Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Jose Maria Castellvi was an important photographer in Spain, who worked for several magazines, including Playboy and Penthouse. He was also the personal photographer for Julio Iglesias for many years. While Orson Welles was living in Spain, he met Jose Maria and asked him to take some “artistic” pictures of Oja Kodar. Welles liked the pictures of Oja, so when he went to Arizona to begin shooting on The Other Side of the Wind, Welles asked Jose to go with him as the unit still photographer.

The result is nearly 1,000 images that document Welles directing his cast and crew, including John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Edmond O’ Brien, Norman Foster, Oja Kodar, Mercedes McCambridge, Cameron Mitchell, Paul Stewart and many others who appeared in the film.

Although an occasional shot taken by Jose Maria Castellvi has surfaced in the past, the extent of these precious images only became apparent when his nephew recently sent me 20 contact sheets of Jose Maria's work. A selection of the contact sheets, along with some larger shots can be seen at the Wellesnet Facebook page HERE.

Looking at these shots, it seems obvious they would make a wonderful book documenting the making of The Other Side of the Wind. It would be an especially welcome volume, since after 30 years, the film itself still remains out of reach. However, when (and if) a deal with Showtime is reached to finish The Other Side of the Wind, they certainly won’t have trouble providing the pictures needed to promote the film!

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When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it Art?"

—Rudyard Kipling, The Conundrum of the Workshops
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What is the title that appears on the film itself of Orson Welles's 1973 movie about fakers and forgery?

1. Hoax
2. ? (Question Mark)
3. FAKE?
4. ? (Questions) about Fakes
5. Verites et Mensonges (Truth and Lies)
6. F For Fake

This question came to mind when I recently came across the program note for F FOR FAKE when it was shown at the London Film Festival in 1975. Featured is a very informative interview with producer Dominique Antoine. Ms. Antoine’s comments also helped explain when the Iranian company Les Films de l’Astrophore first “took charge” of F FOR FAKE and why it took the film so long to get released after it was first screened in 1973.

In retrospect, it now appears evident that Welles made some extremely bad errors of judgment in regards to both of the films he made with money from Dr. Mehdi Boucherie of Iran. In fact, it seems whenever Welles acted as his own producer, he was often his own worse enemy! Why for instance, would Welles not immediately want to sign a distribution deal with his friend Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century-Fox for the U.S. rights to FALSTAFF after Zanuck expressed such enthusiasm and interest for the film in 1965? Why did Welles not sign a deal with Joseph E. Levine’s Embassy pictures for the rights to F FOR FAKE when Levine wanted to buy the movie for the U.S. market? Why did Welles not sign a deal to complete THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND in 1976, when one of the very few viable offers he received finally came his way?

Apparently, in each of these cases, it was because Welles, acting as his own producer, was hoping he could get a much better deal if he just waited patiently. As we now know, in each instance he only received a far worse deal by waiting, and in the case of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, he got no deal at all! Which reminded me of the self critical comment made by another artistic genius, Oscar Wilde, regarding his launching an action of criminal libel against the Marquis of Queensberry who had called him a “sodomite.” After Wilde had spent three years in jail he supposedly said, “What colossal stupidity!” While it’s obvious that both Wilde and Welles were artistic geniuses, it seems they both could be “colossally stupid” when it came to dealing with mundane business matters. That is surely why Welles always needed the skills of a strong producing partner, who was in sympathy with his artistic aims. Someone who could shepherd his artistic vision through the dangers of the studio system in the forties, and in the fifties and sixties through the new found independent distribution process. Which is probably why the many strong-willed producers Welles worked with in his career seemed to have had better results in actually getting Welles's films seen. They include: John Houseman, Sam Spiegel, William Castle, Herbert J. Yates, Albert Zugsmith and Alexander Salkind. When Welles acted as his own producer, while the film may have been artistically brilliant, it was almost always never distributed properly. The perfect example of this is OTHELLO. Welles produced and financed the film himself and therefore owned it outright. He sold it to United Artists for release in the United States three years after it had won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival. The film opened at the Paris Theater in New York City, and after a brief three week run there, United Artists pulled the picture and apparently never opened it anywhere else in the U.S. (According to Variety, the picture grossed less than $100,000.) The rights then reverted back to Welles, which explains why, except on a very few rare occasions, the movie was never screened in America during Welles's lifetime.

It appears something similar happened with F FOR FAKE. Welles had completed the film on his own and was attempting to sell it, with Francois Reichenbach acting as his producer. They ended up selling the film to the Iranian company, Les Films de l’Astrophore, who were already involved with the financing of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. However, before he sold the film, Welles certainly controlled every aspect of the final print, including its title. Which is why one wonders what Welles was thinking of when he perversely refused to give his picture a recognizable name! Even after it was brought by Les Films de l’Astrophore, the film took an astonishing three years to open in America. Although looking at some of the reviews that appeared after its initial showings, it’s not that surprising that there was so little interest by any studio or distributor in acquiring the film, or for that matter, in investing in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. Clearly both pictures would be very tough to market, and while they might prove to be artistic successes, there is little doubt their commercial prospects were perceived as being rather limited.

Obviously, with a “new kind of essay film,” on his hands, Welles only further hampered his own commercial success when a myriad of questions surfaced about what the actual title of the film was.

