Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1468810
By Rob Feld W hen she was 13 years old in Peru, Sandra Montiel's uncle, a film- maker, came to visit her family. While they were running errands together, he read her a screenplay. She found herself fascinated by the way a deeply emotion- al story could be transmitted in 90 pages of script. Her father wanted her to study business, but her artist mother argued to let her study SANDRA MONTIEL'S WIDE-RANGING EXPERIENCE HELPED HER APPROACH CUTTING 'THE VALET,' A COMEDY ABOUT CELEBRITY CULTURE L.A. Story film, which she eventually did at the Univer- sity of Southern California. There she found that the place she felt the most control of the creative product was in editing, where she could be free to manipulate sound and image in any way she could imagine. Her journey began soon thereafter, starting her career as an assistant. Montiel's most recent project with director Richard Wong, "The Valet," is a remake of the French film, "La Doublure." In their telling, it is the story of Los Angeles restaurant parking attendant Antonio (Eugenio Derbez). Antonio accidentally appears in a paparazzi shot beside a movie star, Olivia (Samara Weaving), who is in a lovers quarrel with her married boyfriend, Vincent (Max Greenfield). To avoid a PR and marital disaster, Vincent pays Antonio to pose as Oliva's boyfriend until the heat is off. 46 C I N E M O N T A G E M O N T I E L Montiel on editing: "I leave my ego at home," she says. P H OT O : C O U R T E S Y S A N D R A M O N T I E L