OTHELLO 2014 DVD Release?

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks for the correction on that. I thought there was an earlier interview where Mr. Dawson alluded to an "incorrect master" being used at one point, but I must have misremembered.

[Wellesnet]

Nice poster for the new restoration at this webpage:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=13365

[Le Chiffre]

Saw the new restoration of OTHELLO in Chicago this past Sunday. I thought it looked very nice, and it was great to see the film on the big screen again. The picture quality of the new 2K DLP restoration seems a shade duller and a bit less vibrant then the brand new 35mm prints I saw way back in 1992, but I’m going from pretty faded memories, and the difference is not that significant. Besides, the digital has many other advantages, including an absolutely spotless image throughout virtually the whole film; and that spotlessness should remain no matter how many times the film is shown, unlike film which will eventually deteriorate badly. I’m guessing the Bluray will be quite spectacular.

Here is the review by Tribune critic Michael Phillips:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014 ... hello-iago

"The movie...underwent a controversial restoration in the early 1990s. The re-recording of the musical score and the sound effects gave the picture a strange, dislocating vibe, a mismatched quality which remains in this new digital cinema package version.

But the film's often striking beauty more than compensates. The miracle, really, is that any catch-as-catch-can Shakespeare film utilizing several different cinematographers and editors could retain a unified style, stark and full of doom."

Here's another article from a Tallahasee paper that claims the new restoration that played in New York was actually the original Cannes version, with spoken credits! I suspect they're in error, but you never know:
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/2014 ... hello-back

'...the film...was not released in the United States until 1955. The prints that finally played briefly in Los Angeles and New York had been re-cut, re-dubbed and suffered from soundtrack problems. A restored version of “Othello” was cobbled together in 1992 but the one that was shown in Cannes was not available to the public.

Until now.

The Tallahassee Film Festival and FAME are screening a fully restored, pristine copy of “Othello” on Sunday afternoon at the IMAX Theatre that is about as close to Cannes 1952 as you’re going to get. Tallahassee is the first American city to screen “Othello” after it was premiered at the Film Forum in Manhattan last week.

“The version we’re presenting is restored from the original negatives, including all the original scenes,” Film Festival and FAME president Chris Faupel said.'

Here's the New Yorker on the new restoration, which contradicts the Talahasee article:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/m ... forum.html

"P.S. This restoration is based on the 1992 restoration of the film, which was the subject of controversy. I’ve never seen any of the film’s prior incarnations and can’t compare their merits. But the monaural soundtrack of this restoration is a significant improvement on the earlier, stereo restoration—the new version is much more appropriate for a low-budget, black-and-white 1952 release."

Aaron Cutler in Film Comment:
http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/othello-orson-welles/

[mido505]

The Tallahassee article is a mess, crucially failing to note that the 1955 American Version was edited by Welles himself. The 1992 restoration was not "cobbled together"; it was a serious restoration, by serious people, from the original elements in the possession of Beatrice Welles, the legal owner.

In fact, the description "American Version" is a misnomer, because the 1955 re-edit was released in both the United States and Great Britain. Perhaps "1955 English Language Release Version" would be better.

The story of the various versions of OTHELLO is grotesquely convoluted, so full of misinformation that even the posts on this normally reliable board are completely untrustworthy. The best single source I am aware of is MIchael Anderegg's ORSON WELLES, SHAKESPEARE, AND POPULAR CULTURE.

Please note that the clips in Welles's FILMING OTHELLO were also re-edited by him; those scenes in that form do not exist in any of the other versions. The idea of there existing a final "director's cut" of any Welles film is laughable. He would have been re-editing FALSTAFF into the 80's if the producers had let him. Perhaps he still was.

Welles told Jonathan Rosenbaum that he preferred the version with spoken credits, but when he loaned out his personal print for a retrospective, it was the 1955 cut. The 1955 cut was the version released in England, but when the BBC showed OTHELLO in 1982, it was the Cannes version. Oddly, the version held by the British National Film Archive is the 1955 version. A print of the Cannes version is located at the Paris Cinematheque. Confused yet?

Also, Rosenbaum is a tainted source. He repeated, garbled, and sometimes originated flagrant misinformation about the re-recording of the musical score, mainly because he loathes Beatrice Welles. Thank God for that great Michael Dawson interview, which set things right.

One of the great OTHELLO untruths was that the version released by Criterion on LD was the Cannes version. It was not, it was the 1955 version, although in an "unrestored" state. Of course, that was actually hogwash too, because Criterion did a lot of work cleaning up their copy, which was a 35 mm release print supplied by Gary Graver. Was that, perhaps, Welles's personal copy mentioned above and, if so, why did Graver have it?

The new digital version being shown is obviously the "Beatrice" restoration of the 1955 American version. The only known negative elements available are for that cut. I can't wait to see it, the trailer looks ravishing.

[RayKelly]

I inquired today about a U.S. release date for the blu-ray of Othello, which is being handled by Julian Schlossberg. (Carlotta is handling the European blu-ray).
The U.S. release date has not yet been announced and it will not occur until after the theatrical run. So far, there are screenings planned through June 30.

[Le Chiffre]

In fact, the description "American Version" is a misnomer, because the 1955 re-edit was released in both the United States and Great Britain. Perhaps "1955 English Language Release Version" would be better.

Interesting point, Mido. The re-edit probably played in more British cities then American. I read somewhere that, upon it’s first release in 1955, OTHELLO made only a pathetic $55K in America, most likely in the New York area. With it’s interracial romance it probably didn’t play anywhere south of the Mason/Dixon line.

I second your recommendation of the Anderegg book, which is very underrated. Concerning the Dawson vs. Rosenbaum argument, this statement from the Dawson interview comes to mind:

I’ve had people come up to me and say that they were with the other (Rosenbaum) argument, but after watching the restored version again, they’ve begun to realize how much more pleased they are with that.

