Howard Berry is a British film historian and chronicler of Elstree studios; now he has directed this unique documentary, written and conceived by the legendary film and sound editor Walter Murch, who edited among other movies Apocalypse Now, The Godfather and The English Patient. Together, Murch and Berry have provided what can only described as a full-on geekgasm for connoisseurs of movie production in the pre-digital age.
Their subject is the Moviola, an analogue editing machine the size of a fridge with two pedals, one for advancing, the other for rewinding film, a little screen and speaker for sound. However cumbersome it may look to people used to editing TikTok videos on their phones, the Moviola was an engineering miracle of efficiency and portability. It was passionately loved and admired by film-makers, in use in basically the same form for most of cinema’s existence, from its invention in 1922 until the 21st century – and which stayed stubbornly around for while even after digital editing became the norm, as if a Model T Ford was kept on the road until the Toyota Prius took over. Using one was addictive: Orson Welles was famously obsessed with the one he owned. (Murch says he repeatedly stayed late at the office working on his, until his wife demanded to know if he was having an affair; yes, he replied, “her name is Moviola.”)