According to Gene Moskowitz’s review in Variety the picture was shown under the title of QUESTION MARK at the Club 13 screening room in Paris, on October 19, 1973. Moskowitz reports: “the film should intrigue buffs and would be a natural for school usage. Welles still shows his film know how despite the thin and sometimes overworked material. Even the title is unclear, for the word “Fake” is used at first and there is then a question mark which may also be the title and maybe more fitting for this glib but interesting pic.”

Jonathan Rosenbaum who was living in Paris at the time and had lunch with Welles in July of 1972, also saw the film at Club 13. Welles told Rosenbaum that he planned to call the film HOAX. Yet, when Rosenbaum saw the film in Paris, his report in the January 1974 issue of Film Comment, gives the title as FAKE. He also added this addendum to his article: “Department of Mystification: Two days after completing and sending off the above (article), Les Films du Prisme sends me a fiche technique of the new Welles film. According to them, the title is QUESTION MARK, Welles and Reichenbach share the director’s credit, and the script is by Oja Palinkas (Kodar), the leading actress. Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving (but not Welles) are listed as the leading actors. On the credits of the film that I saw, the word FAKE appears, followed by a question mark, and afterwards the title, “a film by Orson Welles.” For the time being I am content to call it THE NEW ORSON WELLES FILM, co-directed by Irving and de Hory, written by Jorge Luis Borges, and produced by Howard Hughes. …As Welles remarks about Chartres, the most important thing is that it exists.”

The film then apparently had it’s first public showing at The Tehran International Film Festival in 1973, at Roudaki Hall, complete with a tribute to Orson Welles, who received the Golden Winged Ibex Award for Life Achievement in the cinema. What the Persian title for the film was remains unclear, although I find it interesting that Welles was honored for his career in Iran, a full two years before he received an award from The American Film Institute. Ironically when the AFI gave Welles their Life Achievement Award, F FOR FAKE was finished, but still had not been released in America. As a result, no clips from Welles's latest film were shown, since Welles insisted that clips from his work in progress, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND should be featured. The AFI officials naturally resisted this request, since they really weren’t very interested in Orson Welles's future as a filmmaker, only in his glorious past. They also managed to give the incorrect release date and title for F FOR FAKE in their program book. Let’s just be thankful they didn’t invite Richard Nixon back to present their award to Orson Welles!

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The Other Side of the Wind is Orson Welles only unrealized film project that could possibly be completed without the great man himself. There are many arguments to support this hope. But my goal would be to work with everybody who worked on the picture, Oja Kodar, and anybody who was around a lot. Frank Marshall was there for quite a while, so I would ask them what they all remember, and we would all pool are memories of what Orson had in mind. The idea would be to try and get as close as we can to what Orson had in mind, following the script and following notes that he made, and things he said to Oja about writing the script, and things he might have said to me. There’s a certain rhythm (in the film) that he obviously had in mind, and we’d try to get to that kind of rhythm, depending on the scene and also depending on the things we know about Orson.

–Peter Bogdanovich

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With the recent comments in Variety from Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich about
how close they are to striking a deal with Showtime (yet again), I thought I'd update the timeline Welles scholar Kari Elovuori supplied to Wellesnet, with a few more additions of my own.

This new updated timeline includes some more recent information about the rather amazing backing Showtime has provided for the project, along with a very interesting script excerpt which shows how easily the film could be put together, if only the various factions would each agree to a reasonable amount of money!

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1966 – Orson Welles writes a script The Sacred Beasts, about a young bullfighter and an older film director who follows him around Spain and "admires" him. Ironically, Welles envisioned shooting this film very quickly.

August, 1970 – Shooting begins on The Other Side of the Wind in Hollywood. The script has now morphed into the story of an aging film director who is making his "comeback" movie. In place of a bullfighter, the director is now enamored with a handsome young man, whom he first encounters off the coast of Mexico. When the boy is attempting a “faked” suicide, Hannaford not only rescues him, but proceeds to cast him as the lead in his upcoming movie.

1971 – Acting as his own producer, Welles continues shooting wherever and whenever he has enough money to continue. He hasn't yet decided who will play the 70-year old film director, himself or John Huston.

1972 – While editing the initial footage of The Other Side of the Wind in Paris, Welles begins working on a personal essay film, F For Fake.

January, 1974 – Shooting resumes in Arizona for three months. Welles has finally decided to give the role of Jake Hannaford to his old friend and colleague, John Huston who joins the company for six weeks of intense work at a house Welles has rented in Carefree, a luxurious new housing development in the desert, outside of Phoenix.

March, 1975 – Orson Welles presents two sequences from The Other Side of the Wind at his AFI life achievement award. Ironically, the film "experts" at the AFI attempted to veto Welles idea to show this footage, and he has to threaten them with not appearing in order to get the clips shown.

1976 – Principal photography is basically completed, but Welles becomes involved in a bitter legal dispute with his Iranian partners over ownership rights to the film. This dispute will effectively keep the picture from being completed during Welles lifetime. However, Welles continues to work on the editing of the film during the final nine years before his death in 1985.

1985 – Orson Welles dies unexpectedly on October 10. Oja Kodar inherits the rights to all of the many Welles movie projects that were still in progress. Kodar, with the help of Gary Graver and Peter Bogdanovich, attempts to find new backers who will “buy out” the Iranian backers and allow the film to be completed. None of the major (or even minor) Hollywood studios show any interest in funding the project.

