During one of my courses related to film in the UK, I stumbled upon this piece of paper attached on the institution’s noticeboard. Personally signed by her, Dede Allen is the editor of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Do you, as an editor connect to what she is stating here?
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) (via)
“Man devours man in a metaphorical sense. He feeds upon his fellow creatures, without the excuse of animals. Animals actually do it for survival, out of hunger…. I use that metaphor [of cannibalism] to express my repulsion with this characteristic of man, the way people use each other without conscience: ‘We all use each other and that’s what we think of as love.’
It horrified me, the film. [Producer] Sam Spiegel made the mistake of inviting me to a private screening of it in his apartment and I walked out in the middle of it. I was so offended by the literal approach because the play was metaphorical; it was sort of a poem, I thought. I loved Katharine Hepburn in it, but I didn’t like the film.
…[The death by cannibalism scene] became so realistic, with the boys chasing Sebastian up the hill - I thought it was a travesty. It was about how people devour each other in an allegorical sense.”
-Tennessee Williams, Conversations with Tennessee Williams