Official OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND Thread - All things OSotW he

[RayKelly]

I spent much of this weekend reading a review copy of Joseph McBride's upcoming book, "What Ever Happened to Orson Welles."
Much has already been posted on Wellesnet about the fine reporting by McBride on "It's All True" and its budget, but I have to say that it is matched by his account of "The Other Side of the Wind." There is a 60-page chapter devoted to OSOTW and it is an eye-opener.
McBride's past books and magazine articles have recalled the filming of OSOTW in the 1970s, but "What Ever Happened to Orson Welles" delves into its current state. McBride gives the reader the reactions of George Lucas, Oliver Stone and Clint Eastwood to private screenings.
We get taken into the pitch made McBride and Rick Schmidlin to complete the film in 1998 and the use of 2 hour work print assembled by Gary Graver. (Heck, he gets into proposed DVD extras and the debate in the Welles inner circle over what needs to be trimmed from OSOTW). Details of the Showtime plan that unraveled several years ago because of Beatrice Welles' objections are here.
McBride reports the terms not only of Welles' will, but a document, Confirmation of Ownership Rights, signed by Welles less than four months before his death that makes it clear which films belong to Oja Kodar. There is so much more... I could spell out every detail in this chapter, but I really hope people buy this book.
I am a fan of McBride (and Jonathan Rosenbaum's work too ). Perhaps it is because McBride is a former news reporter. We get the facts and the subjects are treated pretty fairly. He obviously loves Welles work, but acknowledges his flaws. There are portions of the book about Kodar, Graver and Bogdanovich that I am sure they will love and parts some of them probably wish had not been reported.
The saddest part is that at the time the book went to print, OSOTW was still in limbo. Hopefully, the recent reports of progress posted on wellesnet are true.

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Ray, I agree, for the most part.

McBride is an immensely valuable resource because he is a direct conduit from Welles to our time.

I thought most of the book was okay, but the material on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND was superb. That account is about as primary and interesting as we are likely to get.

I happened to meet McBride last Spring, when some thought that this book was coming out. It may be possible that the publication was held up a bit in hope that a release date for TOSOTW would be announced, and/or a publication date for the other big book, on IT'S ALL TRUE. You will notice that references are made to events going out into mid-summer of this year.

McBride can be justly proud of his witness and loyalty to the heritage of our man, Welles.

Glenn

[tonyw]

I agree with the preceding comments concerning the merits of McBride's work. I've already written a review which is under consideration by an internet journal but I would urge all those who respect this book and the dedication that the author has given to his subject for over thirty years to write short reviews for amazon.com.

The more reviews that appear countering the dominant propaganda of Kael, Higham, Schickel, Thomson, and others, the more likely it is that the pendulum will swing towards appreciating Welles in the manner that this group has. Who knows, it may even stimulate post-production on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND?

[ToddBaesen]

Given the news that there is actually no deal with Showtime for OSOTW, along with the inflated amount of money wanted by all the principal participants left alive who would finish work on the film - and they keep dwindling downward - it doesn't seem like it would make financial sense for Showtime or any other company to pursue a deal.

But here is a report on what editor Frank Mazzola thought when Gary Graver showed him the OSOTW footage:

Editor Frank Mazzola Braves Orson Welles' 'The Other Side of the Wind'


By Amy Waddell , May 22, 2000 EDITOR'S WORLD

Even for an editor as seasoned as Frank Mazzola, cutting Orson Welles' last film -- the never-released "The Other Side of the Wind" -- will be something of an apex.
Mazzola, who distinguished himself in 1970 with montage and re-editing work on the late Donald Cammell's "Performance" with Mick Jagger, was approached last year by Orson Welles' companion, Oja Kodar, and cinematographer Gary Graver at the Orson Welles Conference in Munich, Germany. They asked him to take a look at some partially cut footage from "The Other Side of the Wind," which had lain dormant since Welles' death in 1985. "When all the pieces are put in, it will work beautifully," Mazzola said. "I have a complete vision about the film."

Raised in Hollywood, Mazzola began his film career as an actor, when director Nicholas Ray spotted him during auditions for "Rebel Without A Cause" (1955). Mazzola, who at the time was a member of a street gang called the Athenians, was not only cast as bad boy Crunch, but off the set, took Indiana-born James Dean down the rabbit hole of street-savvy Hollywood teenagers.

