Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
124 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2018 124 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2018 n I first worked with Lee in 1982 on Robert Benton's Still of the Night. Since that time, we've worked on about 25 films together with many very late nights in the studio. He was always very patient, professional and always collaborative — even at 2:00 a.m., when it was clear that we should stop. But he was always ready to improve the dialogue, effects and music. Lee always made the environment a fun place to work. Maurice Schell Friend/Colleague; Sound Editor n A round 1990, I was a film distributor and had just acquired Orson Welles' Othello. This masterpiece had languished for 40 years in storage with a horrible soundtrack. On top of that, most of it was out of sync. I immediately thought of Lee Dichter. He was fun, he was brilliant and he was a perfectionist. Who else could fix this? In his usual gentlemanly way, he explained that he was totally booked for months. I asked if he would just look at the first reel for some advice. It was an incredible beginning and, as Lee watched, he turned to me and quietly said, "You bastard." I knew that as the consummate pro he was, Lee would have to work on it. And so, on evenings and weekends, we put this great film back together again. He is and always will be a true artist. Julian Schlossberg Friend/Colleague; Producer/Director n I first met Lee Dichter in the early '80s when I was one of "The Dolby Guys" sent to New York to set up the Dolby Stereo encoders and to sit in on film mixes. "The Dolby" could sometimes be difficult and was often the butt of jokes in the mix room, but Lee was always helpful and welcoming to me, a newbie to the world of cinema sound from California. Ever a gentleman, fascinating storyteller, dedicated educator and mentor, Lee has always been open to new ideas while wielding his craft in the highest tradition of old-school filmmaking. Over the decades, Lee has become a great friend, a fellow nerd. A nerd salute and warmest nerdly congratulations to Lee on this extremely well-deserved honor. Tom Scott Friend/Colleague; Vice President of Technology, EDnet (retired) n S itting in the darkness of the dubbing stage, we've revisited this scene over 100 times, but when the lead sings that song at the end of reel one, I glance down the mixing console at Lee and, like me, his eyes are welling with tears. Beyond the number and stylistic range of films Lee has helped shape, consider the thousands of filmmakers who have learned from his cardinal rule: It's about what we as humans connect to on the screen. Whatever shade of emotion, Lee's goal is always to discover what resonates between the magic portal of the movie screen to every person in the audience and, invisibly, lures us to it. Few may notice Lee's sleight of hand as it draws us into a film with our ears — that line of dialogue just slightly louder than the others…the music retreating for the reveal and swelling for the kiss. I can recall dozens of instances where Lee would say, "I can make that better." And indeed he does. Beyond a mastery of the immense variables of a film's last chance to improve before it lands in the multiplex, Lee's knack is ultimately a love of film; it's in his genes. His ancestors, after all, produced the first Yiddish motion pictures. Not long ago, I faced a health issue