Biennale di Venezia president Paolo Baratta and Alberto Barbera, director of the festival, announce the world premieres of The Other Side of the Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead at a July 25 press conference.
By RAY KELLY
More than 40 years after Orson Welles finished principal photography on The Other Side of the Wind, his recently completed film will have its world premiere at the 75th annual Venice Film Festival.
The announcement was made by Alberto Barbera, director of Biennale di Venezia, and Paolo Baratta, festival president, at a press conference streamed online from the Cinema Moderno in Rome this morning.
Venice, which runs August 9 through September 8, is the world’s oldest film festival. More favorably placed on the calendar than either Cannes or Berlin, and scheduled ahead of Telluride and Toronto, Venice has been described as a key arbiter of movies heading into the awards season.
The Other Side of the Wind will be shown alongside They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, a companion documentary from Oscar winner Morgan Neville. Both films are being distributed worldwide by Netflix.
Screening dates were not revealed at Wednesday press conference. (The festival website lists the running times for The Other Side of the Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead as 122 minutes and 98 minutes respectively.)
The completion of the legendary unfinished film was spearheaded by producers Filip Jan Rymsza, who spent years brokering complex deals with rights holders, and Frank Marshall, Welles’ line producer on the 1970s shoot. Peter Bogdanovich, who was tasked by Welles to finish the movie in the event of his death, served as an executive producer.
Post-production work by Oscar winning editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker) and sound re-recording mixer Scott Millan (Apollo 13) was completed in April. Michel Legrand (For For Fake) provided the score.
Netflix had hoped to debut The Other Side of the Wind and other high-profile projects at the Cannes Film Festival in May but organizers and the streaming giant squabbled over festival policies.
Unlike Cannes, Venice has rolled out the red carpet for Netflix, which has films in competition. (The Welles titles are being screened as special events and are not competing.)
“We must come to terms…with these new production realities,” Barbera said at the press conference. “We cannot ignore these realities, we cannot pretend they do not exist.”
Netflix will stream The Other Side of the Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead to subscribers worldwide beginning November 2, which allows time after Venice for a theatrical run and more festival appearances.
There has been speculation The Other Side of the Wind will have its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival given Marshall and Bogdanovich’s long-standing relationship with the Colorado festival. However, Telluride typically does not not reveal its lineup until days before the start of the festival.
The Other Side of the Wind takes place at the 70th birthday party of maverick director 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 (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.
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