U.S. audiences will finally have their chance to see the Brazilian documentary A Jangada de Welles (The Welles Raft) at three festivals in the coming weeks. The film was selected for the official competitions of the 14th Brazilian Film Festival of New York and the 24th Brazilian Film Festival of Miami, as well as the […]
By RAY KELLY After laboring nine years to bring The Other Side of the Wind to the screen, it’s understandable that producer Filip Jan Rymsza was not looking to embark on another Orson Welles project. But time and a nudge from a friend led to Hopper/Welles, which will have its world premiere next week during […]
First rapper Logic, now Brit rocker Elvis Costello is channeling Orson Welles on a new release. On August 28, Costello released Phonographic Memory, described as “the B-side” of the recently released, We Are All Cowards Now. (The new release is available via digital download or streaming.) Phonographic Memory imagines a post-war ceremony referencing moments in […]
Mirroring the unveiling of The Other Side of the Wind two years ago, the Orson Welles directed documentary Hopper/Welles will be screened at the 58th New York Film festival just weeks after its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. Its inclusion at NYFF58 was announced today by organizers. Comprised of previously unknown interview […]
A Jangada de Welles (Welles’ Raft) will be screened at the CineOP film festival next month. The CineOp festival is set for September 3-7 in Ouro Preto, Brazil. The 75-minute documentary looks at Welles’ aborted wartime South American movie, It’s All True; filming in Fortaleza, the drowning death of national hero Manuel “Jacare” Olimpio Meira during […]
Film historian Joseph McBride, along with Peter Bogdanovich and cameraman Gary Graver, joined Orson Welles on August 23, 1970 for the first day of filming The Other Side of the Wind. Cast in the movie as film critic Mr. Pister, McBride would continue to work for Welles throughout the early 1970s. “Acting for Orson Welles […]
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 […]
Slipping under the radar last summer was the publication of the first book to critique the completed release of Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind. Welles filmed his takedown of New Hollywood and machismo between August 1970 and early 1976, and fought to complete the movie until his death in October 1985. However, […]
When rapper Logic decided to sample an Orson Welles radio show for Intro on his album No Pressure, he did not plan on using the late filmmaker’s voice again to close the collection. Logic sampled Welles’ introductory remarks from a 1942 broadcast of The Hitch-Hiker to playfully kick-off his hit album. “On one of the very […]
Orson Welles, with the support of singer Eartha Kitt and Gate Theatre founders Micheal MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, staged An Evening with Orson Welles at three stops in West Germany in August 1950. Performances began at the Frankfurt Zoo theater before moving on to Hamburg and Munich. An Evening with Orson Welles, under the direction […]
La Cinematheque francaise has made an extraordinary interview with Orson Welles available online. The 90-minute interview is part of the Henri platform put in place by Cinémathèque francaise, which has been closed since March 13. Film lessons and conferences, sites and articles devoted to its exhibitions and retrospectives, not to mention treasures from its collections, […]
By RAY KELLY Footage Orson Welles shot of Dennis Hopper five decades ago was earmarked for more than just a cameo in The Other Side of the Wind — it was also intended for a planned documentary on the Easy Rider filmmaker, who Welles had befriended. Producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski uncovered […]
By RAY KELLY Imagine eavesdropping on a suppertime conversation between a maverick filmmaker who was frequently at odds with the major studios and a young director at the forefront of the New Hollywood movement. Cineastes will rejoice in learning that extensive footage of the November 1970 meeting of Citizen Kane creator Orson Welles and Easy Rider director […]
A script about Orson Welles’ ill-fated trip to Brazil is a quarter-finalist in WriteMovies, a contest that has been revealing screenwriters since 1999. It’s All Lies was written by Zé Dassilva, a Brazilian Emmy International winning screenwriter for Imperio, created by Aguinaldo Silva and chosen the best telenovela worldwide in 2015. The title, It’s All Lies, […]
If you spend enough time on social media, you will find a number of young people either do not know who Orson Welles was — or know him only from YouTube outtakes of Paul Masson or Findus frozen peas commercials. But the release today of Logic’s album, No Pressure, has sent some fans of the […]
Classic Orson Welles radio broadcasts are sampled on a forthcoming album by Grammy nominated rapper Logic. Welles can he heard prominently on two tracks on Logic’s album, No Pressure, which is set to arrive on Friday, July 24, via Def Jam Recordings/Visionary Music Group. (Some of the album tracks have already leaked online.) The […]
By RAY KELLY Serious movie fans know that before Peter Bogdanovich hit it big with The Last Picture Show, he directed the cult classic Targets with Boris Karloff. But Peter Tonguette’s new book on Bogdanovich is so exhaustive it delves into the footage Bogdanovich shot with Mamie Van Doren to be morphed with a Soviet […]
“We are now ready to take you to the Princeton Observatory at Princeton where Carl Phillips, our commentator, will interview Professor Richard Pierson, famous astronomer. We take you now to Princeton, New Jersey.” — War of the Worlds, October 30, 1938. A piece of Orson Welles-related history will soon be lost to history, The […]
In the works is an Argentinian-led remake of The Immortal Story – the Karen Blixen short story previously filmed by Orson Welles for French television in 1968. Argentina’s Daniel Rosenfeld and director Luca Puenzo will write the screenplay for the big screen effort. Argentine-French actor Nahuel Parez Biscayart (BPM) and Leonardo Sbaraglia (Pain and Glory, Wild Tales) […]
A new podcast series based on the unpublished Polly Platt memoir It Was Worth It delves into her involvement in the The Other Side of the Wind and the relationship between Orson Welles and his collaborator, Oja Kodar. The multi-episode Polly Platt: The Invisible Woman is part of the You Must Remember This podcasts produced by Karina Longworth. It details how Platt was […]
