La Biennale di Venezia announced today that it will screen Hopper / Welles at the Venice International Film Festival for the general public on September 9 with two afternoon showings.
In addition, there will be eight other screenings for festival pass holders on September 7-9.
Times, screening locations and ticket information can be found online at labiennale.org/en/cinema/2020/out-competition/hopperwelles
The previously unknown interview footage uncovered and assembled by The Other Side of the Wind producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski captures a conversation between the Citizen Kane filmmaker and Easy Rider director Dennis Hopper. According to Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice, the black and white footage her father shot in November 1970 was intended for a never-produced — and never publicly discussed — documentary on Hopper.
The overwhelming majority of the two-camera, black and white footage — lit only by hurricane lamps and the glow of a fireplace — has never been publicly seen before. It was among the 1,083 reels of The Other Side of the Wind footage that was inventoried and scanned in 2017.
Hopper / Welles was lensed 50 years ago when the 34-year-old director agreed to a cameo as a party guest for Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind – a biting takedown of the crumbling studio system and rise of New Hollywood. The two men were already acquainted. Welles had offered Hopper advice on the editing Easy Rider two years earlier.
In November 1970, Welles, 55, flew Hopper from New Mexico to Los Angeles, where he cooked him a pasta dinner before they spent the evening talking as the cameras rolled.
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