The Dreamers Essay

[Peter Tonguette]

I wanted to give everyone here the heads-up on a just-published piece I wrote on "The Dreamers." It was many months in the writing and became a real labor of love. I just hope that it's up to the high standards of WellesNet!

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/27/welles_dreamers.html

Cheers,

Peter

[Jeff Wilson]

Excellent piece, Peter. Very interesting stuff.

[ToddBaesen]

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Very nice work, Peter. If the interviews you did for the article go beyond Welles works on THE DREAMERS, or even if they don't - why don't you consider posting them here at Wellesnet in their entirety. I for one, would love to see them. Anyone else interested?

And here's some comments by Gary Graver (cinematographer of THE DREAMERS) he made during his visit to the San Franisco Film Festival, when he showed FILMING OTHELLO.

GARY GRAVER: It's not entirely true that Orson wasn't asked to direct films. He was also offered a mini-series called THE ROBBER BARONS. It was going to be about the financial magnates at the turn of the century, like John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan. But Orson preferred to do his own projects, but people didn't want to finance them. Besides THE BIG BRASS RING and THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, Orson wrote a script based on Isak Dinesen's THE DREAMERS, that got rejection slips from studios all over town. They'd say, "too literary," or "not suitable for the screen," — about an Orson Welles script! So he was a a tough guy, who did things the way he wanted to do them, or not at all.

[Peter Tonguette]

Thanks for the very kind comments, guys. As OW once said of "Don Quixote," "The figure of Quixote seizes you." Well, I might say the same of Welles. What began as a short history of "The Dreamers" gradually grew into the exhaustive tome you see before you now. Welles pulls you in and it's practically impossible not to get seduced by the phantom films and all the mythology surrounding them.

Jeff, I'm glad you didn't hold it against me that I actually liked "Jaded".

Todd, unfortunately I don't think there's enough non-"Dreamers" material from my interviews to do what you suggest. I tended to stick to the topic at hand, particularly with Gary and Oja, who are busy people. That said, I fully plan on writing about other unseen Welles projects in the near future, so stay tuned!

Thanks for the quote from GG re: projects OW was offered to direct. You have to admire Orson for sticking so doggedly to his own independent visions.

Peter

[Jeff Wilson]

Peter, as for JADED, hey, to each their own; I wanted to like it going in, but just couldn't handle the script and the acting. I still recall the fight scene at the end, with the two guys throwing the naked woman at each other. It's an experience that will live me always. :p

[Harvey Chartrand]

Expertly done, Peter! As good, if not better, than anything the eminent Jonathan Rosenbaum ever penned.
Did you have a dream to become Mr. Rosenbaum?

[71-1045893605]

Very enjoyable read. Most informing and entertaining.
Well-researched and professionally written for such a young lad.
I look forward to your next Welles-related piece.

GA

[Dylan S]

Hello Peter,

Your article was absolutely magnificent. I knew barely anything about "The Dreamers," and your piece was immensely enlightening. "The Dreamers" is such a beautiful-sounding project, and that final dialogue exchange that closes your article is gorgeous. I would enjoy to read the screenplay someday (it isn't availabe is it?...I'm asking because I know some of Welles' unproduced screenplays are, or were). Thank you for sharing this piece with us, I expect to be thinking about "The Dreamers" long after today.

Best Regards,
Dylan

[Peter Tonguette]

To Gregory, Harvey, and Dylan, thanks for the very kind words. I think of all the groups of people out there who might read the piece, the folks here at WellesNet are the ones I most wanted to please, so I'm gratified to hear all of your comments.

Dylan, the "Dreamers" script (there were nine drafts; I've read the ninth) has never been released. Jonathan R. talks a little about it in the Lawrence French interview. I would love to see it happen, preferably with the drawings OW did (which I've not seen, but which can be glimpsed in "One Man Band"). It's a great script and I'm really glad to hear that you like the bit I quoted as much I do, Dylan. Ideally, they should put the two Isak D. stories in there too because the script is very close to them and they are marvels of storytelling in their own right.

Peter

[Lance Morrison]

I have to concur with all of the comments made; that is a wonderful article. And kudos for having it posted at senses of cinema...really, I am very impressed, which i know is meaningless, but thank you for providing a great read.