August, 2002 – Oja Kodar reaches a deal with Showtime to finance the completion of The Other Side of the Wind, but the deal falls apart when Beatrice Welles claims she has the right to “approve” any such deal. Thomas White, Beatrice Welles representative says at the time: “Under the law, Beatrice stands in the shoes of Orson Welles in all matters that would have been his to decide. She controls the estate and protects her father and won't do anything that she knows he wouldn't have approved of. Therefore, the only way this project can go forward is with her blessing." Ironically, in his will, Welles clearly states that anyone who attempts to interfere with Oja's rights to his films would be completely disinherited. Why this provision has never been brought up in U.S. courts remains a mystery.

March, 2007 – A new Showtime deal is reached, which apparently placates Beatrice Welles with a substantial payment. Peter Bogdanovich announces that work can finally go forward on completing The Other Side of the Wind.

April, 2008 – Peter Bogdanovich films the opening of the Los Angeles vault where Oja Kodar has kept the rough-cut and other related material for The Other Side of the Wind.

June, 2008 – Showtime sets up an editing suite in Los Angeles, to begin the preliminary logging in work for all of The Other Side of the Wind footage. Tim King is the Showtime executive in charge of post-production. Sasha Welles, a nephew to Oja Kodar, is also working on the project as an assistant editor.

Dec. 2008 – After six months of work, Showtime puts the editing on “hold,” due to an unspecified complication. One possibility is that the negative is still unavailable for inspection in the Paris film vault where it is being held by French Officials. There is reportedly over ten hours of negative footage in the Paris vault, making access to it vital to properly complete the project.

February, 2009 – Peter Boganovich and Frank Marshall tell Variety the project is still viable. Marshall says: “Showtime is willing to pay for it, but they want to make sure the materials are there. The negative is in a lab in Paris, but we can't get the estates together to get us into the lab to confirm that the negative is in good shape.”
Bogdanovich says: “It's going to happen in the next month or so. We're aiming for Cannes (in 2010). Everybody wants it to happen. It's film history. It will be something for it to finally be seen after all these years."

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Script Excerpt follows:
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I just recently received a copy of a poem Gary Graver wrote that was printed for his memorial service.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to include it in Gary's memoir, Making Movies With Orson Welles, so I thought I would reproduce it here.

I'll also add this thought, since I've now had the opportunity to see a rough cut of The Other Side of the Wind:

I've no doubt Gary might easily have been nominated for an Academy Award if the film had been released in 1975, or maybe he could still be, if the film were to be released in say, 2012.

One scene that stands out in my mind: a beautiful series of panning telephoto shots of Bob Random, as he is walking through various different locations on the back lot at MGM, including what appears to be a field of tall grass. Welles cuts on these panning shots about five times, so the effect is almost as if the camera move is one continuous pan, except each time he cuts, the background changes, as Random moves from left to right across the screen (think of the similar cutting Alain Resnais did in La Guerre Est Finie)

It's also one of the few scenes in the rough cut that had a temp. music track, in this case a nice piece of Spanish guitar (if I recall correctly), which adds immeasurably to the poetic effect of the scene.

Needless to say, as shot by Gary Graver, the sequence is only one of many that looks quite beautiful in what is clearly Gary's masterpiece of cinematography. No wonder Welles called Gary "Rembrandt."

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And the hand scooped up a fist full of dirt
And this was life and it fell back through fingers
Earth to earth
And a foot stepped on it
And this was still life.
From the womb to the grave from lip to lip
From night to night from the touch of fingertip to fingertip
And this was beauty,
The beauty of your loved one's hair
And fresh face caught aglow in an anxious wind,
And the morning frost and smell of dew
And a fallen lonely flower petal and the smile of love
And the strength of the gift of young ambition and heroism
And from the blue crib to the naked grave
This was life

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In Celebration of the life of Gary Graver

July 20, 1938 - November 16, 2006

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The recent showing of Stefan Drossler’s rare “Unknown Welles” material at The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, brought out a large contingent of Bay area film scholars, including Joseph McBride, the author of many books on Welles, Tom Luddy, the former director of The San Francisco Film Festival, and current director of The Telluride Film Festival, Fantoma DVD president James Healy, SF film writer Meredith Brody, and Jonathan Marlow, the director of The San Francisco Cinematheque.

There were also several members of the audience who indicated they has flown up from Los Angeles, specifically for the opportunity to see this rare Welles material.

The two programs Stefan presented lasted over five hours, but I was personally most delighted to see the rough cut of The Other Side of the Wind that was shown in a special "after hours" session for a select group of Welles scholars.

So, in the grand tradition of Arthur Bannister, here is an Auto-interview about The Other Side of the Wind:

Do you think The Other Side of the Wind is a potential Welles's masterpiece?

In my own personal opinion, I would say the answer has to be a resounding YES! There are scenes that far exceed anything in Welles work after Chimes at Midnight.

You must be kidding? I thought it was considered far too experimental, or even worse, quite boring by most people who have seen it.

I've heard the same stories, but I saw the film long after midnight and it held me in awe. It had scenes of lyrical beauty, great acting and is filmed in beautiful color contrasted with rich black and white. Now, you may also recall that Welles's Chimes at Midnight The Trial and Touch of Evil also had the same kind of things said about them. The New York Times for instance thought that Chimes at Midnight was a total disaster! And every studio in Hollywood turned down Welles script for The Dreamers, one of the most poetic scripts I've ever read! So if we let the so-called "experts" like David Thomson decide that The Other Side of the Wind shouldn't be finished, it certainly never will be.

