TH E
FELLOW SHI P
THEL M A SCHOONM AKER T H E FEL LOWS H I P Words by Christina Newland Portrait by John Clifford
• Images courtesy of BFI; the recipient;
Barry Z Levine (Woodstock); Brigitte Lacombe (Silence); Martin Scorsese Collection (The Color of Money); Marc Ohrem-LeClef (end portrait)
helma Schoonmaker is a film editor who has adopted a dazzling array of styles and approaches to her craft, from early screen work on the landmark 1970 documentary Woodstock to the present day, as she and Martin Scorsese complete the editing on his latest film, The Irishman (2019). Regardless of decades of technological shifts and sea changes in the film industry, Schoonmaker has remained in a fixed position as one of Scorsese’s longtime and key collaborators, working with him on 22 of his feature films. Following in the wake of Scorsese’s own 2012 Fellowship, Schoonmaker is this year’s deserving recipient of BAFTA’s highest honour. In her collaboration with Scorsese on the editing of his films, she has helped him carry out fresh, innovative ideas, whether in a family film, such as Hugo (2011), The Aviator’s (2004) sweeping epic or the uproariously crude The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Chatting on the phone, Schoonmaker explains: “Scorsese has said that he feels I draw the humanity out in his movies, but he puts it there. It’s just that with the perspective of the editing room – away from the stress of working on a set – I think I can sometimes see things he might have missed.” From 1980 onwards, Schoonmaker has edited every one of Scorsese’s feature films, and she affords the filmmaker a great deal of credit for her own success. She is among the most nominated and lauded film editors in American movie history, so it’s difficult to imagine her as a novice. But when she first began, she says: “Marty was the teacher and I was the student. I knew nothing about editing. Gradually, over time, as I gained more experience, it has become much more of a collaboration.”
T
“FINDING THE SOLUTION CAN BE VERY FRUSTRATING, BUT I NEVER WANT TO GIVE UP... I LOVE SOLVING THE PUZZLE.”
6 2
