Film editing is my greatest love and interest in cinema, even more than camerawork and sound design. I love the power of the cut and what can be done with montage. It really is the most unique and essential quality of cinema in my opinion. I'm very much inspired by the great Soviet montage filmmakers of the 1920s and 30s, like Dziga Vertov, Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisentstein, and Vsevolod Pudovkin. The Kuleshov Effect(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_effect) is awesome! It has inspired so many filmmakers like Slavko Vorkapich, Alfred Hitchcock, Arthur Lipsett, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Stan Brakhage, Oliver Stone, Carlos Reygadas, Brian De Palma, Bruce Connor, Francis Coppola, Bryan Singer,  and it keeps on inspiring new filmmakers like myself to this day! I believe it was a great experiment that demonstrated the true power of Pure Cinema. One of my favorite movies is Ron Fricke's "Baraka" and I don't know if Mr. Fricke has been inspired by the Soviet montagists and by the Kuleshov Effect but he definitely utilized the technique brilliantly in "Baraka". 

Another huge inspiration is Slavko Vorkapich, a Serbian montagist who was a colleague of Sergei Eisenstein before he moved to Hollywood. He made a fascinating experimental short entitled "The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra"(1928) that has some great editing, inventive lighting effects,  and surreal sets and props. It got him jobs doing transitional effects, visual effects, and whole montage sequences for features at studios like MGM, RKO, and Paramount. He crafted his montage sequences from start to finish: conceiving and designing, shooting and editing them. There's some great montages of his included on the light rhythms dvd of the awesome box set "Unseen Cinema"(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000AYEIJA/imdb-button/) and they're amazing and electrifying examples of pure cinema. His mastery of the optical printer and his imagination in the cutting room are just phenomenal. He's a true inspiration. He was also dean of the USC film school at one time and his emphasis on filmic expression and the dynamic quality of movement and kinetic energy inherent in the cinematic art form influenced tons of filmmakers that came through the school, among them George Lucas.