Film Editing and History

An event or a scene can be described interestingly or boringly, dramatically or academically, expressively or sentimentally, clearly or confusingly. It depends not only on the choice of words but on their arrangement and pacing as well as the placement of stresses and pauses. In short, a good narration is articulated in writing or spoken presentation but especially in the latter. Similarly, a film will be incoherent unless well articulated. The scenes shot might be beautiful, interesting, and touching in isolation but, regardless of the quality of the shots, editing creates the final effect. Fiction or non-fiction, telling well means a good story-telling; in this sense, the documentary is fiction (and vice versa, as Jean-Luc Godard said and believed). Documenting reality is inexorably fiction because the filmmaker selects what to include in the work and thereby has to eliminate much of what actually exists in reality. Writing history is also inevitably selective. There is no comprehensive exposition of history, spoken or written; or, if such an attempt is made there is only a profuse confusion or confusing profusion. History, too, rather than presented comprehensively, must be edited to be comprehensible.