2015 Brazilian interview with Oja Kodar

[Wellesnet]

FROM A PORTUGUESE TO ENGLISH GOOGLE TRANSLATION:
http://www.adorocinema.com/noticias/fil ... ia-113308/


Exclusive : Oja Kodar Reveals Orson Welles Secrets in Mostra director of Centennial
Bruno Carmelo ▪ Wednesday, May 13, 2015 - 14:45
Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo received the Centenary Show Orson Welles from the 13th of May.

May 13th, 2015

Maybe you do not know Oja Kodar , but the Croatian 74 year old has a history closely linked to the cinema. Actress, producer, sculptor and writer, she was also a professional partner and love of Orson Welles during the last 25 years of the filmmaker.

Holder of the rights to many works of Welles, she came to Brazil to present “Centenary Shows of Orson Welles”, in relation to the anniversary that the filmmaker would have completed in 2015. The show, organized by NET circuit cinema, takes place in Rio de Janeiro (in station NET Botafogo) between 13 and 20 May, and in São Paulo (in the case of Fine Arts) between 22 and 27 May. New copies of the great classics of the director will be presented: Citizen Kane, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth: Reign of Blood, Shackles of the Past, Touch of Evil, and Truths and Lies .

In an exclusive interview with AdoroCinema, Kodar talked unabashedly about the controversial unfinished works of Welles, sharing unexpected and amusing stories about the great filmmaker:

Your film career is directly associated with Orson Welles. Even your stage name was chosen by him.

That’s true. My real name is Pálinkás, it was difficult for foreigners to pronounce. Orson always said that I would need to change it sooner or later. One day, a friend came to visit Croatia, and I did the translation of what Orson said into Croatian. He said: "For me, it is like a gift from God," which I translated to Croatian, as "kao give," or "as a gift". Orson liked the sound of the word, and said that I should take "Kodar" as a name.

You met Orson Welles thanks to the acting career?

Not exactly. When we met, I was signing up for the school of Fine Arts. I worked as an actress in four Yugoslavian films at the time, and never had the ambition of becoming a professional actor. But I was an attractive girl, and the money would come fast, so I said "Why not?" When I graduated, I thought I had no future as an actress, and did not want to be waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for proposals. I preferred to be a visual artist, working with my hands, so I dedicated myself to sculpture.

Orson Welles had many projects never completed.

This is a painful subject for me. People always accused Orson of starting something, but not finishing, as if he were a genius afraid to complete his films. This is ridiculous! He did not finish the film for lack of money. The first film that got him was called The Reckoning, later changed to The Deep, and then changed again because someone made a movie of that name... Anyway, he called me to act in this story, and the sad thing is to know that he finished the filming! There were only second unit of images, some taken underwater ... He also needed Jeanne Moreau to dub some scenes.

Before, I did not talk about it, but today I'm 74 years old and do not care if I hurt someone's feelings or not. We pretended at the time that the film could not be completed because of the death of Laurence Harvey, but that's not true. We could not finish because Jeanne Moreau refused to participate in the dubbing. I say this without fear of repercussion, without fear of being sued, because I have letters from Orson and Orson lawyers, proving that the culprit is Moreau. I was a very pretty girl, and by the time she was hired for the film, she was a middle-aged woman. When she saw me, she hated me, and could not forgive Orson for loving me instead of loving her. That's why The Deep was not completed. It was jealousy.

Along with the last film of his, The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles was working on a television show in Rome, and had the opportunity to make a funny recording of President Nixon. When it aired, Nixon sent a tax bill to Orson, prohibiting CBS from sending money for the production to Orson in Europe, and accusing him of stealing money. This is horrible: the whole world knows that his works were financed with his own money; he never took money from anyone. But as he had a company in Switzerland, he was accused of embezzling tax money...so the money stopped coming, and he had to stop the program.

At this time, Bert Schneider , producer of Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970) came to Orson with a story, inviting him to write the script and direct. The project name was Midnight Plus One, and Orson considered calling Yves Montand for the leading role. The intention was to set up the project in Hollywood. Schneider paid for our trip and our room at the luxurious Beverly Hills Hotel. We talked the talk with Robert Mitchum, inclusive. Then they found that the rights of the work belonged to Columbia, which required a fortune, and they would not buy them. But the hotel was already paid for three months, because Schneider imagined that this would be the time to write the script.

