The problem with Chimes at Midnight

[the scotsman]

Being a new member and not knowing all that has been discussed over the years, can someone please give me the definitive lowdown on the problems with the showing of Chimes At Midnight. Who now owns it, and who is really behind the stopping of this being re-released.
I apologize if this is old hat to most of you.

[Glenn Anders]

The links provided offer useful information.

I might add that VUZE, a somewhat disreputable source, offered a version identified as FALSTAFF (CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT) in its torrent files a few months ago. I obtained a copy of it, and was impressed with the picture quality, the editing, and especially the synch to sound of the dialogue. I had only seen chopped up copies in theaters, editions which were so badly edited that the Battle of Shrewsbury was over in a couple of minutes, rather like a Road Runner cartoon, and the speeches so badly matched to the actors' mouths that they bled over into each other. This VUZE version, which included unnecessary English subtitles, curiously inept at times, was much more like "the real thing" that I'd heard Larry French go on about. French, in fact, made a present of himself on Christmas Day by arriving on my doorstep (as he is wont to do), and he agreed that this was an excellent copy, which he identified as Spanish in origin.

I would not say, even from this almost perfect experience, that CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is a better film than CITIZEN KANE or F FOR FAKE (preferring, as I do, original conceptions), but it is nevertheless a work of great imagination, a complete re-thinking and reordering of a number of Shakespeare's plays, a project with which, as the links suggest, Welles was fascinated from his teen years.

Alas, I attempted to pull up the source a few minutes ago, and like a lot of VUZE feature films evidently, it seems to have disappeared, perhaps victim of one of those legal battles that have plagued both VUZE and CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. That is a pity, for like, say, copies of Adam Curtis's documentaries (such as THE CENTURY OF SELF and particularly, the magnificent THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES: THE RISE OF THE POLITICS OF FEAR), VUZE may be the only avenue by which those of us in the United States can easily see some of these masterpieces, which have been denied us by political or legal entanglements.

Have a go, Scotsman! See what you can find out.

You might have better luck.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

...Most of the discussion on the forum here centers on one of the Welles daughters holding up rights for one thing or another.

In fairness to Chris Welles Feder (and the memory of Rebecca Welles), it should be pointed out that it is Beatrice Welles who has been involved in the dispute over CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. Although, in this instance, I believe Ms. Welles had instigated plans to re-release the film with a (supposedly) restored/improved soundtrack (ala OTHELLO), but has been blocked by the daughter of producer Harry Saltzman who claims she owns the film and believes her family is owed a substantial sum of money. The on-going lawsuit regarding this has prevented the film from being re-released and has stopped all but a couple of public showings at festivals.

[The Night Man]

Roger, I thought the legal wrangle was strictly between the Spanish producers of Chimes and Harry Saltzman (who I believe provided completion funding for the film but later claimed total ownership). I was unaware of any involvement by Beatrice in this particular Welles snafu. Has she managed to throw a spanner in the works on the release of this film too?

[Roger Ryan]

Sorry if I am adding to the confusion! I don't doubt that there is an issue between the Spanish producers (or whoever believes they are the proper rights holder) and Saltzman's estate, but I recall reading a good 15 years ago that Beatrice was interested in "restoring" CHIMES in the same manner she did OTHELLO. Whether she then wished to be considered a rights holder of the new version or she simply endorsed the idea, I don't know. My point being is that I don't think Beatrice shares any of the blame for CHIMES not being available (someone correct me if I'm mistaken); Saltzman's daughter's claim and its legal entanglements is what is keeping the film out of commission.

As an aside, the "restored" version of CHIMES that Beatrice had talked about actually exists and is reportedly the work of some of the same people who worked on Beatrice's version of OTHELLO. Approximately twenty minutes of it was screened in New Haven at the Yale Symposium on Welles in 2006.

[K Dobry]

Regarding the so-called "restoration" of Chimes, didn't one of the people involved mention the fact that they were second guessing Welles by putting in new sound effects, and perhaps remixing the music, as they did in that butcher-job of Othello from the 90s?
Studio Canal (in France) put out a DVD version (that was quickly taken off the market a few years ago), with pristine picture quality, and which seems to be the best copy of the film on DVD, with a pretty decent soundtrack to boot. I managed to get a copy thanks to a Wellesnet member, and I am planning to perhaps work out a trade with that British fellow who sells DVD-r's (including the raw footage from Filming the Trial), so that anyone interested can get a copy of it for a few pounds (while awaiting an official deluxe DVD edition that will hopefully one day be available). At some point, I'll post in the trading section regarding this.

While a nice home viewing of a decent version of Chimes is a wonderful experience,I think it really is a film whose beauty and power is only fully felt with a cinema viewing. I was lucky to catch a one-night showing of a very old, scratchy (but most importantly, complete) copy in Prague a few years ago, and it was one of the single most amazing experiences I've had in a cinema. Much better than Welles' first film Citizen Kane, and at least on par with his masterpiece F For Fake. Kane is a great work of classic cinema, but I think that Chimes is the absolute apogee of Welles's fully completed dramatic film work. His 25+ years of research into editing, musical rhythms, photography, and cinematic mise-en-scene really paid off in this film.

Glenn: Century of the Self still seems to be available to view online (on another site), which is fortunate as it is quite a wonderful documentary.

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Roger, the reference must be to Beatrice, as K Dobry, mine should have been specifically to THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES: THE RISE OF THE POLITICS OF FEAR. That one challenges the whole basis and origins of "the war on terror" in what I think is a most brilliant if argumentative way, has never been shown on American Television, and only in a few theaters here. I wonder what Welles would have thought of that documentary (and others by Adam Curtis) because Curtis's technique, it would seem to me, owes a great deal to F FOR FAKE. [THE ADAM CURTIS COLLECTION on VRUZE includes about six separate Curtis documentaries, a majority of them in multi-parts.]

I'm happy that your theatrical experience with CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, years ago, K Dobry, was so much better than mine. My son and I must content ourselves watching that Spanish copy on our iMac until the legendary pristine version [another holy grail?] is shown again widely in American theaters and is released here on DVD. Even on the evidence my copy, I can agree with what you say about the picture. I would only add that something similar was often said by critics of CITIZEN KANE, but as a culmination of the techniques of Silent and Classic B&W Sound Film. Points should be given, too, to the audacity of . . .KANE for challenging the conventional view of power, politics and economics held in America for nearly all of the previous hundred years -- plus the fact that Pearl Harbor, the proof of Welles political stance, lay but six months beyond the film's premiere!

It is one thing to challenge the attitudes and acts of a 15th Century Earl of Worcester, quite another "to tell truth to the power" of Robber Baron philosophy, which had dominated America during much of Welles' own lifetime. [And does, once more, I'm afraid.]

Glenn

[Magentarose67]

I love Chimes of Midnight - it is definitively on my top 3 favorite Orson Welles movies...wish my copy was better quality, though ...

[Roger Ryan]

Regarding the so-called "restoration" of Chimes, didn't one of the people involved mention the fact that they were second guessing Welles by putting in new sound effects, and perhaps remixing the music, as they did in that butcher-job of Othello from the 90s?.

What I've seen (or heard) of the "restored" audio version of CHIMES did not alarm me in the same way OTHELLO has. Only an excessive use of bass frequencies during the percussion heavy end credit cue disturbed me; otherwise the audio work was quite subtle and did not distract from the film. I was not able to detect where (if any) additional sound effects might have been added. There was discussion regarding this aspect discussed at the Yale Symposium, but the general consensus seemed to be that this was not nearly the "butcher-job" that the audio remix of OTHELLO proved to be.