Just two days before Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind debuts at the Venice Film Festival, Netflix dropped trailer and artwork to tantalize fans who have waited more than 40 years for its release.
The 90-second preview shows numerous scenes in rapid succession from the two halves of the movie: Director J.J. “Jake” Hannaford’s birthday party captured on 16mm and the edgy film-within-a-film, shot in 35mm. The two haves have different aspect ratios.
The footage from the 40-plus year old negative is breathtakingly beautiful, a tribute to the talent of cinematographer Gary Graver and the post-production work overseen by producers Frank Marshall and Filip Jan Rymsza.
Entertainment Weekly called the trailer “stunning,” while Screen Crush described it as “surreal, bizarre, slightly disjointed, and incredible. It also doesn’t look much like any other Orson Welles film.”
The Other Side of the Wind, shot four decades ago but only recently completed, will have its world premiere at the 75th annual Venice Film Festival on Friday, August 31. It will have its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado over the Labor Day weekend and later be shown at the New York Film Festival.
The movie will have a theatrical release and be streamed to 130 million Netflix subscribers in 190 countries on November 2.
The Other Side of the Wind takes place at the 70th birthday party of maverick director J.J. “Jake” Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to complete his comeback film during the rise of New Hollywood. Attending the party are successful young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich), hangers-on and critics. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party. Welles’ movie recounts Hannaford’s final hours using a mix of 16mm and 35mm color and black-and-white film shot at the party, along with scenes from his unfinished movie, which stars Kodar and Bob Random.
Welles shot The Other Side of the Wind between 1970 and 1976. It remained unedited and unreleased until 2018 when it was completed for Netflix by Bogdanovich, Rymsza, Marshall, and Academy Award winning editor Bob Murawski.
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