During the filming of "Rebel," Mazzola got his first stab at directing when Ray asked him to stage a knife fight for Dean. "That was like the highest high I'd ever had," Mazzola said. He smiled at the memory. "The first person I ever directed was Jimmy, which isn't bad."

Mazzola turned to editing, which at the time required an eight-year apprenticeship at a studio. Growing up in a family of musicians influenced his editing style. "I was able to break away from the structure of a piece of music and see what the jazz musicians did in an improvisational way. Film, to me, is music -- it's visual meter."

Mazzola became one of the highest-paid editors in Hollywood. While in the midst of an unpleasant editing experience involving an intrusive producer, Mazzola received a life-altering phone call. "There's this guy named Donald Cammell. He's got a film with Mick Jagger in it, and he's looking for an editor to cut it."

Mazzola's and Cammell's collaboration on "Performance" was the first of many. Their friendship lasted until Cammell took his own life in 1996. In a letter to actor-producer-director Barbet Schroeder, Cammell wrote, "The final word about Frank is loyalty to the director and the movie...He has soaked up some relentless poundings from producers on that account."
Perhaps it was because of Mazzola's reputation as a director's editor that Francis Ford Coppola asked him to cut "The Godfather." However, Mazzola had already committed to director-cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, who was slated to do a film with MGM Studios.

"I still believe in loyalty and the whole idea of having honor and a code of ethics to live by," he said, "because that's going to put you with the people you should be with.
"What blew my mind about Donald was that he was the highest I'd ever seen him in our last conversation," Mazzola said. "He was like a kid with a big dream; his eyes were full of light, full of the potential of what we were going to do and then, BAM, he was gone."

Mazzola said he has begun taking care of unfinished business, "like this short I did with (cinematographer) Vilmos Zsigmond back in 1970 that was in (my) mom's garage for 25 years, 'The Argument.' Donald and I were waiting to do this film called 'Ishtar,' which had Orson Welles in it and Marlon Brando, Malcolm McDowell and Jane Fonda. Donald said, 'Why don't we just shoot something?' Vilmos brought in Panavision equipment he was testing for a (Robert) Altman film. I basically used all my credit cards and whatever money I had at that time to produce this short film."

Eventually Mazzola ran out of money, and "The Argument" was put aside. He found the footage after Cammell's death and decided to cut the short. "I started going to people I knew: (editor) Dede Allen, (sound editor) Don Rogers. If I had had to pay for it, it would probably cost more than $125,000." Mazzola met producer Hamish McAlpine of England's Tartan Films at his first screening of "The Argument." McAlpine was determined to re-cut Cammell's last feature, "Wild Side," as Cammell and Mazzola had initially edited it, so he hired Mazzola to resurrect the director's cut.
"The Argument" and "Wild Side" took Mazzola and his wife, Catherine, to film festivals worldwide: Chicago; Vienna, Austria; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Munich. While screening a temped version of "Wild Side" at Munich, Mazzola met Graver, Welles' cinematographer, and Kodar, Welles' companion, co-writer and an actress in "The Other Side of the Wind." They showed him the footage and asked if he would be interested in editing the film. Welles had only cut 42 minutes of the 400,000 feet of film he and Graver had shot in 1972.

In "The Other Side of the Wind," John Huston plays a director overcoming conflicts in his attempt to finish a film. Similarly, Mazzola's journey toward completing "The Other Side of the Wind" has not been without contention. "Why should Orson Welles' last film disappear from the face of the earth because it won't be financed?" Mazzola asked. "I think there is this feeling that the money controls it all, but actually the artist controls it all. If the artist doesn't put it down (on paper), what are they going to sell? Fellini said he spent around 80% of his time looking for money. Orson Welles said the same thing.

"I believe there are people in this town who are tied into their muses, who haven't crossed over and lost their sense of perspective. All the great artists fight being conformist. All artists should have their expression. And they can't do it if they've sold out, can they?"

'The Argument' took me to 'Wild Side,' to 'The Other Side of the Wind.' So you pick up James Dean, and you got Donald Cammell and you've got Anthony (Mazzola's late brother, executive producer of 'The Argument'), and Orson Welles. Interesting combination of people, isn't it?" Mazzola asked. "At this age I look back and say, 'What's wrong with the individual having his own expression?' When a producer leaves the studio because he can't deal with the bureaucracy anymore, the other side of all this bigness is not living for money or power, but for the expression -- which is great, because that is what happened in the Renaissance. A lot of artists have been holding on; a lot of the drugs are disappearing, and everybody's getting focused, ready to stand up and be called and do the work."

