Film Editing Depends on Listening for the Music, Ji.hlava Fest Juror Dominique Auvray Says

variety.com:

Will Tizard Contributor Veteran French editor Dominique Auvray says there’s an essential intuitive element to her work. The woman who created the sound for “Paris, Texas” and cut such films as “No Fear, No Die,” “L’Amour Fou,” and “Hu-Man” says her career has been built around one key ability: Tuning in to your eyes and ears.

Speaking at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival this week, the longtime collaborator with seminal French director and author Marguerite Duras said, “I think the first thing when you are an editor, you have to look and to listen.

And to listen at the same time to your heart and your head. And to listen to the director. And to listen to what the images say, you know.” Auvray says she approached her work on the definitive Duras films “Le Camion,” “Woman of the Ganges” and “Le Navire Night” this way, and is still listening for the rhythm these days as she did when working with director Wang Bing on his new film “Youth,” which screens at Ji.hlava this year. “You just have to wait and to wait until the music of the editing comes to you,” Auvray says. “And if you are a good editor – someone who can look and listen to the music of the images and the sound – you find the film.” She spent long days working closely with Duras, Auvray says, but one additional factor was the director’s affection for rose wine – she felt “a little drink” fit nicely into the editing process but Auvray had to insist on keeping it to one glass.

The 27th edition of the Ji.hlava fest, running till Sunday, is screening a retrospective of 15 Duras films spanning the years 1965-81, including several introduced by Auvray, who is also serving on the jury for the main competition section, Opus Bonum.