Orson received a message from a young man named Gary Graver. He said, "Mr. Welles, I'm young and I admire your work, and would do anything to work with you, or at least meet you." Orson liked this, because this young man was a director of photography, so I would act, and Orson would direct and would be the screenwriter. We hoped to start the film soon. Graver arrived, and was very excited. But on the first day, he brought all the equipment, and forgot the tripod, because he was very nervous. Welles said okay, but he would need to bring it right the next day. Graver arrived the next day, with the tripod in hand, but had forgotten the lenses. Welles was about to send him away, and Graver went home, picked up the lens and came back. He filmed a bit and showed it to Orson. I could see that he knew what he was doing, that he was a professional. So we started to make The Other Side of the Wind, with our own money.

We went back to Europe, and Orson got a job there. We took the material already filmed. As he worked on Truths and Lies, the French producer Dominique Antoine came to tell us about someone worked for the Shah of Iran's relative, and that she could get this man to finance the film. It worked, and we got the money, with the help of a Spanish producer named Andres Vicente Gomez . But instead of coming to Arizona, where we were shooting, Gomez returned to Spain and stole our money. Simple as that. The Iranians thought Orson was irresponsible, and so we had to interrupt production. We took all the stuff back to France, and production ended.

But it seems that The Other Side of the Wind will be completed now, with the help of public funding over the Internet.

Tragically, the film is already finished, or almost. 45 minutes have been edited by Orson, and there are about two-and-a-quarter hours worth of material: the rest includes some first cuts, sometimes two shots of the same scene together, because Orson had yet to choose. But all is present in sequence. Just choose the shots, put the music and eventually make some second unit of images, with people walking, for example. It's something minimal. I breaks my heart.

I do not know anything about crowdfunding, It is somewhat vague. I do not want to say anything about it for the time being - not by superstition, or something like that, but because I'm trying to finish this film for over 30 years, and have lost hope. What comes will come.

Citizen Kane is often considered the best film in cinema history. What do you think of this distinction?

I think it's fair for sure. For me however, and for the Welles himself, there were other, better movies ... He loved Pride (1942), which he considered better than Citizen Kane in many ways. But his favorite was Falstaff - The Midnight Touch (1965), because it managed to express very intimate things to him. You do not know Orson like me, and I could understand what he thought of a single scene: when Prince Hal banishes Falstaff at court, the father dies and he is about to become the king. Hal is determined to stop the excesses of life, and does not want to suffer from the presence of this troublesome man.

At this time, Falstaff look at him, and with an overlap of images, you see the disappointment, deep sorrow, but forgiveness. In addition, there is little hope that this is false, that the prince will come back to his friend. All the emotions that an actor can show are present at this time. I've never seen an actor do anything like it, and I never will in my life. This is the apotheosis of acting; Orson in a pure state. It's funny, because he had a strong personality, intimidated people, but deep down, he had a gentle soul.

You also become a filmmaker. How was this experience?

My first film is called Jaded. I wrote it even though it was something foreign to my nature, but if I did anything else, I was afraid people would say that Orson had helped me with the script. So I did something that may not be perfect, but it was something he would never have done. I did it to protect myself. I was invited to the week of the Venice festival Criticism, which is an honor for a beginner. One critic even called my film "little pearl of Venice."

Because of this movie, I was invited to make a war film in Croatia. But I was naive, because the war was still going on. I should have had a greater distance to assess things ... I suffered too much interference from the Ministry of Defense, which was afraid I would say something detrimental to the country. So, I did something I wanted, and one day they would not even let me onto the set, because I was filming a scene that they did not want! I was banished from my own movie set, as Orson was in Superb! At least, this was the first film in the independent Croatia, post-Yugoslavia. But I do not care much. I'm like Orson in this sense: rather do and leave behind, I'm never thinking too much in the past. I prefer to be a sculptor.

Orson was like that, he never reviewed his own films. I remember that, being the former Yugoslavia, had not had a chance to see Superb. When there was a public showing of Orson’s film, I said I wanted to go, but he proposed that we leave to do other things. I had even forgotten about the movie, and then I realized that he had a change of plan just so I could not watch Superb! He explained that he had changed, the context had changed. Its principle qualities were still the same, but his opinions had changed. He himself was no longer the same, and he always wanted to see movies with the eyes of the present.