From FSR: With Ethan, Benji, and Ilsa, there are a lot of moving pieces in that opera house sequence. Did it take time to find the right rhythm in the editing room or did you and [cinematographer] Robert Elswit find it on the set?
Certainly not. That was the scene where I lost all faith and really hit a low point. The fight was suppose to go entirely to [the song] “Nessun dorma,” and we had timed out the fight and timed out “Nessun dorma” and knew the fight between Tom and Wolfgang [Stegemann] would go for the length of “Nessun dorma,” with a little bit leftover for our cutaways. By the time we got there, it didn’t work. I realized I would have to include other music. Eddie had cut it together, and you had to listen to “Nessun dorma” three times, and it still didn’t go with the sequence. The scene felt really, really dirty, monotonous, and didn’t have any energy. I thought I had failed. [Editor] Eddie Hamilton said, ‘You didn’t fail. This whole sequence is going to work. It’s going to be awesome.’
I had never felt that way in editorial. I had always felt very, very convinced any problem could be solved with editing, and I just couldn’t see it [this time]. We just rolled up our sleeves and started playing it with other music from the opera, even though it doesn’t match the action on the stage. We knew we were cheating. The moment where Tom comes walking down that scaffold and sees Rebecca for the first time across the back stage, it synced up with that particular phrase of music so perfectly. I was so moved by it I looked at Eddie and said, “This is going to work.”
When I found the emotional chord in the sequence I had it. The thing I knew where it would really work is where Rebecca walks into that close-up in the tower, where you first reveal it’s actually her. It’s the most extraordinary close-up of an actress in anything I’ve ever done. She’s so good and at ease with the camera in that moment
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Imo, this was the best sequence in the movie. It was so beautifully edited.
Mods: this is a short excerpt from a very long interview, so I figured it would be ok to post.