TMS Muse of the Week: Thelma Schoonmaker

(via wordpress.com)

Throughout history, we regularly hear about how hard it is for women to make it in entertainment compared to men. Female writers and directors who have to jump through bigger hoops than their male peers in film and TV, or actresses who battle to be seen as more than just pretty faces and matronly tropes. Yet for some reason, the one section of film that has never been difficult to break into is editing. You might not have noticed, but quite a lot of your favorite movies were edited by women. Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz (1939)? Edited by Blanche Sewell. George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977)? Co-edited by first wife Marcia Lucas. Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)? Edited by Carol Littleton. John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club (1985)? Edited by Dede Allen. Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994)? Edited by Sally Menke. Pretty impressive to say the least, and that’s only five credits. One wonders why this isn’t highlighted more during discussions on the progression of gender roles in Hollywood; or why it seems to be so easy for women to find work there. My theory is that it’s one of the least glamorous positions in film production, to the point where the job is easily glossed over by fans. You’re literally spending all day hidden in a small, dark room cutting up film footage, which is not exactly exciting. But of course, without that cutting, there is no movie.

One editor to successfully make it as a household name is Martin Scorsese’s right-hand woman, Thelma Schoonmaker. The filmmaking legend hasn’t directed a movie without Thelma since 1980, and you can feel that partnership completely if you have seen many Scorsese films. As she once famously said, the movie violence happens in the editing room as much as on the set. The two first met at NYU in 1963, while Thelma was taking a film course and Marty was finishing his student film, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This (1963). They had different origins. Thelma grew up with her American family abroad in countries like Algeria, Aruba and Portugal; while Marty is a lifelong New Yorker. But seemingly, the pair made big enough impressions on each other for Marty to remember Thelma for the editing of his first full-length feature, Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967). Their next project together was Michael Wadleigh’s iconic concert doc Woodstock (1970), where Marty was assistant director and Thelma editor. The rock picture received Thelma her first Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing. Despite her instant success, Thelma would be primarily MIA for the 1970s, and most of Marty’s early classics were edited by editing peer Marcia Lucas.

While Thelma had the talent, connections and cred to make it in film, she wasn’t prepared for how strict the Editors Guild would be about their rules, or how many jobs she would lose out on by not complying to them. The prerequisites for joining the guild includes five years as an apprentice and three as an assistant, both of which Thelma skipped over by the time she was hired for Woodstock. Feeling it irrelevant to take a step backwards just to get a union card; the editor had to take the backseat on working in the film industry until 1978 when Marty’s lawyer and Al Pacino’s lawyer ‘sorted things out’ legally with details vague enough to sound like something out of one of Marty’s gangster flicks. As luck would have it, Thelma’s official return to editing would be her most important assignment: Marty’s boxing biopic Raging Bull (1980). Not only was the film the critical comeback for both artists—as it was also three years following Marty’s musical flop New York, New York (1977)—but also earned Thelma numerous awards for Best Editing, including her first Oscar. In 2012, the film editing community voted Raging Bull the best edited film of all time, and the voters’ full list included two other films edited by Thelma, Marty’s GoodFellas (1990) and Hugo (2011). With the exception of Jeff Stein’s The Kids are Alright (1979), Allison Anders’ Grace of My Heart (1996), Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet (2015) and Tomas Alfredson’s The Snowman (2017), Thelma has only worked on Marty’s movies for the past four decades.

(Ronald Grant)

Continuing her legacy, the editor won two more Oscars for Marty’s The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2005), and is consistently near the top of lists on the best editors or editing in filmmaking. You can expect the name Thelma Schoonmaker on the credits of the next Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon later this year too. Besides her collaborations with Marty, the other legendary film director Thelma’s associated with is UK cinema pioneer Michael Powell, who was her husband from 1984 until his death in 1990. Since Michael’s passing, Thelma has been personally preserving his classics with filmmaking partner Emeric Pressburger, including Marty’s favorite movie The Red Shoes (1948). Thelma may not have a conventional career compared to her contemporaries like Anne V. Coates and Verna Fields, but she’s not disappearing again any time soon.