So you you really think it can be edited and shown?

Of course it can! Given the footage I’ve now seen, and having carefully studied the script, which I regard as a brilliant piece of work, I not only believe it can be finished, but I regard it as an artistic crime that it hasn't been finished!

What kind of money is needed to finish the project, and is Showtime still involved?

Showtime has been very supportive of the project, but over the years have run into many unexpected difficulties. Which is why I believe everyone who would like the film finished should certainly write directly to Showtime and voice their support for the project. Needless to say, the executives at Showtime are to be thanked for standing by the project after so many years, despite all the setbacks they have encountered. If the film finally gets completed, I believe Matthew Duda will have a lasting legacy behind him that will certainly make him remembered for a long time.

Oh come on? I can't think of any TV executives who are known to film buffs... Well, maybe one, that stupid idiot James Aubrey who ran CBS in the 60's

Yes, Mr. Aubrey is sometimes remembered, just like George W. Bush will be remembered... but unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons. Welles’s even noted that Aubrey's nick-name was the “Smiling Cobra.” He was also the man who shut down MGM, ironically at the very time Welles was shooting The Other Side of the Wind on the MGM back lot. Shortly afterwards, Aubrey took MGM out of the business of making movies.

Given all the problems Showtime has encountered with the film, why are they still involved?

I'd like to think it's because they realize the historic importance of this project. Which is why I'd like to personally extend my thanks to Showtime's Matthew Duda, who has gone far beyond the call of duty in standing by this film. To be honest, it's quite a daunting proposal. If it does get completed, it may very well be viciously attacked by the enemies of Welles, or those who won't invest the time needed to understand what Welles was attempting to do. On the other hand, if the film is well-received, it's quite possible that Mr. Duda may go down in cinematic history as the Dore Schary of his era. Mr. Schary, of course, was the enlightened head of MGM in the 50's, who brought Welles old partner John Houseman to MGM to produce a series of memorable movies for the studio, including Julius Caesar and Lust for Life.)

How does The Other Side of the Wind compare in relation to the other Welles unfinished projects?

I'd say it's the most interesting and exciting unfinished Welles work out there. The risks in trying to finish the project are great, but I dare say, the rewards will be far more exciting than any other unfinished project by Welles, including The Deep and Don Quixote. As Jake Hannaford says, those other films are "Less than the dust from my chariot wheels."

I'll drink to that!

So will I, when and if the film gets completed! And to help back up my rather grandiose statements, I'd like to present two excerpts from The Other Side of the Wind. The first is from the original screenplay, the second is the same scene from the continuity script, that records the scene exactly as it was filmed and edited by Welles. In most movies, these two documents are not that different, but reflect the small changes in concept that occur when a director shoots what the screenwriter has written. However, in Welles case, he made a great many changes to his own script, due no doubt to the circumstances, the budget, his lack of actors, or simply because a better idea presented itself to him while he was shooting or editing the material.

These two scenes clearly demonstrate the creative genius of Orson Welles, as both a director and film editor, just in case anyone actually needed such evidence.

This sequence also features some stand-out performances from the actors involved, so it should be noted that three of the performers had already won Academy Awards. Huston's was for directing, but he gives a performance that easily surpasses his work as an actor in The Cardinal or Chinatown.

John Huston plays Jake Hannaford
Edmund O’ Brien plays Pat
Mercedes McCambridge plays Maggie

Also giving standout performances are:

Lilli Palmer as Zarah Veleska
Susan Strasberg as Juliette Riche
and
Cameron Mitchell as Zimmer

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Ray Kelly, our Wellesnet man in Cambridge sends along this exclusive report on Stefan Drossler's presentation of The Unknown Orson Welles on December 1, 2008 at the Harvard Film Archive

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By RAY KELLY

What was billed as a two hour look at the unfinished works of Orson Welles, stretched into a nearly four-hour presentation. There were about 100 people present, similar to the size of the crowd there the night before for the look at Welles’ TV work (according to the gentleman seated behind me). Stefan Drossler of the Munich Film Museum bookended his presentation with a showing of a 1955 episode of Orson Welles Sketch Book and concluded with the 1983 videotaped pitch Welles's made for his film version of King Lear.

Early in the evening, Drossler made it clear that some of Welles lost work may truly be lost. For instance, in processing some 1970's cans of undeveloped footage of Moby Dick revealed only a blue print. The cans are being stored in hopes that a future technology may be able to salvage the footage. The Deep is also fading.

Highlights of the evening included:

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THE DEEP – For me this was the highlight of the night. A trailer (similar to the one shown in One Man Band, but much longer) was followed by a color reel of edited footage with sound and music. The footage totaled 18 minutes. Drossler believes it is The Deep, rather than, The Other Side of the Wind, that would have the best chance of being released closest to Welles’s vision. However, it is a low priority for Oja Kodar, who doesn’t want The Deep to compete with OSOTW in the battle to find completion funds. Further, an effort by German and French television to preserve and color correct the footage was nixed by Kodar a few years back over her request for more money. The Munich film Museum has only the work print. The negative of The Deep was apparently destroyed by French customs because of non-payment.

