George Tomasini

George Tomasini
Born	April 20, 1909(1909-04-20) Springfield, Massachusetts
Died	November 22, 1964 Hanford, California
Occupation	film editor
Spouse(s)	Mary Brian (1947-64)

George Tomasini (April 20, 1909 – November 22, 1964) was an American film editor, born in Springfield, Massachusetts who had a notable collaboration with film director Alfred Hitchcock in the decade 1954-1964.^[1] Tomasini edited many of Hitchcock's best-known works, such as Marnie (1964), the horror film classics The Birds (1963) and Psycho (1960), North by Northwest (1959), Hitchcock's masterpieces Vertigo (1958)and Rear Window (1954), as well as other memorable films such as the original Cape Fear (1962).

George Tomasini was known for his innovative film editing which, together with Hitchcock's stunning techniques, redefined cinematic language. Tomasini's cutting was always stylish and experimental, all the while pursuing the focus of the story and the characters.^{[citation needed]} Hitchcock and Tomasini's editing of Rear Window has been treated at length in Valerie Orpen's monograph, Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive.^[2] His dialogue overlapping and use of jump cuts for exclamation points was dynamic and innovative (such as in the scene in The Birds where the car blows up at the gas station and Tippi Hedren's character watches from a window, as well as the infamous "shower scene" in Psycho). George Tomasini's techniques would be groundbreaking and would influence many film editors and filmmakers many years into the future.^[3]

George Tomasini was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing for North by Northwest, but Ben-Hur's editors won the award that year.

Filmography as editor

"Tomasini's most important work with Hitchcock was the memorable shower scene in Psycho (1960). Its aesthetic and dramatic accomplishment was achieved largely through the editor's skill. The completed forty-five second sequence that Hitchcock originally storyboarded was compiled by Tomasini from footage shot over several days that utilized a total of over seventy camera setups. From that mass of footage, Tomasini selected sixty different shots, some of them very short, through which he elected to rely heavily on the techniques of 'associative editing'."

— Paul Monaco^[3]

The director of each film is indicated in parenthesis.