The phrase “directed by Tony Scott” likely brings to mind images of slickly constructed action movies populated by A-list talent. Before his death in 2012, Scott directed a murderer’s row of stand-out blockbusters that include Top Gun (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Enemy of the State (1998), and my personal favorite, Unstoppable (2010). Therefore, discovering The Hunger (1983), Scott’s second feature-length directorial effort, was a tantalizing surprise. The Hunger is an erotic arthouse vampire thriller starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon, components resulting in a film that is equal parts baroque surrealism and morality play. It also features the first prominent feature example of a filmmaking technique that would go on to define Scott’s action filmmaking in subsequent decades: parallel editing.
Parallel editing, the term for cutting together two or more scenes happening at the same time, is responsible for any number of memorable sequences. It is the backbone of The Godfather’s (1972) “Baptism Sequence” just as it is the foundation of the adrenaline-pumping fake-out that is the FBI arriving at the wrong house and leaving Clarice Starling on her own near the end of The Silence of the Lambs (1991). When deployed well, parallel editing can do anything from heightening suspense to drawing thematic parallels between characters all through editing. In The Hunger, Scott, and editor Pamela Power utilize parallel editing at various points to comment on the character’s vampirism and underscore the moral and philosophical aspects of what it means to be a near-immortal figure who violently feasts on human blood. Read more