[Glenn Anders]

If I may be so bold, Baesen, my vision of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND would be a film about some people trying to complete a film about a famous director trying to complete a film about . . . a famous star of the 1970's. The film would parallel movie life experiences of the cast and crew with certain similar movie life experiences in the Great Director's current project, contrasting real life with Art, while commenting on film theory and movie business politics in a satirical fashion. Reality and Art would be the two sides of the wind.

Mazzola would seem ideal for the job, but so would a number of other imaginative editors. Once again, the egos would have to get out of the way, and people involved would have to share what is a very long shot for profit and film immortality.

It all depends, it seems to me, on what the people want to do.

But as you suggest, Baesen, the tick-tick is clock-clocking!

Glenn Anders

[rizibo]

I just finished reading The Other Side of Wind screenplay (obtained from amazon.fr) and my first impression was that it reminded me of Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder. I believe Welles once said that he wanted to do a remake of Sunset Boulevard. There are similarities between Welles' aging director Hannaford and Wilder's aging actress Norma Desmond. Both were revered in their youth and are desperate to regain the limelight. Though there is nothing in the screenplay describing the film within the film, the few sequences I have seen in The One Man Band, especially the sex scene, shows how desperate Hannaford is to gain a mass audience with a film with little dialogue and sex to excite the audience.

The film also reminds me of Falstaff. Hannaford tries to gain acceptance from from the studio head Max David, friend and successfull director Brooks Otterlake and leading man John Dale (all young men). All them reject Hannaford. The ultimate rejection of Hannaford by Otterlake disguised as Dale leads to Hannoford's death just like the ending of Falstaff.

The script was difficult to read at points but I think Welles changed the dialogue in the movie as the scenes in the One Man Band are slightly different than the ones in the screenplay. The movie should be better than the screenplay.

[ToddBaesen]

By a strange coincidence I recently saw Billy Wilder's SUNSET BLVD and DOUBLE INDEMNITY and both of these films use one of Welles own favorite devices: beginning the story at the end - with the death of the major character - and then telling the story in narrated flashbacks. Wilder no doubt was influenced by CITIZEN KANE - who wasn't - and Welles in turn may have been influenced by SUNSET BLVD. when he decided to do his own Hollywood story, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.

[rizibo]

The death in the beginning is a good device to get the audience's attention in both films.

Another similiarity is Norma Desmond and Jake Hannaford are both shown trying to make a film. Desmond hires a writer to write a screenplay with a big part for her and Hannaford's attempt to direct a film is shown on the second page of the script. Desmond's script is criticized by the writer (William Holdman's character). Hannaford's film gets criticized by the studio head Max David. The failure to make a film causes Desmond to lose her mind and Hannaford to lose his life.

The Desmond character appears pretentious to me. Hannaford is more jaded and racist. I credit both Wilder and Welles for making the lead characters with serious flaws so thier demise doesn't make them martyrs. The lead character are also more complex by having these flaws.

Both films show how ageism and lack of commercial success causes Hollywood to punish artists. Sunset Boulevard has Gloria Swanson, Eric Von Stroheim and Buster Keaton who were huge stars in the silent era and they are shown down and out in this movie. TOSOTW shows young artists like Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Paul Mazursky, Bernardo Bertulucci as being successfull Hollywood favorites as opposed to Hannaford who can't get any support from Hollywood.

The theme of both films to be against ageism is a noble one. Can one imagine what kind of films Welles, Von Stroheim or Keaton could have made if they would have been allowed to continue directing in Hollywood. Luis Bunuel hit his stride in 60's and 70's with Belle de Jour, The Descrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and That Obscure Object of Desire. There are more older directors in Hollywood now so it might be less of a problem now than it used to be.

Todd, I like your insights on this movie, especially your previous post on this thread about Shakespeare's play The Tempest being quoted in TOSOTW. I am going to try to read The Tempest to see what influence this play had on Welle in writing TOSOTW.

[rizibo]

Just an interesting bit of trivia: Welles house on 1717 Stanley Blvd. was only one block away from Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.

[Glenn Anders]

I saw the new doucumentary Searching for Orson tonigh and thought it was wonderful. A fuler report will be forthcoming.

[ToddBaesen]

Yes, I agree with you Glenn.

