For Each Best Picture Oscar Hopeful, Film Editors Are Key 

(From L) Mark Orton, Alexander Payne, and Kevin Tent arrive for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 14th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on January 9, 2024. (AFP)
(From L) Mark Orton, Alexander Payne, and Kevin Tent arrive for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 14th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on January 9, 2024. (AFP)
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For Each Best Picture Oscar Hopeful, Film Editors Are Key 

(From L) Mark Orton, Alexander Payne, and Kevin Tent arrive for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 14th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on January 9, 2024. (AFP)
(From L) Mark Orton, Alexander Payne, and Kevin Tent arrive for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 14th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on January 9, 2024. (AFP)

Whether they are snipping an actor's lengthy stare, obliging the viewer to process rapid-fire images or creating tension with a pause, film editors who work in sync with directors play a vital role in giving life to a movie -- and its Oscar chances.

"You can't have a good movie with bad editing," Kevin Tent, who is nominated for an Academy Award for his work with director Alexander Payne on best picture contender "The Holdovers," told AFP.

Tent -- who has been part of Payne's filmmaking inner circle for nearly 30 years, including on Oscar contenders "The Descendants" (2011) and "Sideways" (2004) -- compares his work as an editor to that of a chef making a special dish.

After initial filming, "you're getting all these different elements, and you're chopping things and mixing them" to find the perfect recipe to tell the story, Tent explained.

"If you put too much salt in something, it's no good, or if you put too much sugar, it ruins everything," he quips.

For "The Holdovers," which received a total of five Oscar nominations ahead of the March 10 ceremony, Tent certainly found a winning formula.

Payne's film is a touching holiday tale of three lonely souls who end up spending Christmas together at a 1970s-era boarding school -- a crotchety teacher, a cafeteria manager in mourning and a fragile teenage boy.

Tent is vying for the best film editing Oscar with his peers who worked on "Anatomy of a Fall,Killers of the Flower Moon,Poor Things" and "Oppenheimer," the overall favorite for Oscars glory.

Best picture and best editing awards often go hand-in-hand.

For nearly a century, only 11 movies won the Academy award for best picture without also being nominated for best editing. And 40 percent of all best pictures winners also won the statuette for editing prowess.

Director-editor bond

Those statistics show the extent to which editing is indeed the essence of film, even more so than the screenplay or the cinematography.

Legendary directors like Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles said editing was the key to making a good movie.

"'Movies are made in the cutting room' -- many people say that, because it's there where you really have the time to be creative and think about what the movie is, and what it's going to become," explains Tent.

He worked with Payne on "The Holdovers" for nearly a year.

That gave the duo time to cut more than 30 minutes from the film's run time, as compared to their early cut, and find just the right bittersweet, funny-serious tone thanks to test audiences.

The film has been praised for its use of "dissolves" -- overlapping images that allows a new shot to surface while the previous one disappears -- which help to develop the emotional evolution of the characters or the melancholic beauty of winter.

Such precise work requires a director and editor to be exactly on the same page, which is why many directors have editors they bring from film to film.

Thelma Schoonmaker, the queen of editing with three Oscars to her name, has worked with Martin Scorsese since the start of his career more than 50 years ago.

Schoonmaker is one of Tent's rivals for her work on "Killers of the Flower Moon," which is also in the running for best picture. She has regularly mentioned in interviews how closely she and Scorsese collaborate.

"He taught me everything I know about editing. Our sensibilities are the same," she told the CineMontage website in February.

'Midwives' of cinema

Editors are usually hailed for their deep technical knowledge and for their ability not to leave their own stamp on the material, as the director's vision remains paramount.

"The editing cannot be noticeable, or branded -- it's really the craft of adapting someone's work," Laurent Senechal, a nominee for his work on Justine Triet's "Anatomy of a Fall," told AFP.

"We are like the midwives -- we accompany them," said Senechal, who worked on Triet's last three films.

Editing "Anatomy" -- a courtroom thriller about a writer accused of murdering her husband, which earned five nominations including best picture, director and editing -- took 38 weeks, Senechal said, calling the time a "luxury" in French cinema.

