RIP legendary editor Anne Coates. One of the honors of my career thus far was being asked to write the narration (read by Diane Lane) for the tribute reel played at Anne Coates' Lifetime Achievement Oscar ceremony. 
From LAWRENCE OF ARABIA to 50 SHADES OF GREY. Hell of a run. When asked what she thought of 50 SHADES, she said, "I think it could have been a bit more raunchy." Cosign.
Responsible for arguably the most famous cut in cinema history - which mainly came about b/c they didn't have the right technology on site to create the intended dissolve. But when Lean and Coates saw the cut, they thought: "Is there any reason we CAN'T just leave as is?"
David Lean, an editor himself, said that Anne Coates was the only editor he worked with where he saw her first pass on a sequence and didn't want to change anything because it was how he would have done it.
In my humble opinion, her editing of the romantic sequence in OUT OF SIGHT is a masterpiece. Sexual tension made manifest. In the performances for sure, but the cutting helps it land.
This shot in the ELEPHANT MAN too ... masterful. Stella Adler always used to say (and it's a difficult thought, people resist it): "Talent is in the choice." I think there's a lot of truth in it. True talent is revealed in the choices an artist makes. This is an amazing choice.
She said repeatedly that so much of her work comes from an actor's performance. Good actors create a rhythm - the rhythm is already present. She was known as an actor's editor. She didn't make unnecessary cuts. She was about the performance.
Her work is so legendary and so respected, Scorsese cast her as an editor in THE AVIATOR, briefly seen going through a mountain of film, wearing a teal-green/silver dress.
"In a way, I've never looked at myself as a woman in the business. I've just looked at myself as an editor." RIP Anne V. Coates.
I should have put up the full clip of the moment in ELEPHANT MAN. It goes along w/her being an "actor's editor." She described realizing there was no need to cut away from Hopkins (1:30 on). If the performance is THERE, there's no need to cut. Pretty rare.