I thought it was quite wonderful, one of the best documentaries yet made on Welles, and as you know, there have been quite a few.

Producer Richard Weiner answered questions after the screening and said he was in talks with a studio to bring out a whole series of documentaries on Welles, possibly as a multi-DVD set... this of course is very preliminary, but based on this first installment, it looks like we might be in for a real treat!

[ToddBaesen]

Peter Bogdanovich talks a bit about OSOTW in this piece in the Orlando Sentinel:


www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/o ... ?track=rss


BOGDANOVICH: One day when we were on the set, Orson turns to me and says, 'If anything happens to me, promise you'll finish this movie.' I didn't want to think about that, or talk about it. But we had no way of knowing it wouldn't be finished then, or even 10 years later, when Orson died. It fell into the French courts in 1976.

According to Orson, he shot everything he needed to finish the film except for what he called 'trick shots,' effects. The footage with the actors was all done. I haven't seen all of it, just an hourlong cut of it. So we may do those shots, which would be easier to do in the digital age, or we may not. We'll try to cut it together in the unusual style Orson intended.

It was a movie 20 years ahead of its time, at least. It's amazing how contemporary it is -- splintered, fragmented. It was a mockumentary, before there was such a term. It's important to Orson, to how we remember him, that it be finished. I think it'll be something extraordinary."

[RayKelly]

March 30 New York Sun piece on OSOTW...

URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/51609

Deal Near on a Lost Welles
BY HOWARD SWAINS - Special to the Sun
April 2, 2007
One of American cinema's lost masterpieces could finally reach theaters next year after a deal nears completion to edit and release Orson Welles's final, uncompleted film, "The Other Side of the Wind," according to the director and actor Peter Bogdanovich.

"The deal is 99.9% finished," Mr. Bogdanovich, a friend and biographer of Welles, said in an interview last month. Mr. Bogdanovich repeated his claims at an appearance at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando on Friday, according to a report on a Web site dedicated to Welles's work.

The unedited negatives of the film have sat in a Paris vault for more than 30 years, unseen by anyone other than Welles, who died in 1985.

Mr. Bogdanovich, who also acted in "The Other Side of the Wind," said negotiations with a "well-known cable network," which have lasted seven years, have ended with an agreement to complete the film. While Mr. Bogdanovich refused to name the channel, Showtime has long been associated with the project. A spokesman for Showtime said it was "still in negotiations" over the movie.

Welles spent at least five years during the 1970s working on "The Other Side of the Wind," which stars John Huston as an aging filmmaker directing what turns out to be his final movie. Huston's character dies in a car crash before he finishes his film, and Welles's story unfolds in flashback after the death of the central character, a device Welles previously employed in "Citizen Kane," considered by many to be the greatest film ever made.

Before he died, Welles claimed that the shooting of "The Other Side of the Wind" was almost complete, and the filmmaker is known to have edited between 40 minutes and 50 minutes of the work, excerpts of which have occasionally been screened at Welles retrospectives.

But the negatives were entombed in France against Welles's wishes after he accepted funding for the movie from an Iranian financier, Mehdi Bousheri, the brother-in-law of the former Shah. Bousheri invested a reported $1 million in the film during its drawn-out production, but the negatives became trapped in the vault of his Paris-based film company in the legal fallout of the Iranian revolution of 1979. Rumors of embezzlement of funding by a Spanish producer also surround the movie.

Welles managed to smuggle a working copy of his film out of Paris, but was denied access to the original negatives for the last 10 years of his life.

Subsequent attempts to edit and release "The Other Side of the Wind" have been scuppered at various junctures either by the Welles estate, managed by Welles's daughter Beatrice Welles, or Bousheri, who was keen to guarantee a return on his investment. Bousheri died last year, essentially releasing the negatives, but Ms. Welles has previously issued legal threats to block the movie's completion.

Mr. Bogdanovich said that the new deal, which will be completed within the next two months, satisfies all parties.

"We've been trying to get it done for 22 years," he said, referring to the length of time since Welles died of a heart attack.

"The Other Side of the Wind" was expected to be Welles's most ambitious movie, utilizing innovative shooting and editing techniques new to filmmaking in the early 1970s. Although he denied any autobiographical resonance, it also appears to be Welles's most personal film, with commentators who have read the screenplay suggesting that it contains a series of thinly-veiled caricatures of people who angered the director during his career.