Although I enjoyed the ’92 restoration when it was first released, I was for many years with the Rosenbaum argument myself, and considered the Criterion LD version to be THE DEFINITVE version of Othello. But that was before I saw the original European (Cannes) cut, which made me realize that there really is no definitive version of Welles’s OTHELLO. The European cut has superior cutting near the beginning of the film, so much better to my mind that the ‘55 re-edit seems almost like a botch job in comparison.

However, the European cut also contains Suzanne Cloutier’s original voice as Desdemona, as opposed to Gudrun Ure’s voice (she was Welles’s Desdemona on the London stage) in the re-edit. Cloutier’s voice sounds much more mousy, innocent and girlish then Ure’s, which somehow changes in subtle ways the whole dynamic of the relationship between Desdemona and Othello.

Welles had considered Cecile Aubry for the role before Cloutier, so he was obviously going for some kind of gamine quality for the character, but he seems to have changed his mind once he saw the results. As a result he wedded Suzanne Cloutier’s face and figure to Gudrun Ure’s sultrier, more classically trained voice and managed to come up with a great “composite” Desdemona. If I remember correctly, Welles also beefed up some of his own line readings as well.

So the definitive Welles OTELLO is a pretty subjective thing, and when I saw the European cut, and stopped considering the Criterion LD version to be definitive, my opinion of Beatrice’s restoration began to rise again (I had always admired it from a technical standpoint). Since we’re unlikely to get any kind of hybrid version, which might not work anyway, the best solution is a 3-dvd set featuring all three versions. That seems pretty unlikely too, but we can always hope.

In the meantime, the new 2K of the '92 restoration looks quite beautiful on the big screen, and the dislocation between sound and image the Michael Phillips mentioned in his review seems IMO much less jarring when the film is seen in a theatre then on video.

[atcolomb]

Here is the link to the blu-ray review of Othello by Blu-ray.com. Looks very good and like the extras so i will wait until there is a USA release but tempted to buy the French version since i have a all region player.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Orson-Wel ... 37/#Review

[RayKelly]

Really hoping to have official news VERY shortly on a U.S. release

[Roger Ryan]

I caught the sole Detroit screening of the Carlotta Films US reissue on Saturday and can attest to the image looking very good indeed. I also thought the choice to present the 1992 re-recorded music score in mono made it feel more a part of the original film (although the credits still claim it's in stereo!). This is the first time I've seen the 1992 restoration in a theater since viewing Welles' initial 1952 Cannes edit nine years ago and, sadly, I am now convinced that the overall soundtrack is woefully inferior to the 1952 mix. I paid special attention to the sequence where Othello learns of Cassio possessing Desdemona's handkerchief and his subsequent breakdown: the Cannes edit mix is full of echoing voices and strange sound effects that are nearly psychedelic in their intensity whereas the "restored" mix is dull and muffled and does little to support the visuals. While the Cannes edit may be missing Gudrun Ure’s voice as Desdemona, this is more than made up for by the dynamics and brightness of the mix. I've said it before, but the '92 soundtrack would have been a heroic effort to create something acceptable from inferior elements...if a better alternative had not existed all along. Still, this new re-release looks superb, so that makes it worthwhile.

[Le Chiffre]

You're right Roger, that in the '52 version, the sound in the scene you cited has an eerie, hallucinatory quality with the disembodied voices - somewhat reminiscent of the scenes near the end of 2001 - and that the '92 restoration sometimes seems indifferent to this dark poetry. However, for the scene that begins with Othello saying ominously, "A fair woman...a fine woman..." we get, in the '92, a restatement of the opening funeral music that I think has a nice dramatic punch to it. Therefore, to me at least, there is something gained as well as lost. After rewatching '52 recently (and my copy may not be as good as yours), my guess is that one of the reasons Welles created the '55 version was to beef up the dramatic intensity of some of the scenes, including those between Desdemona and Othello, and the '92 does an admirable job of enhancing this quality. even though it sacrifices some of the poetic quality.

What's interesting is that, for the Hungarian version of the '92, which is available on Youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF36Z6PllE8
there is different music for that scene, probably composed by someone else (it can be seen at about the 51 minute mark). I guess that's pretty common practice for foreign language versions created by others for other markets. You can hear the same thing on other Welles DVDs like THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, and JANE EYRE.

[Wellesnet]

This has been posted before, but it's worth pointing out again that the Criterion Laserdisc of Othello (the pre-restoration 1955 version) is available to watch on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09NWcKA7JKw

[Wellesnet]

Othello Bluray coming from Criterion in 2015:
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=11748

[RayKelly]

Julian Schlossberg and Beatrice Welles were wonderful in getting us the fall 2015 release information on Othello so far in advance. Julian has readily agreed to an interview on Othello and the hurdles he and the estate faced in trying to secure a proper U.S. home video release for Chimes at Midnight. My hope is to conduct that interview in 2015 when more information about Criterion extras is known.

[Roger Ryan]

This really is good news. Criterion is the gold standard for exceptional home video releases in the U.S. (as shown by the excellent presentations of F FOR FAKE and MR. ARKADIN). With OTHELLO being a Criterion release, there may be a slim chance for the 1952 edit to be included as an extra. But even if that pipe dream doesn't come true, we can be assured the release won't be bare bones.

[cinescot]

It's great news that Criterion is going to be releasing this and hopefully it will be a multiple-version set like the releases of MR. ARKADIN and TOUCH OF EVIL.

Is there any chance Criterion could perhaps come to an agreement with Oja Kodar so that FILMING OTHELLO can also be included? If not, then sadly I can't see it ever getting a proper home-video release.