Today both my Twitter and RSS feeds have been abuzz with the news of the death of Sally Menke ACE.
Whilst editors are usually unseen (both on set and on screen) and therefore relatively unknown, Sally's work with Quentin Tarantino evolved to become much more than that in both areas. On any given DVD it would usually be possible to find Tarantino gushing about the importance of collaboration in the edit room as a chance to rewrite the story one last time - and the nonlinear nature of many of his films gave the general public the chance to consider work beyond the shooting stages and sets.
Something extra-special, though, was the way that Quentin would get his cast and crew to shoot several seconds of them greeting Sally, to keep her company in the edit room - sometimes in their own right, sometimes by way of apology after fouling up a take! I've always liked to assume that their inclusion of a "hi Sally" reel in some DVD extras (see below) was his way of letting the world in on some of their relationship. It's always seemed to me like an ideal dynamic to aspire to within a director-editor partnership.
So bye Sally. Your presence in the cutting room will be missed by more people than you would have known.