That pace allowed the pair to carefully master the desynchronization of sound and image, which helps to propel the ambiguity of the film, which depicts the couple's collapse and the unclear circumstances of the husband's death.

When the couple's son, who is blind, testifies in court, the audience sees images of the husband, who is speaking with the child's voice -- did these images occur in the past, or are they false memories?

"Justine is totally obsessive," Senechal said. "Editing is one of the most essential things for directing."



Billy Idol on His First Album in over a Decade, the Rock Hall and More

Billy Idol performs during the Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP)
Billy Idol performs during the Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP)
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Billy Idol on His First Album in over a Decade, the Rock Hall and More

Billy Idol performs during the Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP)
Billy Idol performs during the Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP)

When Billy Idol first entered American consciousness in the early '80s, leather-clad and bleached hair in tow, he not only brought a punk rock sound to the mainstream. The Englishman brought a new attitude, a new, rebellious way of being.

In the time since, songs like “White Wedding,” “Rebel Yell” and “Eyes Without a Face” have become instant classics — for those who've worn a spiky jacket and those who've only imagined what it might be like.

Now, over four decades later, he's got the wisdom to reflect. It's led to a new documentary about his life, “Billy Idol Should Be Dead,” which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival — and a new album, the polished punk-pop of “Dream Into It.”

“It was a gradual process, really,” he said of the 11-year span between albums. “It wasn’t so much that we didn’t want to make an album, it was more like we were building up to doing this.”

Idol discussed with The Associated Press this week his new album and forthcoming documentary, his past struggles with addiction, his first-ever Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination and more.

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: You've described “Dream Into It” as autobiographical. I thought your last album, 2014's “Kings & Queens of the Underground,” pulled from your life as well.

IDOL: Being this age, in particular, 69, when you look back, you can really see your whole life, how it plays out. And maybe it’s also having grandchildren. My children are having children.

You sort of reach this vantage point where you can really look back and see all the sort of different eras of my life. And you can sing about it. And I think I didn’t go deep enough with the songs I did on “Kings and Queens.” I thought lyrically I could go deeper. That’s one of those regrets I had about the last album. So I really went for it, and I went for more imagery, (on ‘Dream Into It,’ in the) way of talking about my life. I’m not spelling it out exactly.

AP: There are a lot of rock ‘n’ roll women on the album. Joan Jett, Avril Lavigne and The Kills' Alison Mosshart are all featured.

IDOL: (Mosshart's) voice is just incredible. And of course, Joan Jett, I’ve known since 1978 after a Germs/Dead Kennedys concert. We hung out in Los Angeles. I was on a Generation X promotion tour for the first album. And then Avril, I mean, I’ve just been watching her career forever and she’s fantastic. So, it was just great.

AP: The documentary has an evocative title, “Billy Idol Should Be Dead.” It sounds like it may dive into your past struggles with addiction.

IDOL: There was a point in my life when I was living like every day, like, “Live every day as if it’s your last.” One day, you’re going to be right.

In the '70s, in England, you know, young people, we had this feeling that we were being completely ignored. You were even being told that you had no future. And so, we just didn’t think beyond the day-to-day existence. It was probably only when I really started having children and stuff like that, I really starting to realize I (should) try start to give up drugs and things.

I’ve always flirted with death, in a way. Even riding motorcycles, you’re staring at the concrete. It’s right there, you can come off that thing and get horribly messed up. And I’ve done it. It’s horrible. You find out how human you are, how vulnerable. There’s lots of things about my life that, yeah, I did kind of call death at times. Not really mean to, but you just were living like that.

Imagine if it was today. If I was doing what I was back then today, I would be dead because I would have run into fentanyl.

AP: You're nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the first time. Do you think your younger punk rock self would be excited?

IDOL: I do sort of think about Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry and Little Richard. “And what? Are you going to be in something with those guys?” You know, Buddy Holly. These are some of the seminal people who turned on the people that turned me on, you know? Somewhere down the road, it led to punk rock.

Also, my motorcycle has been in the Rock & Roll of Fame for like five years. So I might as well be in it, too.