Sally JoAnne Menke (December 17, 1953 – September 27, 2010) was an American film editor, who worked in cinema and television. Over the span of her 30-year career in film, she accumulated more than 20 feature film credits.
She had a long-time collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino, and edited all of his films until her death in 2010. Menke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds. She also received three British Academy Film Award nominations for her work on Tarantino's Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Bastards.
She was nominated 25 times for several different awards, and won 12 in her thirty-year career.
Early life
Menke was born in Mineola, New York, to Charlotte Menke, a teacher, and Dr. Warren Wells Menke, a management professor at Clemson University. She attended P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School in Gainesville, Florida, and graduated in 1972. She would then move back to New York and study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Film Program in 1977, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film.
Career
Menke edited documentaries for CBS in her early career.
In 1992, Menke met Quentin Tarantino when he was holding interviews for an editor. "A cheap one", she once recalled, as this would be his debut feature-length film.
Tarantino sent her the script for Reservoir Dogs and she said that she thought it was "amazing". Together, they developed their signature style of dialogue-driven, slow-cut scenes composed with fast-cut action scenes.
She was selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors. On the Motion Picture Editors Guild 2012 listing of the 75 best-edited films of all time, Pulp Fiction was listed 18th.
Menke's final editing credit was on the film Peacock, a thriller released in 2010, directed by Michael Lander.
Personal life
Menke married film and television director Dean Parisot in 1986. Like Menke, he also graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. The couple had two children, Lucas and Isabella. Search dogs, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter, and patrol officers spent hours searching Griffith Park for her. Her locked car was found in a parking lot at the park. The coroner later determined that Menke's death was heat-related, as temperatures had reached in downtown Los Angeles on the day she died.
Filmography
Menke's feature film credits as editor are tabulated below. She has two additional credits for editing television documentaries: Hans Bethe: Prophet of Energy (1980) and The Congress (1988).
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year
! Film
! Director
! Other notes
|-
| 1983
| Cold Feet
| Bruce van Dusen
|
|-
| 1990
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
| Steve Barron
|
|-
| 1991
| The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
| John Bailey
|
|-
| 1992
| Reservoir Dogs
| Quentin Tarantino
| 20/20 Awards for Best Film Editing<br/>Nominated – Circuit Community Award for Best Film Editing
|-
| 1993
| Heaven & Earth
| Oliver Stone
|
|-
| 1994
| Pulp Fiction
|rowspan=2|Quentin Tarantino
| Circuit Community Award for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – Academy Award for Best Film Editing<br/>Nominated – ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic<br/>Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Editing
|-
| 1995
| Four Rooms
| Segment: "The Man from Hollywood"
|-
| 1996
| Mulholland Falls
| Lee Tamahori
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 1997
| Nightwatch
| Ole Bornedal
|
|-
| Jackie Brown
| Quentin Tarantino
|
|-
| 2000
| All the Pretty Horses
|rowspan=2|Billy Bob Thornton
|
|-
| 2001
| Daddy and Them
|
|-
| 2003
| Kill Bill: Volume 1
|rowspan=3|Quentin Tarantino
|rowspan=2|Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing<br/>San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic<br/>Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – American Cinema Editors for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – Awards Circuit Community Awards
|-
|rowspan=3|2004
| Kill Bill: Volume 2
|-
| Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair<!-- Per source: -->
|
|-
| The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
| Wendy Apple
| Self appearance
|-
| 2007
| Death Proof
|rowspan=2|Quentin Tarantino
| Nominated – Italian Online Movie Award for Best Film Editing
|-
| 2009
| Inglourious Basterds
| Nominated – Academy Award for Best Film Editing<br/>Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Editing<br/>Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Editing<br/>Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
|-
| 2010
| Peacock
| Michael Lander
|
|}
Awards and nominations
- 1995 – Pulp Fiction (nominated) – Academy Award – "Best Film Editing"
- 1995 – Pulp Fiction (nominated) – American Cinema Editors ACE Eddie Award – "Best Edited Feature Film"
- 1995 – Pulp Fiction (nominated) – BAFTA Film Award – "Best Editing"
- 2003 – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (won) – San Diego Film Critics Society Awards – "Best Editing"
- 2004 – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (nominated) – BAFTA Film Award – "Best Editing"
- 2004 – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (won) – Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards – Sierra Award for "Best Editing"
- 2005 – Kill Bill: Volume 2 (nominated) – American Cinema Editors ACE Eddie Award – "Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)"
- 2005 – Kill Bill: Volume 2 (nominated) – Online Film Critics Society OFCS Award – "Best Editing"
- 2010 – Inglourious Basterds (nominated) – Academy Award – "Best Film Editing"
References
External links
- Sally Menke tribute by the New Beverly Cinema <small>(at the Internet Archive)</small>