Masterclass with editor Yann Dedet on the Montpellier campus: post-production takes centre stage!

Last March, we were honoured to welcome another major figure in French cinema to share his wealth of experience with our students. He was Yann Dedet, an editor (but not the only one!) who won the César for best editing in 2012 for the film ‘Polisse’, by director Maïwenne. Here’s a look back at this timeless event, during which the students were able to ask all their questions to this cinema monster!

“One of the most renowned editors of his generation”.

The name Yann Dedet may not ring a bell. Yet this editor, who is much sought-after by top directors, has worked on numerous productions, including Sous le soleil de Satan, De son vivant, Fête de famille, Le goût des merveilles and, of course, Polisse, for which he was awarded the César for Best Editing in 2012.

Born in Paris in 1946, he was introduced to the world of images at a very early age, through a series of tinkering and assembling projects, thanks to an 8-millimetre camera he received as a present at the age of 11. His attraction to the cinema was immediate, and his love for it was revealed during a work placement at the Laboratoires de tirage cinématographiques de Saint-Cloud, where he discovered film editing, the craft of which fascinated him.

He then moved into the world of cinema, and truly “entered the big leagues” by assisting Claudine Bouché with the editing of François Truffaut’s film The Bride Was in Black (1968). Other collaborations followed, each one more rewarding than the last, with a host of big names in French cinema – Truffaut again, but also Maurice Pialat, Philippe Garrel, Jean-François Stévenin, Cédric Kahn, Nicole Garcia and Emmanuelle Bercot.

A master class on post-production

And it was all the experience he has acquired over the years that the multi-hatted editor – he is also an actor, screenwriter, director and author – came to share with the students at the CinéCréatis school in Montpellier. It was a real opportunity for these apprentice filmmakers, who were able to delve a little deeper into post-production during rich and fascinating discussions. The editor did not hesitate to share a wealth of anecdotes about the various films in which he has taken part, and to offer our students a wealth of advice on editing, which Yann Dedet compared to the art of sculpture:

The word craftsman […] seems more appropriate to me,” he told France Culture in 2020. All cinema jobs are artistic. But the editing workshop is really more of a craft. Firstly because you don’t make the material. The cinematographer makes the visible material in the film, the sound engineer makes the audible material and so does the musician. But I really like the craft mode and the idea of shaping something, a material that exists. Maybe that would be closest to sculpture. In any case, that’s what I’m most happy with as a rapprochement in the job I do.”

It’s enough to raise the spirits of our students, who will be sure to put into practice all the advice they gleaned on this occasion, and to refer to this leading figure in the assembly industry, whom they are so lucky to have met!