Othello Again - A Holy Grail, Perhaps...

[Roger Ryan]

Where is the shot? In the beginning or in the murder scene? I'll check my copy of the French version. All I remember is the fuzzy enlargement used for a somewhat close-up in the US version...

The close-up appears after the murder scene when Emilia discovers the body. It really stood out for me because it was more effective than that fuzzy, blown-up medium shot in the U.S. version. Perhaps Welles thought it was too shocking for a U.S. audience or his American distributor complained; either way, the blown-up still became a weak substitute.

[Terry]

I'm not sure how Desdemona dies, actually. Not from the gauze Othello puts over her mouth - she could breathe through that. Does he strangle her? After Othello leaves the room, she is able to moan, fall off the bed and then speak to Emilia. Did he stab her? I confess my ignorance of the play...

[chrissie]

Emilia enters the room at Othello's invitation. Desdemona is hidden behind the bed curtain, but she calls out and Emilia looks through just as she says a few final words and 'O, farewell!' It was the smothering that killed her, but not immediately. Not the most realistic death ever, but OW is very loose with his interpretation.

The blown-up shot is in this version too. EDIT: I just checked and it isn't in the French-dubbed version. What this suggests is that it was prepared originally for the UK print and kept for the US version.

My theory is that the UK censors objected to it in 1952, or whenever it was, this being I would think a UK theatrical print. So when OW prepared a version for the US, he probably left it out thinking, 'If the Brits don't like it, the Yanks probably won't either.' This has never been written about anywhere, so we have no confirmation...

[alan smithee]

http://rapidshare.de/files/11555041/Othello.wmv

Here you can see the venetian sequence in the first 'european' version of Othello with o.w.'s spoken titles, ripped from a tv recording (o.v. with french subs). The quality is not so good, but I've tried to reduce file's dimension.

[Eve]

Here are the two different shots of the dead Desdemona ...

French DVD



US Version



compared to the last one - the preceeding shot of Desdemona ...

[chrissie]

That reminds me... as promised, a few more grabs...




These are from the spoken credits. Of which, this is a brief sound sample.



This is the first exchange between Iago and Roderigo, from where the earlier sound snippet was taken.



And this is where Iago asks Emilia to bring Desdemona.

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, Chrissie.

Do these images look very dark to you? Perhaps, I need to carress "The White Goddess" (my new iMac G-5).

Glenn

[chrissie]

No, they are a bit dark. Slightly less so on TV, but the image also has poorer contrast than, say, the Voyager or BWS versions. (As is usually the case with old theatrical prints.)

[Glenn Anders]

I understand, Chrissie.

Of course, on a TV monitor the Brightness, Contrast and Picture settings may often adjust the condition.

As a matter of fact, you may have enhanced the images because they now appear to have more definition. You seem to know your onions . . . or "grabs."

Thank you again.

Glenn Anders

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks to Chrissie, I was able to see the original '52 version of Othello, and, in addition to all the visual changes at the beginning, I was surprised to hear that most of Orson Welles's line readings were different, and that Suzanne Cloutier's real voice was on the soundtrack as Desdemona. My guess is that Welles redubbed most of his dialogue after playing it on the London stage (probably because he knew the part better by then), and also had his stage Desdemona (Gudrun Ure, I believe was her name) redub all of Cloutier's dialogue. Soundwise, the '55 version (that we know from the Criterion LD and Beatrice's restoration) is a significant improvement over the '52 original. But of course, for a hardcore Welles completist like myself, it's nice to have all the available versions.

[Tashman]

If I'm following this, it sounds like the audio from Chrissie's early version could be married up to the image on the French DVD. Is that right (or even practical)? Or is that so obvious as to already be way behind the video wizards?

[Le Chiffre]

I'm not familiar with the French Othello DVD, so I'm assuming from your post that it does not have the English language version on it. I'm sure that with the right equipment, the '52 English soundtrack could be synced with the French DVD's visuals, but the fact is, the '52 soundtrack is simply inferior to the '55 soundtrack. Even Welles's spoken credit sequence at the beginning was disappointing- I found it rather awkward and distracting compared to the spoken credit sequence at the end of Ambersons. Welles eliminated it for the '55 version, although it's not clear whether he did this of his own accord or because of pressure from the American distributor (this would be worth investigating). However, as Michael Anderegg's Welles book points out, whenever Welles would loan his personal copy of OTHELLO to film festivals, it was '55 he loaned, not '52.

In short, '52 is superior visually because of the extra footage at the beginning, but '55 has a superior soundtrack because the line readings have much more vigor and clarity.

IMO, we may need another hybrid version from Munich.

[Tashman]

As you say, the completist likes to have all the versions. It would be nice to have the '52 version in English with DVD-level visuals. Why a hybrid?

[Le Chiffre]

To wed the '55 soundtrack to the '52 visuals. Of course, it depends largely on whether Welles was pressured by U.S. distributors to re-edit the beginning of the film in order to eliminate the spoken credits and add some explanatory narration instead. If he was in fact pressured, it would expain the somewhat clumsy job he did in re-editing the footage leading up to Othello's confrontation with Desdemona's father and the Venetian senate.

If he wasn't pressured, then I suppose we'd have to accept Welles's aesthetic decision, even though it meant eliminating some effective shots in order to add some ineffective narration. But he himself even admitted that some of the bits in Venice were "quite weak indeed".

[alan smithee]

As I tried to point out in an old discussion about Othello, the '55 soundtrack is not 'superior' but completely different from '52. Near all actors, even mac Liammoir, are entirely redubbed by Welles itself.