Additionally, dubbing most of the parts in The Deep would be necessary since Welles shot most of the footage with an un-blimped camera. Drossler also noted that Jeanne Moreau had originally acted in The Deep for only a percentage of the profits. However, her experience on the set was not entirely pleasant, since she and Ms. Kodar did not get along. When Welles later asked her to re-dub her lines, Moreau reportedly balked unless payment was forthcoming. Although now Moreau would be willing to help out, her voice is much deeper, so it might need to be dubbed by a younger actress. The other three main actors in the film (Welles, Laurence Harvey, Michael Bryant) are now deceased, so they would also have to be re-dubbed.

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One of the highlight's of Gary Graver's memoir, Making Movies with ORSON WELLES is the inside view it gives us on the making of The Other Side of the Wind. Perhaps the book may finally help to sweep aside the last remaining obstacles and get the Showtime deal to finish the movie back on track.

Here's how Gary Graver sums up The Other Side of the Wind in his book:

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Orson viewed The Other Side of the Wind as a bookend to Citizen Kane. It's an interesting film that needs to be completed so it can be viewed alongside Orson's classic films. I think it will shed new light on Orson's artistic legacy. It's quite different from anything else he ever did. It's a marvelous film. Its structure--the movie-within-a-movie--and all of Orson's ideas were so fresh. The dialogue and the visuals are terrific.

I think it's Orson's finest film since Touch of Evil, and I think the public deserves the opportunity to see the film and decide for themselves where it ranks in the canon of Welles films. I think it will enjoy a long shelf life and make millions for whoever ends up finishing it. Today Orson is bigger than ever. He has fans in countries all around the world. What bigger market could you want for such a film?

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The book also offers us a true insider's portrait of Orson Welles, which could only be written by somebody who worked with Welles intimately over a period of 15 years. We even get a sense of the despair Welles must have felt when, by 1977, it became apparent that The Other Side of the Wind was doomed to join the ranks of Welles other unfinished projects.

In a poignant hand-written note reproduced in the book, dated Aug. 24, 1977, Welles writes the following plea to Graver:

________________________

Gary:

This is a real cry for help -- Please, please call me!

Orson

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That same year, Welles stopped active work on The Other Side of the Wind, for reasons that are explained in this excerpt from an 11-page letter Welles wrote in 1977 to Mehdi Boushehri, the primary Iranian backer of The Other Side of the Wind:

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I can hardly be called an unbiased reviewer when it comes to this book, since I contributed an interview with Gary Graver and Oja Kodar that serves as an afterward, but I must say in all candor, I was absolutely delighted when I received a copy of it today. First of all, having talked with Gary Graver extensively, I was wondering what more I could possibly find out about Gary's work with Welles in a volume devoted to that subject.

Well, as it turns out, quite a bit!

I'll offer some more detailed comments about the book after I've read it through completely, but just from my first impressions, this is obviously a must-have book for anyone with even the slightest interest in Welles later career (1970- 1985), and especially The Other Side of The Wind. I happen to think this is when Welles did some of his greatest work.

If you are interested in ordering a copy, it should be shipping shortly, as it has been printed and is on its way to retail outlets. Barnes and Noble appears to have the current lowest price for it on the Net, at $28.00.

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Making Movies with ORSON WELLES: A Memoir
By Gary Graver with Andrew J. Rausch
Foreword by Joseph McBride
Afterword (an Interview with Gary Graver and Oja Kodar) by Lawrence French

The Scarecrow Press
Pub Date: September 30, 2008
192 pages, Hardcover
List Price: $35.00

In 1958, Gary Graver moved from his hometown of Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles, California with dreams of an acting career in Hollywood. Soon after his arrival, he caught a double bill in a small theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the lower half of which was the recently released Touch of Evil. Upon viewing this noir classic, Graver decided he wanted to be a director and spent many years honing his craft, as both a cinematographer and a director, not to mention writer, actor, and producer--much like his idol, Orson Welles.

In 1970, when Graver learned that Welles was in town, he impulsively called up the director and offered him his services as a cameraman. It was only the second time in Welles' career that he had received such an offer from a cinematographer, the other time being from Gregg Toland, who worked on one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane.

In Making Movies with Orson Welles, Gary Graver recounts the highs and lows of the moviemaking business as he and one of the most important and influential directors of all time struggled to get films produced. The two men collaborated on more than a dozen projects, including F for Fake, Filming Othello, Moby Dick-Rehearsed, The Dreamers and their magnum opus, the still unreleased The Other Side of the Wind. Their close friendship and creative filmmaking partnership would endure for 15 years, until Welles' death in October, 1985.

The book also includes an extensive filmography of Welles and Graver's work together, much of which remains unavailable for viewing, along with 20 rare photos from Gary Graver's personal collection. This fascinating memoir recalls what it was like to work with the legendary Orson Welles and offers advice and tales of caution for future filmmakers.

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Gary Graver, one of Orson Welles’ closest collaborators, has written a superb book on Welles. It is a captivating and insightful look at their extraordinary relationship, a must-have for Welles fans and academians alike.

—Frank Marshall, Producer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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About the authors

Gary Graver (1938-2006) was a respected cinematographer who worked on nearly 200 films. He served as cameraman on films by such diverse filmmakers as Paul Bartel, Budd Boetticher, John Cassavetes, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, and Orson Welles.

Andrew J. Rausch is the author of several books on film including Turning Points in Film History and Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian.

