IT'S ALL TRUE

[ToddBaesen]

Has anybody tried playing any different music under the THREE MEN ON A RAFT episode of IT'S ALL TRUE. I thought the score they used was rather poorly done, and if i was at the preview I would have told them: "It Stinks!" or "sent it back for re-scoring!"

Seriously, I was trying to think of something else suitable that might go under it. Anybody have any suggestions?

It would be sort of like hearing the original Bernard Herrmann cues played under TORN CURTAIN. In the few clips they showed on the DVD it made a startling difference.

[Le Chiffre]

I think the Lilly library has the original score written for the Four Men On A Raft episode by Paul Misraki, who also did the score for Arkadin. If so, it's beyond me as to why they didn't use it.

[Jeff Wilson]

I like Misraki's Arkadin score a lot. As for his It's All True work, it's possible that the score didn't match the editing, and the effort to make it correspond to same wasn't felt to be worth it. Another consideration is the budgetary requirements to record it. Rights issues, maybe? But the score that they did use is sleep-inducing, to be sure.

[ToddBaesen]

-
There's currently a press kit for sale on Ebay which had this interesting material about IT'S ALL TRUE listed in the description:

BACKGROUND: On February 18, 1942 the Carnival In Rio ended, and Welles began preparing the Jangadeiros episode of IT'S ALL TRUE, "Four Men on a Raft." He also was planning additional scenes for the Carnival, to be staged at Rio's Urca Casino. Welles wrote the following short treatment on how he planned to create a transition from the Jangadeiros segment to the Carnival footage.
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March 11, 1942 - ORSON WELLES TREATMENT FOR LINKING EPISODES OF "IT'S ALL TRUE":

--- This is the way I visualize it—Beautiful shots of Rio, and I start a kind of travelogue, looks like (it's) going to be boring and I say a few words, rush expensive music, Copacabana crowds of bathing girls and suddenly close shot of couple girls under umbrella looking out at water… Guys stand up and look… make cuts showing tiny sail out in bay, no explanation for all of this. Few more cuts, people noticing, kids, crowds beginning to form and look at what is apparently refugees or guys on raft caught in storm. Sail keeps coming in.
***** Show Copacabana Palace Hotel. Crowds of people around front, don't see President, then jangadeiros come through crowd.
***** Then I either appear on screen or speak and say, "This is what happened when we were in Rio and we didn't understand who these people were. We found out and it is the best story in South America."
***** Dissolve into interior of hotel room and there are a lot of Brazilian reporters and jangadeiros… And I say as though I were right there, "I wish you could tell us something about these people." While busy talking in Portuguese one fellow turns to camera and tells us what jangadeiros are but doesn't say why they came (to Rio)…
***** Then I lead into the story and the four fellows talking and being translated. As I start to talk, fade into jangada village… Whole track is not my telling story but they telling story…
***** I get to arrival in Rio and last shot should be from their point of view seeing bay and people coming toward them. Dissolve back to hotel room… I finally turn to Jacare and he says he has been talking long enough because we have been hearing music outside. "We want to see Carnival and excuse us." ***** We go to Carnival…

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March 15, 1942: (Welles had been in Brazil for only six weeks, when George Schaefer began to worry about the ballooning budget of IT'S ALL TRUE. Trying to calm his fears, Welles sent him the following cable):
ORSON WELLES TO GEORGE SCHAEFER:

HASTEN ASSURE YOU MY ONLY DESIRE HERE IS TO MAKE THIS BEST POSSIBLE PICTURE AT LOWEST POSSIBLE COST. HOPE YOU BELIEVE I WISH NOTHING MORE THAN TO BE FULLY COOPERATIVE IN EVERY RESPECT AND TO MAKE YOU PROUD OF ME. -- MUCH LOVE, ORSON WELLES.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

why was there a budget to begin with? this wasn't going to be a film. this was something that should have been no cost to anyone other than mr. rockefeller. the moron that told orson it was his patriotic duty to do this in the first place.

[Jeff Wilson]

According to the linked post from Home Theater Forum, the documentary It's All True will see release on November 30 of this year, No details as to any potential extras, though I don't imagine there will be any, given the low profile of this title.

Paramount Catalog releases

[R Kadin]

I'm going to guess that it will just be a transfer of the 1993 VHS version, reviews of which seem to be rather conflicting. While one can always hope for things like an enhanced restoration and additional supporting materials, hard-nosed business reasons for investing the added time and trouble don't exactly over-runneth the cup, so to speak.

As a labour of love, maybe? A profile-enhancing exercise for the Paramount image, perhaps? Sure - why not leave a little room for some optimisim?

Anyway, has anyone out there had a good look at the earlier product and, if so, what's your take?

[Flint]

WOW! Great News!

R. Kadin-
I saw the video several years ago, but the thing I remember most is the striking cinematography. Especially in the "Three Men and a Raft" segment, which I believe was shot mostly by Welles himself after the studio had tried to pull the plug on the project and he opted to stay behind with a minimal crew. Extras or no, I can't wait!!

-Flint.

[savehollywood]

I have the VHS. It is actually a very nice quality. If you can find it, probably no need to buy the DVD... unless it has extra features, of course.

However, I personally found "It's All True" to be a rather static documentary... and the footage, although beautifully shot and in focus, was not something I care to invest in another edition of...

Give me the "One Man Band" DVD, then I'll giggle...

[Christopher]

The Museum of Modern Art in New York had a special showing of the "It's All True" documentary some years ago, which I saw and found more heartbreaking than anything else. The footage of the "Three Men in a Raft" sequence, even without sound, hints at what Welles's film might have been, had he been allowed to finish it. So, at best, in my view, the documentary is tantalizing, saddening and not that interesting, overall, except as a postmortem.

[Roger Ryan]

Following along the idea that even unfinished fragments should be allowed in the Welles canon proper (i.e. "The Dreamers"), I think the restoration of "Four Men and a Raft" is a wonderful addition. Apart from Welles' missing narration, the sequence feels complete and certainly shows that Welles was crafting something much more artistic than what the bad RKO press would lead one to believe.

[RayKelly]

From The Hollywood Reporter, June 8, 2012:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/Brazilian-ceara-film-festival-social-struggles-335261

FORTALEZA – The 22nd Ceara Film Fest’s focus on social upheaval has certainly gone beyond its programmed section, a parallel exhibition named "Latin America’s Social Fights." This year focus was triggered by the 70th anniversary of Orson Welles’s unfinished South American project It’s All True, which in 1942 attempted to portray the fight for worker rights led by four fishermen from Ceara, in North East Brazil, against the Getulio Vargas government in 1941.

The section was curated by Argentine journalist Oscar Ranzani and features films that specifically depict political and social fighting, like Newen Mapuche, a documentary about the Mapuche community's fight for their land against government repression in Southern Chile. Director Elena Varela was actually persecuted by the State’s intelligence agency and imprisoned in 2008, and all her footage was confiscated.

But social topics have also poured into the fest’s main competition, which closed last night and featured films from Guatemala, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and the Basque Country.

[RayKelly]

"Sihgtings" did a look on the "It's All True" curse and Orson Welles back in 1995. it has re-surfaced in YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrmJSE6wrsE&feature=player_embedded#!

[Le Chiffre]

Fascinating, thanks Ray. And thanks to Bill Krohn for getting that curse lifted! Maybe they should check to make sure TOSOTW doesn't have one on it as well.

[Le Chiffre]

...along with another restoration of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. From 1993:

http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=6343