Product Description
The Conversations is a treasure, essential for any lover or student of film, and a rare, intimate glimpse into the worlds of two accomplished artists who share a great passion for film and storytelling, and whose knowledge and love of the crafts of writing and film shine through.
It was on the set of the movie adaptation of his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, that Michael Ondaatje met the master film and sound editor Walter Murch, and the two began a remarkable personal conversation about the making of films and books in our time that continued over two years. From those conversations stemmed this enlightened, affectionate book -- a mine of wonderful, surprising observations and information about editing, writing and literature, music and sound, the I-Ching, dreams, art and history.
The Conversations is filled with stories about how some of the most important movies of the last thirty years were made and about the people who brought them to the screen. It traces the artistic growth of Murch, as well as his friends and contemporaries -- including directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Fred Zinneman and Anthony Minghella -- from the creation of the independent, anti-Hollywood Zoetrope by a handful of brilliant, bearded young men to the recent triumph of Apocalypse Now Redux.
Among the films Murch has worked on are American Graffiti, The Conversation, the remake of A Touch of Evil, Julia, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather (all three), The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The English Patient.
“Walter Murch is a true oddity in Hollywood. A genuine intellectual and renaissance man who appears wise and private at the centre of various temporary storms to do with film making and his whole generation of filmmakers. He knows, probably, where a lot of the bodies are buried.”
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 The Language of Editing ( baylady )
It is always a pleasure to read anything by Michael Ondaatje and to take in any film edited by Walter Murch. The pleasure is compouinded, then, by reading this dialogue between the two men -- masters in their fields. This book reviews Walter Murch's professional life and along the way, provides a look at the history of film itself from the one-dimensional nature of its birth to the multi-dimensional layers of sight and sound available today. Murch has made scientific and visceral contributions to the medium, some of which are described in the book, bringing to even more life for the reader some of the best films of the ages.
If you care about good films, if you are interested in learning the art of movie editing or soundscape creation, or if you love words and how they can be used to enlighten, I recommend this book of Conversations.
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A Delight to Read ( olingerstories )
Murch's book was a delight to read and had me running out to rent THE CONVERSATION. For a better understanding of any of Coppola's movies in the golden period of the 70s, which Murch worked on the sound and/or film editor, this is a must.
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 walter murch
i think walter murch books are overrated. who cares about what michael ondaatje thinks. he sure does.
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Distilled Genius
Murch is one of the quiet masters of the filmmaking craft. He has a gift, a genius, and he's generous enough to impart it in these pages, and in his own book on editing, In the Blink of an Eye Revised 2nd Edition. Simone Weil said that "attention is prayer," and Murch pays attention. You'll learn how to see films differently, more clearly, yet knowing the technical stuff he imparts won't detract from the magic of the medium. He is both a master AND a fan. What a fine perspective.
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This book is about creativity, not just film or sound ( ethans73 )
I loved this book because it is intensely literary and thoughtful. It gives great insights into the creative process which transcends film, sound, and writing; and Ondaatje's thoughtful questions are a huge part of what makes the book great. If it were just a 'normal' author interviewing Murch, they wouldn't have gotten to half the interesting topics which they end up covering. This book is also wonderful because it's such a departure from other books -- it's not trying to fit a type or a genre of writing, so it seems to end up in this essential but interstitial place in between 'how to' 'memoir' and 'philosophy of'. The first couple dozen pages are a bit slow as Ondaatje finds his footing, but after that, the book is compelling.
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