'The Deep' rough cut

[jbrooks]

It certainly is coherent, and I never had any aspersions to the contrary. But, that said, it is very experimental in its uniquely fast cutting and mix of different stocks- black and white color. Even today, it's quite unusual. The film comes across very much as the more narratively-grounded successor to F for Fake.

I am pretty much in total agreement with A Sled in Flame's above quote about "The Other Side of the Wind." I'm worried about whether the style will work, whether the ideas in the script will adequately come through in the footage shot, and whether the film-within-a-film material can be successfully integrated with the Huston scenes. I'm hopeful but I'm worried.

But I will say that the material from "Wind" that gives me the most hope is the black and white footage that leaked to the web a few years ago. The scenes with (1) Hannaford and Bogdanovich, (2) Hannaford and his cronies and (3) with Hannaford and Dale's old teacher are all excellent. They're shot in striking black and white and Huston's performance really comes alive there.

[jbrooks]

The Deep could have been a solid, respectable thriller. For whatever reason, Welles abandoned it.
Personally, I don't buy it had anything to do with dubbing Moreau or Harvey. Welles used alternate voice actors in Othello and other projects.

Having seen the work print, the fact that Welles didn't complete it does appear somewhat inexplicable. I agree that it seems unlikely to have had anything to do with the dubbing. He could have gotten that done, and indeed, the actor with the most missing dialogue is Welles himself. Also, the film is surprisingly complete. The missing underwater footage seems less than essential. Of course, the fact that Welles prepared the trailer in 1975 and hoped to show the trailer at the AFI Award dinner suggests that he didn't really abandon it. He was still hoping to get it out there.

Ray, you're causing me to question my view that Oja's performance was fine. I had low expectations given the speculation that she was terrible. I thought she had okay presence and that most of the awkwardness in her performance could be fixed in the cutting and the looping. I may also have been influenced by "The Dreamers." She's not great in that either, and I wouldn't have wanted her cast in that film had it been made at full length. But her performance that has a compelling and haunting quality that I was surprised to see.

[RayKelly]

The missing underwater footage seems less than essential. Of course, the fact that Welles prepared the trailer in 1975 and hoped to show the trailer at the AFI Award dinner suggests that he didn't really abandon it. He was still hoping to get it out there.

The underwater footage of Bryant inspecting the boat does not seem necessary, but Welles and Harvey falling overboard and being attacked by a shark does.
I am not familiar with the AFI plan. From what I understand, getting the AFI producers to include the Wind clips was a struggle.
There is no doubt that Welles decided at some point to shelve the project. Keith Baxter and Jeanne Moreau have both said that Welles completed the film with Moreau going as far as saying he chose not to release it.
I find it odd that Welles dubbed a bit of Bryant's dialogue, but not his own. Perhaps, there is another, yet-to-be-discovered workprint. Keith Baxter and Moreau told interviewers that Welles finished the film, with Moreau saying he chose not to release it.

[admusicam]

as my english is bad I have many problems to understand everything -but is there someone to really understand every thing on the subject??!!!
I have a question about the The Deep negative.
Reading some posts about Don Quichotte, It appear one problem for Welles is a financial one about the negatives: I understand that Welles was working on the work print but -after that- have to pay to have the film realised from the negative hold by some film laboratory. It appear that, after a certain time, if it was not paid, the negative was lost and distruct. What we know is the Deep negative no longer exist, but only the workprint. Could we think that, at a certain point, and with long time passing, Welles have no monay to pay to have the negative printed, and then the film was lost not because he was not able to finish or not want to finish it but because the negative was destroyed by laboratory and it become impossible to have a good technical print for issue it?

Christophe

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, Christophe, that is quite possible, unfortunately. Here's Mauro Bonanni talking about the DON QUIXOTE negative:

Mauro Bonanni: No, there were five bins of negative, which were taken to Vittori, a laboratory of development and printing, where we also had the negative of the CBS special. So the negative of Don Quixote was held by Vittori. Then, when Welles started cutting a single scene from the Quixote negative, then he had to pay the deposit. There was this unwritten law respected by all, to the effect that if a film, three months after the deposit, had any of the negative cut, then the unmounted part of the negative was considered garbage and was sent through the shredder. Because of this clause, therefore, Vittori wanted to send everything through the shredder and just keep that sequence. They kept a bit and then were really willing to throw everything away.

And this happened even if you had cut only one sequence of the negative. The rest was considered trash.