Wellesnet contributor Kari Elovuori has sent along a link to a marvelous site he has created as "his own private exercise" which features a welcoming video from Orson Welles, a timeline for The Other Side of the Wind,  and best of all,  a  video that features clips and some great color stills from the film, showing Welles, John Huston, Oja Kodar and many other members of the cast on location in Carefree, Arizona. There are also some comments from Oja Kodar about the movie.

Check it all out here:

http://www.edu.stadia.fi/~0700532/vmedia/intro.html

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Click to see the last page of the script:

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Thanks and many kudos to Lamont Cranston (The Shadow Knows) for posting the links to these two fantastic scenes of Paul Mazursky and Henry Jaglom from The Other Side of the Wind, on the Wellesnet message board.

They are now available for viewing on YouTube. Also a special thanks to Shoudriot for posting these videos on YouTube in the first place!

Henry Jaglom and Paul Mazursky – Length: 5:35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppeHCDKk4k

Henry Jaglom and Paul Mazursky (alternate takes with an additional scene of Dennis Hopper as another young director from the Easy Rider era of Hollywood) – Length: 6:29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOVOXhvdKD4

A few years ago, Paul Mazursky told me about these scenes in some detail. He recalled them as a drunken night spent with Orson Welles at his house in Hollywood, but of course at the time, I hadn't actually seen the scenes. Now, after looking at them, and seeing what Mazursky said about the scenes, his comments have proven to be extremely accurate! According to Mr. Mazursky, he and Henry Jaglom spent over four hours at Welles house in 1971 improvising these scenes. After watching the scenes and reading Mazursky's comments, you will see that over 30 years later, Mazursky remembered his night of work with Welles extremely well, considering the amount of brandy he consumed... you will even see him lift up a brandy glass (very briefly) at the end of the second scene!

Now, for someone who doesn't know the context of these two scenes, they probably will prove to be less than satisfying viewing. But when you realize that Jaglom and Mazursky are talking about the great Hollywood director Jake Hannaford, the major character in Orson Welles The Other Side of the Wind, they make much more sense.

What is also interesting to note, is that Welles apparently told Jaglom much more background about the story of Jake Hannaford (or else Jaglom had already read the script), than what Welles told to Mazursky (who says he did not read the script). But in these two scenes, Jaglom seems to know much more about Jake's fascist-like tendencies, and speaks with more insight about Jake's background, while Mazursky (who seems to be out talked by Jaglom), may simply not have been given enough information about Jake to ad-lib his replies. However, Mazursky does cite a key plot point when he says, "are you saying (Hannaford) is homosexual?

In the script, it is brought out that Jake Hannaford can only make male stars, because he always seems to find some young and attractive leading man to star in his movies who he eventually falls secretly in love with. So actually, maybe that would be a good angle to get the film finally released. Orson Welles makes a gay movie, long before Brokeback Mountain!

Welles also told Mazursky and Jaglom that since John Huston wasn't available the night they were shooting their scenes, that he would be the one who would feed them their off screen lines. Welles assumed the role of Jake Hannaford (who is supposed to be in the scene with them), so it is indeed Welles voice you hear in all the off-camera dialogue.

Another notable aspect of these scenes, is the beautiful way they were lit and shot (in black and white) by Gary Graver in 1971. Seeing the scenes for the first time, I was struck by how much they anticipated the style of Robert Mapplethorpe's still portraits, as both Jaglom and Mazursky's faces stand out against a pure black background. Of course, that makes perfect sense, since in the context of the movie, all the lights have supposedly gone out at Jake's ranch house, so naturally, they would only be lit by candlelight or lanterns.

After seeing these two brilliantly improvised scenes, directed by Welles, along with all the other footage I've seen, I find it absolutely criminal that this great piece of cinematic art still remains unseen. For me, Welles screenplay for The Other Side of the Wind is a masterpiece of screenwriting acumen. It seems only logical that the script, as filmed by Orson Welles would also have to considered as Welles' final masterpiece.

Below are Paul Mazursky's comments about his single night of work on The Other Side of the Wind in 1971, which will certainly place the YouTube scenes in better context for anyone who has not read the script. And apparently, Paul Mazursky himself has never even seen this footage, so hopefully he will now get the opportunity to do so. So speaking on behalf of Mr. Mazursky, many thanks to Sboudriot!

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On the set of Showtime's upcoming presentation of Orson Welles' final film, The Other Side of the Wind: John Huston, Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich.
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Here are Peter Bogdanovich's comments regarding the status of completing The Other Side of the Wind as recorded in San Francisco on March 9, 2008.

Following the interview, I have included the opening narration from Orson Welles original script for The Other Side of the Wind. Welles originally intended to speak the narration himself, but it was never recorded. Given that fact, it seems to me as it would be quite appropriate to have Mr. Bogdanovich speak these lines, instead of Welles, as he is the only major actor from the film still around who could do so.

Of course, another alternative would be to simply hire a good voice-over actor, such as Anthony Hopkins, to read the lines instead. I've also included another interview with Peter Bogdanovich, recorded several years ago when The Cat's Meow was first released, where Mr. Bogdanovich talks about Orson Welles in relation to The Cat's Meow and several other projects.

