George Tomasini

April 20, 1909 – November 22, 1964

Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

George Tomasini (April 20, 1909 – November 22, 1964) was an American film editor, born in Springfield, Massachusetts who had a decade long collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock, editing nine of his movies between 1954-1964. Tomasini edited many of Hitchcock's best-known works, such as the horror film classics The Birds (1963) and Psycho (1960), the spy thriller North by Northwest (1959), the director's masterpieces Vertigo (1958) and Rear Window (1954), as well as other memorable films such as the original Cape Fear (1962). On a 2012 listing of the 75 best edited films of all time, compiled by the Motion Picture Editors Guild based on a survey of its members, four films edited by Tomasini for Hitchcock appear. No other editor appeared more than three times on this listing. The listed films were Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, and North by Northwest. 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. 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 influence many subsequent film editors and filmmakers. 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.