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Views | Duration | ||
---|---|---|---|
31. Filming THX 1138 | 1 | 116 | 02:53 |
32. Unusual job offer from George Cukor | 1 | 103 | 03:12 |
33. Learning how to wrap expensive gifts | 1 | 94 | 01:46 |
34. 'Never complain, never explain' | 1 | 156 | 01:01 |
35. Signe Hasso's wrong present | 1 | 82 | 03:28 |
36. Old and New Hollywood | 1 | 101 | 01:20 |
37. Coughing fits during sound mixing | 1 | 91 | 04:32 |
38. Francis Ford Coppola maces his crew | 2 | 109 | 01:53 |
39. How the brain processes image and sound | 1 | 120 | 03:33 |
40. Movies sound better in colour | 1 | 95 | 03:01 |
At one point, [George] Cukor did pop his head in and he looked at us, 'How's it going?' We said, 'Very good. We'll be done in three days.' 'Excellent. So you want to be in the movie business?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Here's my advice: never complain, never explain.' 'Thank you, sir.' Click. What did he mean by that?
I later on found out this was something that Henry Ford said, so Cukor was passing it along to us. And never complain is like, don't grouse about the job. Just do the job and by explain, he meant, don't come up with phony excuses like, the dog ate my homework. If you make a mistake, just admit you made a mistake and everyone will understand and move forward but nobody wants to hear stupid explanations for why something didn't get done. I think, I think that's what he meant.
That was the only time we saw George.
Born in 1943 in New York City, Murch graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. His career stretches back to 1969 and includes work on Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, The Conversation, and The English Patient. He has been referred to as 'the most respected film editor and sound designer in modern cinema.' In a career that spans over 40 years, Murch is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola, beginning in 1969 with The Rain People. After working with George Lucas on THX 1138 (1971), which he co-wrote, and American Graffiti (1973), Murch returned to Coppola in 1974 for The Conversation, resulting in his first Academy Award nomination. Murch's pioneering achievements were acknowledged by Coppola in his follow-up film, the 1979 Palme d'Or winner Apocalypse Now, for which Murch was granted, in what is seen as a film-history first, the screen credit 'Sound Designer.' Murch has been nominated for nine Academy Awards and has won three, for best sound on Apocalypse Now (for which he and his collaborators devised the now-standard 5.1 sound format), and achieving an unprecedented double when he won both Best Film Editing and Best Sound for his work on The English Patient. Murch’s contributions to film reconstruction include 2001's Apocalypse Now: Redux and the 1998 re-edit of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil. He is also the director and co-writer of Return to Oz (1985). In 1995, Murch published a book on film editing, In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing, in which he urges editors to prioritise emotion.
Title: 'Never complain, never explain'
Listeners: Christopher Sykes
Christopher Sykes is an independent documentary producer who has made a number of films about science and scientists for BBC TV, Channel Four, and PBS.
Tags: George Cukor, Henry Ford
Duration: 1 minute, 1 second
Date story recorded: April 2016
Date story went live: 01 March 2017