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Ric Gentry

    Outside of the industry itself, very few motion picture editors experience much recognition. Of these, Dede Allen is by far the best known. She credits much of this to her association with the great directors she's worked with, many of whom were lionized as ''auteurs'' in the U.S. in the 60's and 70's; for her contributions to an industry almost entirely dominated by men at the time; and because for most of her career she was situated in New York, beyond the Hollywood mainstream

dede allenand closer to the more influential bastions of serious cinematic study.

But Allen is modest and perhaps somewhat unfair to herself. While what she says of the attention she's received is true, she is nevertheless probably our greatest contemporary film editor. Her distinctive sense of visual rhythm is all but unmistakable. Her bold, innovative use of pace and transitions have long since become common features of movie syntax. Her sensitivity and empathy for character is extraordinary. Her use of image and sound in counterpoint continually embellishes as it enlarges the poetic context of the drama. If she had cut nothing else but Bonnie and Clyde, her place in cinema history would be virtually assured. Allen's roster of credits includes: Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), The Hustler (1961), America, America (1963), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Rachel, Rachel (1968), Alice's Restaurant (1969), Little Big Man (1970), Slaughterhouse Five (1972), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975,Academy Award nomination), Night Moves (1975), The Missouri Breaks (1976), Slap Shot (1977), Reds (1981, AA nomination), Mike's Murder (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Henry and June (1990), and The Addams Family (1991).

But Allen did not become an editor or a success overnight. She started out as a messenger at Columbia Studios in 1943 and didn't cut her first major feature film until 16 years later at the age of 34. Her very

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gradual progress can be ascribed to the film industry's initial resistance to women in her field and that, in accordance with the times, she nearly jettisoned her career to become a mother and a housewife in the early '50s. Eventually, however, Allen anticipated many of the tenets of latter day feminism, enjoying a...

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