Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
56 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2018 that it could be, and we did land a little differently than what was in the script. JM: During this process, some members of our team felt like you could place a scene anywhere. Yet with the intricacy of this film, for every action there's a reaction — and if you move a scene, you cause a ripple effect. Due to that, there was a six-week stretch when Barry was taking home a copy of the movie every night. He couldn't just watch a section and say, "Yes, this works." Instead, he'd have to watch the film in its entirety and say, "Yes, making that move works." Ultimately, the challenge was trying to figure out where each piece of the puzzle actually fit and making sure it was serving the purpose that was intended. CM: Talk more about Barry's directorial style and how that impacts the editing. NS: Barry's style was partly forged from European and Asian films. When working with him, part of my job is to really feature and honor the amazing style in which he's shot, while at the same time finding organic and graceful ways to keep things tight and moving. My feeling is that the kind of poetry and languidness that Barry has is really potent and beautiful; it's already there in the footage and isn't going anywhere as long as you're cutting it correctly. So we didn't need to double down on it with a languid, slow-moving overall edit. Stylistically, Beale Street is probably a hair more traditional than Moonlight. Barry was being faithful to Baldwin and the story and it wouldn't have made sense to shoot it quite as raw or rough around the edges as the last one. With any film, the footage tells you how you're supposed to cut it, so your job is always to listen to the footage rather than to impose your own ideas or style on how to cut. With Moonlight, there was maybe a little more opportunity to push things a bit further stylistically in the edit, and we feel like we probably will again on the next film. CM: If Beale Street Could Talk is a heartbreaking love story between two African-Americans in New York in the 1970s. Did it become personal for you, Joi? JM: I had a bit of a revelation of how the broken family syndrome got started in this community. In the film, you see the promise that Fonny [Stephan James] has. You also see how much these two people, Fonny and Tish, are in love with each other. Then his wrongful conviction puts him in prison, but it also takes him out of his family's home. I thought to myself, "Oh, this is how the cycle starts where a child is growing up without a father around to show his son the ways of the world." It was really heartbreaking for me to realize that by breaking down the family unit you are actually causing a bigger issue. This was one of the themes of the film that I found quite devastating. CM: There is a quote at the beginning of the film from Baldwin that begins: "Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street…" It sets the perfect tone for the Nat Sanders.