[ToddBaesen]

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I was just re-viewing the two clips of THE DREAMERS shown in THE ONE MAN BAND and noticed that it appears that Welles may have gone back to his long take style of shooting, if he was ever able to direct the film. What's shown of the garden scene, while not the complete scene, is still fairly long, and shot in only two takes - with the single cut coming when Marcus gives the gold ring to Pellegrina. Certainly a far cry from the quick editing style of F FOR FAKE and OSOTW. Likewise, the other scene of the long monologue Welles delivers is also done mostly in one take. Interesting to note that it may not have ended up that way, if Welles was indeed planning on intercutting it with the garden scene.

Also, there is footage, apparently shot by the director of ONE MAN BAND, that shows a light snow falling outside a Monastery in the Swiss Alps at twilight, and likewise is done in a very long tracking shot along the Monastery wall. It also seems to match the night-time color scheme of the garden sequence and it sets up the atmosphere for the two Welles directed scenes quite nicely.

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[Peter Tonguette]

Thanks, Lance.

Todd, "The Dreamers" material is definitely a return to an older variant of the Welles "style" - except, of course, that a lot of it is in color. Stylistically, the thing it reminds me most of is "The Immortal Story." There's some of OW's classic quick cutting - cuts made against Marcus' figure moving across screen - to be seen in the full scene, but nothing at all like TOSOTW or "F for Fake."

I think the monestary scene not only would have probably been intercut with the garden scene, but also reverse shots would have been made of the character of Lincoln.

I agree that that shot the director of "One Man Band" made is quite fitting, evocative... it makes me long for somebody to make the film, preferably Oja Kodar. To see a whole film in the style of the Welles fragments... amazing!

Peter

[ToddBaesen]

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Peter:

Having just read Dinesen's THE DREAMERS I can now see why Welles was so taken with the story. Interestingly enough, when I started to read it several years ago, it seemed overwritten and uninvolving, but having the background of the two Welles fragments, and your article, it now seemed to be much more involving.

The complicated structure, of stories within stories reminded me of forties film's (Like THE RACKET and EDGE OF DARKNESS), which had flashback's within flashback's - presumably inspired in the first place by CITIZEN KANE.

And the ending death scene of Pellegrina is really dynamite stuff... I think it would have really given Oda Kodar a chance to shine in the part, and could have easily been the equal to the rejection scene at the end of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT in terms of getting an emotional response out of viewers. Plus add the beautiful color cinematography and the haunting Erik Satie music, and you just know it would have been another Welles masterpiece.

Too bad, Welles didn't live to see the mini-revival in Dinesen's work - after OUT OF AFRICA and BABETTE'S FEAST won Academy Awards in '85 an '87 it would have probably been much easier to get THE DREAMERS financed...

_

[Peter Tonguette]

Todd,

It's terrific to hear that my piece spurred you to revisit the Dinesen stories - that's one of the things I hoped it would do, as the actual footage is unavailable for most people to seek out. So I hope Welles fans try to get their hands on whatever they can with the intention of getting a clearer picture of just what Orson's film was going to be all about.

Moreover, it's great to hear that you liked them so much. I read "Echoes" years ago and had a similar reaction as you did. Undoubtedly, I made a mistake in reading the "sequel" to "The Dreamers" without reading the first story first. But I loved the stories when I re-read them as part of my research.

I think the film would absolutely have been an emotional cousin to "Chimes at Midnight." Although "The Immortal Story" is a useful analogue in terms of visual style and the overall sound of the dialogue and the way in which the story is told, I think it would have been much more of an emotionally devastating experience along the lines of "Chimes." Even in terms of what he shot, I find Oja's reading of the line - "Left to right, Marcus, but never home again" - just heartbreakingly delivered; it's up there with "Rosebud" and "I know thee not, old man." I believe this moment is preserved in the "One Man Band" documentary.

Peter

[Le Chiffre]

Nice piece, Peter (the one on magic is good too). I think THE DREAMERS footage in ONE MAN BAND bears out your opinion that Oja Kodar could have delivered a fine performance in the film if she'd been given a chance. Of course, her performance would have been heavily manipulated by Welles. There was a recent Italian documentary not long ago (I can't think of the name of it offhand) that features outtakes from MR. ARKADIN. It shows Welles directing Paola Mori in a way quite similar to the way he was directing Oja Kodar in The Dreamers. As a director, he was obviously pretty firm with his women.

On a side note: I have a copy of The Dreamers script, and one interesting curiosity in it is a slow-motion shooting death Welles wrote into one of the battle scenes. This seems a nod to Sam Peckinpah, whose CROSS OF IRON Welles was a big admirer of. That film came out around the time Welles wrote The Dreamers script.