By RAY KELLY
Netflix will begin streaming Orson Welles’ long-awaited The Other Side of the Wind, as well as the Morgan Neville companion documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, on November 2.
The two films will be available to 125 million Netflix subscribers in 190 countries.
The exciting news comes the same day as the Venice Film Festival announced the two movies will have their world premieres at the August 29 – September 8 fest. (Screening dates have not yet been announced.)
Theatrical plans for the films were not revealed by Netflix, but the November 2 release date was posted on the streaming giant’s press website, along with the following descriptions of the movies.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND
In 1970, legendary director Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) began filming what would ultimately be his final cinematic opus with a cast of luminaries that included John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Welles’s partner during his later years, Oja Kodar. Beset by financial issues, the production ultimately stretched to 1976 and soon gained industry-wide notoriety, never to be completed or released. More than a thousand reels of film languished in a Paris vault until March 2017, when producers Frank Marshall (who served as a production manager on Wind during in its initial shooting) and Filip Jan Rymsza spearheaded efforts to have Welles’s vision completed more than 30 years after his death.
Featuring a new score by Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and assembled by a technical team including Oscar-winning editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker), The Other Side of the Wind tells the story of famed filmmaker J.J. “Jake” Hannaford (Huston), who returns to Hollywood after years in self-exile in Europe with plans to complete work on his own innovative comeback movie. A satire of the classic studio system as well as the new establishment who were shaking things up at the time, Welles’s final film is both a fascinating time capsule of a now-distant era in moviemaking as well as the long-awaited “new” work from an indisputable master of his craft.
THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD
Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom) tells the provocative story of legendary director Orson Welles during the final 15 years of his life. No longer the “wonder boy” of Citizen Kane, Welles in 1970 was an artist in exile looking for his Hollywood comeback with a project called The Other Side of the Wind. For years, Welles worked on the film about an aging film director trying to finish his last great movie. Welles shot the picture guerrilla-style in chaotic circumstances with a devoted crew of young dreamers, all the while struggling with financiers and fate. In 1985, Welles died, leaving as his final testament the most famous unfinished film in movie history. The negative stayed in a vault for decades until now. With revelatory new insights from Welles collaborators including Peter Bogdanovich, Frank Marshall, Oja Kodar and daughter Beatrice Welles, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is the untold final chapter of one of the greatest careers in film history: brilliant, innovative, defiant and unbowed.
The completion of the legendary unfinished film was led 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.
There has been speculation the movie 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, set this year for Labor Day weekend, typically does not not reveal its lineup until days before the start of the festival.
The two-month gap between Labor Day weekend and the November 2 streaming premiere gives Netflix ample time for other festival appearances and a theatrical run.
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.
The Venice Film 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.
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