ORSON'S BAG - Unfinished TV program from the late 60's

[mteal]

Nice webpage by Larry French on Wellesnet Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 198&type=1

[mteal]

John Michael Koroly (From Facebook): That still from his "Merchant of Venice" film is strikingly like the orgy sequence in Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." Any chance Stanley could have seen the footage on Orson's show?

Good question, although we'll probably never know. I also recently took another look at Robin Hardy's THE WICKER MAN from 1973 and was struck by the weird masks of the pagan revellers, particularly the policeman disguised as a grotesque, chicken-beaked, hunchbacked Mr. Punch:

[ToddBaesen]

Actually Kubrick could have seen THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, since ONE MAN BAND came out in 1995 right around the time Kubrick was working on EYES WIDE SHUT. However it seems more likely that the masks in EYES WIDE SHUT were simply based on the Venetian style of masks that you see all over the place in Venice.

[tonyw]

Dainah, la metisse (1931) directed by Jean Gremillon is also a possibility but the Venetian explanation is probably the most plausible.

[mteal]

Here are four more images from Welles's MERCHANT:

[mteal]

Dainah, la metisse (1931) directed by Jean Gremillon is also a possibility

Thanks for the tip on that, Tony. I'm not familiar with Gremillon, but that looks like my kind of movie. From imdb it sounds like DAINAH LE' METISSE (which translates roughly as DAINAH, THE MIXED-RACE GIRL) is another butchered masterwork, like AMBERSONS:

Director Jean Grémillon disavowed the released version, which included only 1400 meter of the originally filmed 2700 meter

[tonyw]

Gremillon is one of those neglected talents whose work very rarely appeared outside France (like Andre Cayette). The Eclipse series has recently released a 3 DVD collection of his films mad4e during the Occupation that are both outstanding and stylistically different from the one we are discussing. Maybe Orson was a frequent visitor to Henri Langlois Cinemateque while in France and saw many films that interested him?