Three directors: John Huston, Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich at lunch in Carefree, Arizona

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: Last March in Florida, you announced that Showtime had finally green-lit plans to finish the editing work on The Other Side of the Wind. Since that time, I’ve heard stories that Oja Kodar had some kind of reservations about actually signing the final contract.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: No, it wasn’t Oja. I don’t want to go into details, but there were some rights we still needed, but hadn't gotten. But Showtime is still going to go forward with the project. We just have to work out of few more of the rights issues. Since then, I’ve actually seen a lot of the footage I hadn’t seen before, because we got into Oja’s vault in Los Angeles which has all the positive footage. I’d only seen about 40 minutes of the film and now I’ve seen quite a lot of new footage. These are scenes we had shot but Orson never showed them to me. I still haven’t seen everything, because there is so much stuff to look at. It’s the dailies and so on and it looks great.

Orson Welles gets down and dirty - on the floor to check out a low angle shot, while cinematographer Gary Graver looks on. Oja Kodar is sitting behind Welles.
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LAWRENCE FRENCH: What about the vault in Paris that houses the negative?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: We're working on that still. There’s footage in Paris that I don’t think is here, so there’s a lot of material.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Did you see any footage of the fireworks they shoot off outside of Jake Hannaford’s ranch house to celebrate his 70th birthday?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Yes, there were some of the fireworks scenes in there.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Several people who say they know the film say they don’t think there’s enough good material to put The Other Side of the Wind together and make it work. But having read the script and having seen a lot of the footage myself, I think it can be quite a brilliant picture.

Orson Welles lights a cigar between takes.

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PETER BOGDANOVICH: Yes, and there’s plenty of footage. It’s all been shot and we’re going to couch the entire thing as a kind of documentary about making the film.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Some other objections have been raised about how to best use the film within a film sequences, like the famous ten-minute sex scene between Oja Kodar and Bob Random in the mustang. The objection being, if you cut that scene up or shorten it, it won’t be as effective.

Oja Kodar, effectively lit by Gary Graver to simulate passing headlights during the tour-de-force sex scene between Bob Random and Kodar in the front seat of a Mustang (click to enlarge).

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PETER BOGDANOVICH: I don’t think it’s ten minutes, but that scene will be in the picture, but it has to be crosscut with people watching it.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: When you get the final go-ahead on the project, how long do you think it will take to put everything together?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Probably a year or longer. Orson asked me to finish the picture if anything should ever happen to him. One day at lunch in Arizona, we were all sitting around, Orson, Oja, Frank Marshall and myself. Out of the blue, Orson turned to me and said, “if anything ever happens to me I want you to promise me you’ll finish the picture.” I said, “what a terrible thing to say. Why should anything happen to you?” He said, “I know, but just in case it does, I want you to promise me you’ll finish the picture.” I said, “okay, of course I will.” So when Orson died I felt it was incumbent on me to make good on my promise. It’s now been 22 years and I think we are finally going to get it done. I’d say it should happen within the next year. But to catalogue all the material, putting it all together so we know exactly what is there, including what’s in Paris, is going to take almost a year. So there’s still a lot of work to do.

Orson Welles consults with Peter Bogdanovich and Joseph McBride in Bogdanovich's Bel Air home (click to enlarge).

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: Will Frank Marshall be helping out on the project?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Yes, Frank will be involved in producing the final version. Of course, Oja will be involved and although Medhi Bouscheri died, his widow wants it to happen, as well. Everybody wants it to happen, but we just had a snag with some people who made problems. Showtime has already got quite a bit tied up in it.

(Here are some of Frank Marshall's comments on the film: We’re working with Showtime on finishing Orson Welles’ last movie, The Other Side of the Wind, which I worked on in the 1970's (as production manager). We have the script. We shot it all—I worked on it for over five years—but we never put it together. Showtime has been incredibly supportive. I’m producing what will be the final movie that Orson directed.)

Orson Welles directs Gary Graver shooting with a  arriflex camera to simulate the frenetic cinéma-vérité style camera work that Welles' wanted for the party sequences in The Other Side of the Wind.

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: In the script, Welles clearly indicates a lot of overlapping dialogue and cutting between different voices coming from tape recorders and so-forth. So you’ll also have to do a lot of elaborate sound editing and add a score to the film.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Yes and Orson wanted the picture to have a jazz score. It was supposed to be a kind of song score, because there is music playing at Hannaford’s birthday party.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: The French producer of the film, Dominique Antoine said Welles was going to use Michel Legrand to score the film.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Maybe, but I don’t think so, because it was supposed to have a documentary feel. We’ll never really know, because Orson was such a fresh filmmaker he never put anything in stone. He always kept changing his mind and he’d re-do scenes at the last minute. So to know exactly what he would have done is impossible. All you can do is take what’s there and follow his notes and follow your instincts and do the best you can with what he left behind. There are many scenes that he didn’t edit, but he left edited takes, where he cut off the slates and cut off the tail and just left what he wanted to use from the take, so if you follow the script, you realize what take he wanted to use, and what line reading he wanted to use. For example, there’s a line of mine in a scene with John Huston where he had printed two takes. The first part of the first take is great, but the second part of the first take is lousy. But the second part of the second take was good, so he obviously meant to put them together. If you follow what he laid out, you can follow his reasoning.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Cinematographer Gary Graver said most of the film was shot, but there were still a couple of inserts and effects scenes that needed to be filmed, like Hannaford crashing his Porsche behind the drive-in screen.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: I don’t think we need to shoot anything, but we still have to see all the footage, so we’re not entirely sure. But Orson said he didn’t think there was anything left that needed to be shot. We’re going to put the whole thing in the form of a documentary about the making of a film, that was a mockumentary of itself. So we can jump in and say, “we didn’t shoot this.” We won’t connive to do that too often, so we can involve the audience as much as possible, but there will always be an unfinished quality to it, because it is unfinished. If we don’t do that, we’ll have a problem with Beatrice Welles (who controls the Welles estate).

