OT: DEDE ALLEN gone at 86

Her work BONNIE AND CLYDE, 1968, blew me away.

Brilliant talent to be sorely missed.

- Loren S. Miller

RIP



www.strypesinpost.com

You have Dede to thank for J and L cuts, the popularity of the jump cut and "shock cuts"

RIP Dede.

From Film Reference.com...
"With Bonnie and Clyde (the first of six films with Arthur Penn), Allen further developed the principle of the jump cut by marrying it to classical Hollywood editing and television commercial editing. Instead of using the jump cut as a modernist reflexive device or a stylistic flourish, Allen combined its spatial and temporal discontinuity with a clear narrative and strong character identification (from Hollywood) and nontraditional shot combinations and short duration shots (from television commercials). Allen's synthesis of the Nouvelle Vague, the "angry young men," Hollywood, and television defined her other major editing technique, what Andrew Sarris called "shock cutting . . . wild contrasts from one shot to the next, which give the film a jagged, menacing quality and create a sort of syncopated rhythm." Bonnie's sexual frustration and ennui at the start of Bonnie and Clyde find perfect expression in a series of jump/shock cuts. The chaos of the gun fights and the immeasurably influential ending (which also shows Allen's debt to Eisenstein's montage) pushed screen violence to a new, visually stunning level."

Good obituary from the LA Times

- Justin Barham -

I had the honor to interview Dede a few years back at lafcpug. She was a delightful and gracious woman as was her husband, Stephen Fleischman, a bit of a legend in his own right having produced and written several of the most influential documentaries at CBS News for over 30 years..

I spent some time with both of them at their apartment in Hollywood as a pre interview. I basically wanted to just say hello and tell her what to expect and what sort of questions I would ask. Expected to maybe stay 30 minutes. Instead I stayed over 2 hours while both brought out books and photos and talked about their careers.

She would often say she was lucky. Sure , that was a part of it, but what was REALLY lucky, and she pointed this out a dozen times throughout the conversation in answer to many of my questions, was that she just worked with "really smart people." Simple as that.

[www.lafcpug.org]

Michael Horton
-------------------

Lucky you, Mike!

It's interesting Dede came from sound editing, and often crafted dialog scenes by fine cutting the soundtrack first, then getting picture to fit. It worked.

She delivered jump cuts or sound-ahead cuts to perfection. She understood the heartbeat of each film, what it should be, wanted to be, how it best connected with the audience. Her films were usually a half beat ahead of us and constantly delighted eye and ear.

She was a tough taskmaster, too, often requiring assistants to toil during holidays. Greta boot camp. On his REDS, Warren Beatty had to order everybody take Christmas off! lol

Best, as always,
Loren

I met her when she was supervising post at Warner Bros. I was assisting on a feature ("Fair Game" - pretty awful), and the key assistant was such an abusive bully, at one point he had me in tears (highly unusual.) Dede went over there and read him the riot act - he nearly got fired. The dude apologized and was on his best behavior after that.

Dede was such a professional - I loved having her around. She didn't just work with smart people, she was was of the few herself.

Thanks Dede, for being in love with what you did and sharing that with all of us, for generations to come.

"Dede went over there and read him the riot act"

wow..
i love her even more, now.

in a position which is often invisible, she really left a mark.
she's one of my favourites.


nick