State of Cinema Address: Walter Murch
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Each year, the Film Society invites a well-known public figure to talk about the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema and visual arts, culture and society, images and ideas. This year, acclaimed film editor, sound designer, intellectual maverick and nine-time Academy Award–nominee Walter Murch will deliver a fascinating reading on the cultural origins of cinema in the 19th century, with special consideration paid to the legacies of Beethoven, Flaubert and Edison. Murch will bring the conversation full circle with his thoughts on how the prehistory of cinema informs its future.
With more than 40 years of experience in sound design and film editing, Murch is widely renowned as an innovator and master in his field. His work in sound design alone is referenced as a constant source of inspiration for both students of sound design and professionals in the audio industry.
Murch has been honored by both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He has won three Academy Awards and has been nominated in sound and/or editing categories eight times. In 1975, Murch won two BAFTA awards for film editing and sound mixing for The Conversation. In 1978, Murch garnered film editing awards from both academies for Julia. In 1980, Murch received his first Academy Award for Best Sound Design for Apocalypse Now, which also earned him a nomination for film editing by BAFTA. He received two nominations for film editing from AMPAS in 1991 for Ghost and The Godfather Part III. He earned his ninth Oscar nomination in 2004 in film editing for Cold Mountain as well as BAFTA nominations for film editing and sound mixing. Murch’s other film editing credits include The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) and Jarhead (2005). Murch also directed and cowrote the film Return to Oz (1985) with Gill Dennis. Most recently he worked on Tetro (2009), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Murch is also active in film restoration; films that he has restored include Touch of Evil (1998), Edison-Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1998) and Apocalypse Now Redux (2001).
Murch is the author of a book on film editing, In the Blink of an Eye, and his work has been the subject of two books, The Conversations by Michael Ondaatje and Behind the Seen by Charles Koppelman.
Previous State of Cinema speakers have been photographer Mary Ellen Mark, Wired publisher and technology maverick Kevin Kelly, theater and opera director Peter Sellars, provocative Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, Oscar-winning director/writer of The Incredibles Brad Bird, renowned film critic, curator and cultural commentator B. Ruby Rich and longtime editor of influential French film magazine Positif Michel Ciment.
Members $10.00, seniors/students/disabled $11.00, general $12.50
Each year, the Film Society invites a well-known public figure to talk about the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema and visual arts, culture and society, images and ideas. This year, acclaimed film editor, sound designer, intellectual maverick and nine-time Academy Award–nominee Walter Murch will deliver a fascinating reading on the cultural origins of cinema in the 19th century, with special consideration paid to the legacies of Beethoven, Flaubert and Edison. Murch will bring the conversation full circle with his thoughts on how the prehistory of cinema informs its future.
With more than 40 years of experience in sound design and film editing, Murch is widely renowned as an innovator and master in his field. His work in sound design alone is referenced as a constant source of inspiration for both students of sound design and professionals in the audio industry.
Murch has been honored by both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He has won three Academy Awards and has been nominated in sound and/or editing categories eight times. In 1975, Murch won two BAFTA awards for film editing and sound mixing for The Conversation. In 1978, Murch garnered film editing awards from both academies for Julia. In 1980, Murch received his first Academy Award for Best Sound Design for Apocalypse Now, which also earned him a nomination for film editing by BAFTA. He received two nominations for film editing from AMPAS in 1991 for Ghost and The Godfather Part III. He earned his ninth Oscar nomination in 2004 in film editing for Cold Mountain as well as BAFTA nominations for film editing and sound mixing. Murch’s other film editing credits include The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) and Jarhead (2005). Murch also directed and cowrote the film Return to Oz (1985) with Gill Dennis. Most recently he worked on Tetro (2009), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Murch is also active in film restoration; films that he has restored include Touch of Evil (1998), Edison-Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1998) and Apocalypse Now Redux (2001).
Murch is the author of a book on film editing, In the Blink of an Eye, and his work has been the subject of two books, The Conversations by Michael Ondaatje and Behind the Seen by Charles Koppelman.
Previous State of Cinema speakers have been photographer Mary Ellen Mark, Wired publisher and technology maverick Kevin Kelly, theater and opera director Peter Sellars, provocative Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, Oscar-winning director/writer of The Incredibles Brad Bird, renowned film critic, curator and cultural commentator B. Ruby Rich and longtime editor of influential French film magazine Positif Michel Ciment.
Members $10.00, seniors/students/disabled $11.00, general $12.50
Sunday, April 25, 4:00 pm.
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