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Because you play the leading role of Brooks Otterlake in the movie, one of the interesting things you might want to do is add the opening narration to the movie, which Welles originally intended to read himself, but it was never recorded.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Yes, we will probably do something like that, because Brooks is the only one around after Hannaford’s death. So he would probably be the one who would put the film together.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Did you ever act in any scenes with Lilli Palmer?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: No, all her scenes were shot in Spain. Orson shot wherever he was at the moment.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: I’ve heard stories that John Huston privately expressed misgivings about the film.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: That is so untrue! John tried to finish the film himself, because he loved his own performance and he thought the film was fascinating. He wanted to cut it with his son, Danny Huston, but Oja wouldn’t let him do it. (Danny Huston told The London Times in 2005: I’ve seen the footage. It’s absolutely fascinating.)

John Huston as J. J. Hannaford, smiles benignly for the swarm of cameras that are covering his every move during his 70th birthday party.

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: My own thought on how to complete the film would be to hire a really good film editor from the late sixties, like Dede Allen who was so good at doing the kind of staccato cutting that was in fashion at the time, and that Welles intended to use. Or maybe Donn Cambern who edited Easy Rider and I noticed you worked with him on The Last Picture Show.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Donn didn’t really edit The Last Picture Show. I cut the film by myself, by hand, as I did with Targets. The reason Donn got credit was because the editor’s guild said we had to have an editing credit. I said, “I’m not going to take an editor credit.” It would be too much, but I did physically cut the picture. At the time Donn was cutting another picture, Drive, He Said directed by Jack Nicholson, so as a favor, I asked him if he would order the opticals for me, which I had already marked. Then (producer) Bert Schneider said, “What do you want to do about the editor’s credit, we’ve got to give somebody credit.” So I said, well give it to Donn. Then a year or so later I was going to hire Donn for a picture and he wanted to charge me an arm and a leg, so I said, “Donn… just forget it!” No good turn goes un-rewarded.

Left: Welles oversees Gary Graver's shooting of Oja Kodar walking through a maze of buildings in Century City, while Bob Random watches from his motorcycle in the foreground.  Right: Welles directs Gary Graver and key grip, J. Michael Stringer on how to shoot Bob Random on his motorcycle for the Antonioni-like film within a film directed by Jake Hannaford: The Other Side of the Wind.
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GLENN ANDERS: What would be nice is when The Other Side of the Wind is finally finished, if Orson Welles got an Oscar nomination for best director and John Huston got a nomination for best actor, like Charlie Chaplin got for Limelight, twenty years after that film was made.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: It would be wonderful, wouldn’t it? I don’t think it would ever happen though. It would be too much for the Academy.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: If you can somehow get the picture finished by 2009, it would also be a wonderful way to celebrate your own 70th birthday! So on behalf of every one at Wellesnet, we’re wishing you the best of luck on finishing the picture.

Orson Welles watches a run through.
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By Lawrence French

Given the primal place both Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway hold as titans of  American culture, it seems strange that so little has been written about their memorable meeting to work on Joris Ivens The Spanish Earth. Perhaps this is because so little seems to be known about what actually took place, other than what Welles himself has reported. Even Welles only mentions this encounter in two interviews that I am aware of.  But given the flourishing number of stage shows that have re-created Welles in a fictional setting, it seems like the Welles-Hemingway encounter might provide the basis for a very interesting two man play (or even a movie).  

Joesph McBride's What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? goes into some detail about their initial meeting, quoting liberally from Michael Parkinson's interview with Welles on that subject, but I thought it would be interesting to post all of  the relevent passages from Parkinson's interview, since they provide such a key to the genesis of the script for The Other Side of the Wind  (which Welles was still actively filming when he talked to Parkinson in 1974). As Joe McBride notes, Welles meeting with Hemingway was the seed that would germinate into "The Sacred Beasts," then burst into full bloom when Welles turned it into his script for The Other Side of the Wind. In fact, listening to Welles 1974 comments to Parkinson about his own experience as an amateur bullfighter in Seville, in 1933, sheds considerable light on the themes that dominate the script for The Other Side of the Wind. It is essentially the same as what Welles said to the Maysles brothers eight years earlier, in Madrid, when discussing his "The Sacred Beasts" story.  Welles aficionados such as Glenn Anders, who have read the script, or know some of the storyline, will no doubt find this material quite illuminating. As Glenn notes: "Suddenly, for me at least, the way The Other Side of the Wind should be completed, the way Welles would have done it, falls into place."   

The connections Jake Hannaford bears to Hemingway are now fairly well-known, having been reported in Joe McBride's book, but become even clearer after reading Welles comments about Hemingway. It also seems probable that Welles was inspired by Hemingway's books on bullfighting, such as The Sun Also Rises, which Welles calls a "superb book."  Of course, the main character in that book is also named "Jake" and is impotent (Hemingway never explicitly details Jake's injury, but it seems likely he has lost his testicles, but not his penis).    

Here is what Welles told to Juan Cobos in 1964 about his meeting with Hemingway:

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