Othello Again - A Holy Grail, Perhaps...

[Le Chiffre]

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

Well yes, it's a matter of taste, but I find the '55 soundtrack better, especially the Othello/Desdemona scenes.
Welles redubbing all of Macliammior's dialogue? I find that difficult to believe. I think he did redub all of Rodrigo's dialogue, though. Rodrigo sounds a little too sissy-ish in the '52 version.

[alan smithee]

>>>Welles redubbing all of Macliammior's dialogue? I find that difficult to believe.

I'm sorry, my previous post was effectively incomprehensible and imprecise. I've attempted an accurate comparison of both versions, basing myself on the influential research of Pascal Thomas, and actually in the american '55 version a lot of the original '52 european version dialogues are redubbed by Welles itself (so Suzanne Cloutier is totally redubbed by Gudrun Ure). I mean, not only the character of Othello are redubbed on purpose (near the 50%, especially in the duets with Desdemona), but also some cue of Roderigo (mostly), Ludovico and even Iago are now clearly pronounced by Welles voice. In that sense, non only for the visual and editing differences, the two versions are completely different. Nevertheless, according to Thomas (and I agree with him), the quality of the sound is "superior" in the european '52 version, rather than in '55. He wrote "the technical quality", but particularly, in my opinion, is the rough authenticity of the '52 soundtrack that makes the difference. I am bound to say, however, that the "poor quality of the soundtrack" was officially, at the times, the reason of the exclusion of Othello from the Venice Film Festival competition.

[Tony]

Alan: I don't know of Pascal Thomas: who is he, and where can I find his research, please?

[alan smithee]

Thomas (his name is Francois, not Pascal, forgive me and my memory) is a french film historian, or critic, or simply a passionate wellesian (I don't know much about him). He wrote in the june 1996, no. 424 issue of "Positif" a very interisting research about the different versions of Othello and the very questionable and controversial work of the 1992 restorers. "Positif" often publishes interesting materials about Orson Welles. I remember for instance an exhaustive conversation with the director of photography Edmond Richard about the making of The Trial or a detailed article by Jean-Pierre Barthomé about the history of production and making of Othello, full of tidbits (some of which I have personally checked talking with the camera operator Oberdan Trojani - unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago - and during a marocan tour of film locations that I've made on behalf of an italian magazine).