Huston's character — the swaggering, white-bearded filmmaker named Jake Hannaford — bears a distinct resemblance to Ernest Hemingway, while Pauline Kael, the film critic, is the probable inspiration for a supercilious character named Juliette Rich, according to Chuck Berg, writing in the 2003 "Encyclopedia of Orson Welles."

The film also includes graphic sex scenes, some featuring Welles's long-term partner Oja Kodar, who also co-wrote the movie.

The centerpiece of Welles's film is a lavish 70th birthday party thrown in honor of Hannaford, during which the fictional director screens excerpts from his movie, also called "The Other Side of the Wind." Among the guests at the party are television documentary crews, journalists, and film students, who pick up the camera and shoot behind-the-scenes footage of the celebrations, creating multiple layers of narrative and at least one movie within a movie.

"The word didn't exist at the time, but it's what we now call a ‘mockumentary,'" Mr. Bogdanovich said. Mr. Bogdanovich's Los Angeles home was borrowed by Welles to shoot the party sequences.

Welles's footage is believed to be purposefully rough, representing these multiple "directors." He also recorded a number of overlapping strands of conversation, and, according to Mr Bogdanovich, had intended a number of trick shots that would have stretched available technology to the limit.

"It would have been difficult in Orson's day," Mr. Bogdanovich said of one scene in which Hannaford's film was to be seen on a drive-in screen as the sun sets behind it. "But we can probably do it on computers now."

Mr. Bogdanovich said he will work in a supervisory capacity on the editing of the film and is considering adding a further framing device to the story, depicting the lengthy struggle to get "The Other Side of the Wind" to the screen. The credits will, however, read "Directed by Orson Welles," according to Mr. Bogdanovich.

Frank Marshall, a line producer on the original production, could also be involved in the new release, according to Mr. Bogdanovich.

Welles's production, which began shooting in 1970, was consistently dogged by financial problems, often causing the director to suspend work on the movie while he took on lucrative acting or voice-over work. The struggle for finances eventually led to Bousheri and the resulting impasse.

Complicated legal disputes over ownership of the film have surrounded its production. Ms. Welles, Bousheri, and Kodar have all made claims to part or all of the copyright. The latter two reportedly agreed to a deal with Showtime in the late 1990s, but Ms. Welles subsequently issued a legal challenge.

The original Showtime deal fell through as a result of the legal wrangling, but Kodar, Bogdanovich, and Gary Graver, the cinematographer on "The Other Side of the Wind," all continued their attempts to finish the film. Graver died in November 2006, but had previously been to Paris to inspect the negatives, and confirmed they were intact.

In 2002, Graver told the Express of London that Welles had completed the shooting and sound recording of the movie, and all that remained was the editing. The movie "could be considered one of Welles's great films," Graver told the newspaper. "Its release could make people re-evaluate Welles's legacy."

Lawrence French, a journalist who has written extensively on Welles and has read the screenplay, agreed that the film is a masterpiece. But he also cautioned that editing such a complex picture will present unique challenges to Mr. Bogdanovich's team.

"No one has ever managed to duplicate Orson's unique editing style," Mr. French said. "It defies description. He does things you don't realize he's doing. Sometimes it isn't even logical."

Provided the deal is finalized, Mr. Bogdanovich expects editing to take at least a year, meaning the movie would not reach theaters until late 2008, at the earliest.

If it finally does reach the screen, Mr. Bogdanovich will have fulfilled a personal request made to him by Welles during a break in the shooting of "The Other Side of the Wind."

"Orson said to me, ‘If anything happens to me, you will make sure you finish it, won't you?'" Mr. Bogdanovich recalled. "It was, of course, a compliment and also a terrible moment. He pressed me to give some assurance, and it's been hanging over us for 22 years now."

[Store Hadji]

The saga seems to be backpedalling away from what Tony posted on the news page. Now there's a tenth of a percent of the deal which is not finalized, with no specifics as to what part that is or how long it could take. Why not indefinitely? Add in the undated quote from Showtime saying that they are still in negotiations and that may as well infer nothing has been finalized.

I hope this hasn't been another case of The Death of Sinbad. I'll believe Other Wind is finished when I see it open in theaters.

[The Night Man]

I'll believe Other Wind is finished when I see it open in theaters.

After waiting thirty-five years for this film to be released I have to agree, adding only this: let us hope for the best and expect the worst.