From left, Martin Scorsese, producers Frank Marshall and Filip Jan Rymsza, editor Bob Murawski,executive producer Peter Bogdanovich, documentarian Morgan Neville and NYFF director Kent Jones at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 2018.
By RAY KELLY
Acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese caught the first-ever screening of a 35mm print of The Other Side of the Wind on Saturday and found the movie to be exhilarating and the saga of Orson Welles’ cinematic journey distressing.
Speaking at the New York Film Festival alongside producers Frank Marshall and Filip Jan Rymsza, executive producer Peter Bogdanovich, editor Bob Murawski and documentarian Morgan Neville, Scorsese offered his initial impressions to NYFF director Kent Jones.
Scorsese noted he had not followed the film’s tortured history in great detail and approached it with relatively fresh eyes.
I knew nothing about the film. I had heard for years from Peter, Frank and others that a film was being made about a film director and a party. I had no idea. So when I saw the picture, I must say I bring to it a kind of objective, as much as possible, ignorance.
It took me on a ride. I must say it is an extraordinary achievement what you all did to make this possible. It’s remarkable, just remarkable. I didn’t realize it was six years, I thought maybe it was 15 or 20 years that he was shooting, who knows. But I sort of put it out of my mind that it would ever be seen.
For me, I was totally surprised by what I saw. It was in turn exhilarating and so distressing. So distressing, so distressing. Someone you love, someone who means so much to you. I didn’t know him, You guys knew him. I didn’t know him. I met him once. Someone you love, to see them going through that agony, that pain — and he’s not the only one, but in his style and his way still holding on to the creative lifeline to the very, very end.
I began to realize, it’s a funny thing, I said, “What the hell do we expect from Welles again? What do you want, Citizen Kane again?” You’re not going to get it. He’s going to go somewhere else.
He’s going to recreate what the frame does, what that one or two frames do. I was just enveloped in the danger of the obsession. What I mean is that it can take you down with him. He is going there with that one or two frames there for the rest of his life. Whether he meant to finish it, doesn’t matter. I do mean that, because he was going another way — trying to create a new form of communication with the image and sound.
In addition to his work as a director, Scorsese is the founder of The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation.
Among the more emotional moments of the panel talk was Bogdanovich comments on the film he has labored for 30 years to complete and the Welles legacy.
“It’s sad to me. It’s a very sad story, it’s a sad movie, it’s an ‘end of everything’ kind of movie. The only thing that survives is the artistry. And that’s what Orson did even in Citizen Kane, which is about as negative a movie as you can imagine. Nobody gets what they want, it all ends in tragedy, and it’s brilliantly done so that you forget that,” Bogdanovich said. “The artistry saves you from death. You say, ‘Orson’s alive.'”
Post your comments on the Wellesnet Message Board.