Top director pays tribute to film editor
Oscar-nominated and Bafta award-winning film maker, Sir Alan Parker was in Burwell on Friday for the funeral service of his long-time film editor Gerry Hambling.
Mr Hambling, who was 86, and lived in the village, died on February 5. His funeral service was held at St Mary’s Church.
Sir Alan, who earlier this month received the Bafta Fellowship, the British Film Academy’s highest accolade, said of his long-time collaborator, “He was undoubtedly one of the finest film editors that the British film industry has produced.”
Mr Hambling was 16 when he first started working as an editor’s apprentice at Pinewood Studios, progressing to the role of editor on British comedies such as The Bulldog Breed, starring Norman Wisdom. He went on to work for a Soho-based post-production house where he first met Parker.
After making commercials together, he went on to edit 14 of Parker’s films including Bugsy Malone, Fame, Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, Pink Floyd: The Wall and The Commitments.
During his career, he also worked with other renowned film-makers including Jim Sheridan on the award-winning In the Name of the Father, Ridley Scott on White Squall and Roland Joffé on City of Joy and, in his early days, Joseph Losey on The Servant.
He won awards from both the US and UK editors’ guilds as well as three Baftas. He received the Ace (American Cinema Editors) Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998 and was nominated six times for an Academy Award.
His final film was Parker’s 2003 thriller, The Life of David Gale, after which he retired.
John Grover, vice-chairman of thethe Guild of British Film Editors, said: “He was a larger than life character revered and respected by all who worked with him; he had a love of film and a natural feeling towards story-telling.”
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Thursday 23 May 2013
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