestled into MIFF’s international cinema lineup this year is a little documentary about a film editor. With so many screenings from which to choose, it may seem like an odd choice to go see an editor talk about film for a little less than 90 minutes, but Murch is much more than a film school lecture.

The film takes a conversational approach to documentary. Murch, dressed in a black turtleneck, is seated on a couch surrounded by white walls. He has neat, sparse grey hair and a close-cropped silvery beard. His voice slowly washes over the film as he expresses a casual intellectual passion for an often-overlooked aspect of filmmaking. Slowly, insight begins to fill in around the edges of Murch’s monologue, reaching into fascinating conceptual acuity on the nature of physics, linguistics, biology and existential philosophy. Murch’s words cover everything from dream therapy to molecular dynamics to steroid use in professional sports and the curiously misleading nature of the blinking of an eye. This is truly fascinating stuff.

Filmmakers Edie and David Ichioka present Murch with inspired clarity as he flits through thoughts in self-aware jump cuts. The documentary includes clips of films that Murch has worked on over the years, including Apocalypse Now, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and numerous others. Although the clips add depth and prevent it from being an extended university-style lecture, they aren’t always completely in tune with what he’s saying, often breaking the rhythm of Murch’s thoughts and scattering the central focus.

In the course of the film’s brief journey across the screen, we get delicious little details about some film classics. Murch casually recalls the meeting of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola and the subsequent creation of Zoetrope Studios; Apocalypse Now was originally envisioned as a film that would only play on one screen at the geographical center of the country; there was some concern over producer Bob Evans’ reaction to the final cut of the horse’s head scene in The Godfather that ultimately resulted in a strikingly surreal moment.

The flow of ideas through the film, though, lacks a solid central focus. Concepts and recollections run throughout at odd angles. While the structure of the film may not always make logical sense, the overall mood is carried with grace. This is a film deeply in love with cinema and it passionately carries that love to the screen. VS