It’s Anne V. Coates’ birthday today.
One of the honors of my career thus far was being asked to write the narration (read by Diane Lane) for the tribute reel played at Anne Coates’ Lifetime Achievement Oscar ceremony.
From Lawrence of Arabia to 50 Shades of Grey is a hell of a run. (When asked what she thought of 50 SHADES, she said, “I think it could have been a bit more raunchy.”)
Anne Coates was responsible for one of the most famous cuts in cinema history – which mainly came about because they didn’t have the right technology on site to create the intended dissolve. But when director David Lean and Coates saw the cut, they thought: “Is there any reason we CAN’T just leave as is?”
And then, AFTER that famous cut, comes an equally famous dissolve, from the sun rise to the dunes:
David Lean, who himself started as an editor, said that Anne Coates was the only editor he worked with where he saw her first pass on a sequence and didn’t want to change anything because it was how he would have done it.
In my humble opinion, her editing of the romantic sequence in Out of Sight is a masterpiece. Sexual tension made manifest. The tension is in the performances for sure, but the cutting helps it land. Because, as you notice, there’s no sex. But it is as sexy as it gets, due to how they cut, and use flash-forwards to see where the characters are going. There was a lot of discussion between Coates and Soderbergh on putting together this sequence.
Watch this clip here of The Elephant Man. Watch for what comes at around the 1:30 mark.
There are a couple of things that are so masterful here. We get glimpses of the “elephant man” but it is in that excruciatingly slow push-in to Hopkins’ face where the empathy is born. (This is also masterful because Hopkins’ one trembling tear falls just as the camera gets at its closest vantage point. Genius.) Stella Adler always used to say (and it’s a difficult thought, people resist it): “Talent is in the choice.” I think there’s a lot of truth in it. True talent is revealed in the choices an artist makes. This is an amazing choice. She said repeatedly that so much of her work came from an actor’s performance. Good actors create a rhythm – the rhythm is already present. She was known as an actor’s editor. She didn’t make unnecessary cuts. She was about the performance. And so here, with Hopkins – there was not only no need to cut back and forth between the elephant man and Hopkins’ face – such cutting would ruin what was happening in Hopkins’ performance.
Coates’ work is so legendary and so respected, Scorsese cast her as an editor in THE AVIATOR, briefly seen going through a mountain of film, wearing a teal-green/silver dress.
Attention must be paid.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
Thanks, Sheila, for highlighting a master craftswoman I never wouldn’t known about, and showing us why and HOW to really appreciate her artistry thanks to your own eye and expertise. I love so many of your posts, but the Sheila-showcasing-a-work/artist/detail are particularly wonderful. You have great homage abilities.
[I meant to write a whole big heartfelt letter when I saw your blogging anniversary a little while ago, but felt like I needed to sit down and properly attend to it the way I wanted—and then time kept getting away from me, and now I’m stomping my foot ON MYSELF and going, I’m never going to express it as well as I want, so I’ll just going to get on it!!!]
So yeah I mean it, there are so many CATEGORIES of Sheila posts I look forward to over the years. It started with “While You Were Sleeping or 10,000 Reasons Why I (WEEEEE) Love Bill Pullman” a whole batch of years ago. It totally fulfilled the need I had to gab about it with a friend, and you were so nice in your response to my longggg email hahaha.
Types of Sheila Posts I love
– Emily of New Moon and The Blue Castle!!!! FYEAH (I reread these periodically just like how I reread LM Montgomery)
– 74 Lies and 1 Truth and related personal posts, window boy etc. I was blown away by the beauty of your writing and aching honesty? It just always feels like a gift when you write like that.
– I think you writing about being “too much” in your diary posts really helped me because I’ve always had enthusiasm I felt I needed to tamper down because of whatever societal messaging. You flinging that off and writing those deliciously long and devoutly detailed posts is an incredibly affirming example!
– Devout love of __whichever thing____ that I may not share (yet), but now have an “in” to see through your eyes and love
– It says something that sometimes after I finish a movie and I want it to linger longer, I immediately think I wonder what Sheila thinks of it and dutifully pad over to check if you’ve written a review. Your writing about a film can exist for me in the same space I save for fanfiction, if that makes sense, like the While You Were Sleeping post. There are also times that I’ve enjoyed reading your breakdown of a movie MORE than the actual film! YEP
– History!!! Founding Fathers
– When you include sections of writers commenting on writers, poets on poets, it makes me feel so much more educated hahaha
– Actors!! Directors!!
– Recently you wrote about Jessie Reyez and it was so fun and interesting I investigated and am fan now x 100. I should’ve kept track of things you’ve turned me onto over time, nuts. Definitely Cary Grant movies and other specific Golden Hollywood films…
Your site has been more than a bookmark over the years for me, it represents some of the nicest things about the internet. I love typing in your website name if it’s been a while and knowing I’ll get to go visit a cozy part of the internet where someone is sharing things they love so eloquently and that I enjoy so much. This is a clumsily written cobbled together letter of appreciation, but I had to let you know. I just realized lately, why don’t I comment more when obviously I am following as a more or less regular reader? So I willll try even if I feel like a weird stalker ^^;;;
Thank you Sheila, and I really just echo all the things your other readers said in your anniversary post. You’re one of my favorite writers, anywhere. :) eep posting now!