Susan E. Morse

In 1975, she enrolled as a graduate student at New York University to study film production and was almost immediately offered an internship on a PBS show directed by her professor Roberta Hodes, former script supervisor for Elia Kazan on On the Waterfront, among many other films.[3]

Morse's editing career began in September 1976 as an assistant to Ralph Rosenblum on Annie Hall. Rosenblum's last film with Allen was Interiors (1978), after which he worked as a director. Morse edited Rosenblum's first film, an adaptation of James Thurber's short story, The Greatest Man in the World (1980) starring Brad Davis; she was also an associate editor working with Thelma Schoonmaker on Raging Bull (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese. Starting with Manhattan (1979), she edited the next twenty of Allen's films through Celebrity (1998). Stephen Prince has summarized their collaboration as follows: "Susan E. Morse edited every Allen film of the eighties, regardless of its subject matter or visual design, and as we have seen Allen worked with a variety of cinematographers and production designers in those years. His insistent use of Morse demonstrates the essential nature of her collaboration."[4] Morse's collaboration with Allen was the subject of a 1996 documentary film for German television.[5]

Neither Morse nor Allen commented publicly on the end of their collaboration, but according to reporting in The New York Times, Morse was a victim of a cost-cutting move by producer Jean Doumanian that also severed ties with many other regular crew members on Allen's films.[6] Bernard Weinraub wrote, "What especially stirred the New York film world in recent weeks was the disclosure that Susan E. Morse, Mr. Allen's widely admired film editor for 22 years, would not be working on his new, untitled movie, which starts shooting in New York in August."[7] Alisa Lepselter succeeded Morse as Allen's editor, claiming she was inspired to go into film editing after hearing Morse speak on the subject near her childhood home in New Jersey.

Since 1998, Morse has edited films with several directors including Marc Lawrence, with whom she's worked on Two Weeks Notice (2002), Music and Lyrics (2007), and Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009). She edited Last Night (2010), which was written and directed by Massy Tadjedin. In 2012, she edited the third season of the television series Louie; it had previously been primarily edited by its creator, Louis C.K. She edited the 2017 film Novitiate, which was written and directed by Maggie Betts. The film has been well-received by critics.[8]

Woody Allen films

Other work as an editor