WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Many years ago the late Ciro Giorgini tells me (and to many others) about the existence of an Italian print of Othello, stored in Cineteca Nazionale in Rome. This print, in very good condition of preservation, reflects the first, and longer, editing that Welles made for the italian distribution of t...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7APPdIxEXg

Here is the european version with original actors' voices.
Poor quality recording, but very rare.

Todd, the informations in the Blumenfeld's book about relationship between Welles and Waszynski are very poor and, as the author itself says on notes, mainly coming from Barbara Leaming, Peter Bogdanovich and MacLiammoir books (plus an original interview by phone with Betsy Blair in 2005). Anyway, B...

When Bronston's epics are coming out in sumptuous dvd editions (thanks to the Weinsteins and the Miriam Collection), I have decided to remove the dust from a book i've bought one year ago in Paris: "L'homme qui voulait être prince : Les vies imaginaires de Michal Waszynski" (The Man Who Wo...

According to Robert Carringer, was Welles himself - after the Hollywood Reporter leak - to invite Miss Hopper at RKO for the screening of Kane's rough cut. The text of the telegram, dated january 3 and now in Hopper Collection at Margaret Herrick library, is reported by Simon Callow: "Dearest H...

You can find a very interesting interview whit him by Thomas or/and Berthomé on the french revue Positif (n° 378, july 1992); he reveals a lot of details about his work on the Trial.

Upon closer inspection of Image 29, I see Joan Fontaine at Joseph Cotten's side! All the actors are fully costumed. (Robert Coote and Michael MacLiammoir are also in the photo.) This is proof positive that Fontaine and Cotten both agreed to make cameo appearances in Orson Welles' OTHELLO while they...

The "colleague" in photo # 27 looks definitely like Joseph Cotten. So seems true that Cotten (and Joan Fontaine) have a (lost) part in Othello!

PM

>>>Francois told me that the Cannes version doesn't exist anymore, and only existed for the showing; then it was changed. Perhaps I misunderstood him? Tony, i'm not so expert as wellesian researcher. Probably he refers to the fact that the copy showed at Cannes was a sort of positive duplicate, or ...

Forget, Tony, probably is my english so confused. Yes, the NJ print is the Beatrice print, but of course without the heavy modifications by the restorers. So the 1992 release is, to me, completely a new edition. Until 20-25 years ago, a master tv copy, in english and with the '52 editing and sountr...

Yes, Store, that close-up definitely was in the 52 first edition. And according to Thomas, is exactly the NJ variant that replaces Desdemona closeup whit a larger shot. In front of the original 55 print, the NJ print shows also "four additional shots or fragments of shots, a dozen of small dialogue...

The Welles voice in "la ricotta" is dubbed - as all the others actors in the film and as all the actors of all italian films until the end of seventies or the beginning of eighties - because the direct sound recording is traditionally refused by the post WW2 italian cinema. In Pasolini film, Welles...

The work of these restorers-adulterators of Othello is really dreadful. Comparing between the 1952 and 1992 soundracks shows how much the second is more dolby-stifled in music, lacks in terms of clearness, is heavy altered in mixing: now, in spite of Welles intentions, the dialogue predominates ove...

In his magnificent book "The Making of Citizen Kane", Robert Carringer writes: "A...striking example of an in-camera effect has almost never been recognized as one: the shot of the bottle and glass on the nightstand after Susan's suicide attempt". And in the note: "...is not an extreme deep-focus e...