Windows unfold on top of one another at a rapid pace, filling the screen with different kinds of information while still remaining comprehensible, as if to function as a new media panacea to the incoherent editing of Hollywood action flicks.
In the years since, this approach, in which the space of the shot becomes contiguous with that of the set — known in critical jargon as an aquarium shot — has become the de facto standard of the so-called art cinema, as sure an indicator of the director's cultural ambitions as the fast, spatially disconnected editing of a Hollywood action film is an indicator of popular entertainment.
Of the five nominees, Cameron is the only one who chose each shot as if it mattered; the results are neither subtle nor precise, and they depend on a generic schema of action editing, but they're certainly personal.
The mother of two boys, Buda (19), and Tige (15), is one of a growing number of women editing the male domain of action films.
Dwan's early command of match-cut editing — the apparently seamless presentation of action across a series of shots — is shown off to tremendous advantage here: Fairbanks seems to cut through space like an arrow in flight, a pure line of strength and beauty.
Either way, it should be said that slow cinema is no more real than fast cinema, no more real than the frantically paced editing of superhero movies or action thrillers.
But after you've got accustomed to the real-time version, the "action edit" suddenly seems too full of action.
Then comes the third plank of genius: the adrenalin-soaked blur of action, fiendishly edited, that transforms this sequence – about a woman hearing a radio signal – into an action-packed rollercoaster ride.
How did your two teenage sons react to the fact that you were editing one of the most anticipated of action films?
I may have been distracted by the sleights of choreography and editing constructing action sequences around the none too nimble JT.
