As he reflects on his four decades working with Martin Scorsese, re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman smiles, recalling the roughly 25 feature and documentary productions on which they collaborated, from 1980’s Raging Bull to the director’s most recent mob epic, The Irishman.
His favorite part of the collaboration? “When we’ve been working for hours on a difficult sequence or a tricky musical transition and I turn around and we both smile and nod and he shouts, ‘Great!’ And gives me a thumbs-up.”
Born and raised in New York, Fleischman is the son of legendary film editor Dede Allen and television documentary writer-producer-director Stephen Fleischman.
Tom Fleischman first worked for Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker doing temp dubs on Raging Bull, starring Robert De Niro, and was recruited shortly after for 1982’s The King of Comedy. He also worked on Scorsese’s Hugo, for which he won an Oscar, and was Academy Award nominated for Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, Warren Beatty’s Reds and Scorsese’s The Aviator and Gangs of New York.
Given their partnership, it’s only fitting that Scorsese, along with mixer Gary Bourgeois, will present Fleischman with the Cinema Audio Society’s Career Achievement Award at the 56th CAS Awards. Ford v Ferrari‘s James Mangold also will be honored, receiving the CAS Filmmaker Award from Harrison Ford and mixer Paul Massey.
This story first appeared in the Jan. 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
