The Seven Arkadins

[Wilson]

It would be nice if they somehow include the Spanish language version as well, but that is perhaps asking a bit too much. It's strange that they wouldn't include Confidential Report, since they already own the rights, but maybe they'll throw that in also. I would think they'll include the Harry Lime radio show that the film evolved from too. And there's also the Italian documentary that has variant takes and shots of Welles directing and so on that would be a cool extra. I can see it now: Mr Arkadin: the Box Set.

[TheMcGuffin]

It is great news to hear this. I actually e-mailed criterion a few times saying that they should release a box set of Mr. Arkdin that included the Corinth Version, Confidential Report and the PD version of Mr. Arkadin. Its awesome news to hear that a new version will be included. Lets keep are fingers crossed...maybe they'll add more before Criterion offically announces the title.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Criterion charges a pretty penny, but I'll certainly spring for this one. Perhaps at last I'll find a version of MR. ARKADIN that makes sense. This film is a magnificent catastrophe (tattered editing, phony makeup and special effects, bad acting, half-baked screenplay) but its post-Third Man sense of time and place are very appealing to me. Too bad the Welles of 1954 couldn't have slimmed down to reprise the role of Harry Lime – in pursuit of Bela Lugosi or Oskar Homolka as Arkadin. Robert Arden and Paola Mori (lovely though she was) almost sink the picture.

[Jaime N. Christley]

My favorite Arkadin review was written by a friend of mine for the Village Voice:

CONFIDENTIAL REPORT (MR. ARKADIN) (1955) is a film of frantic movement and fragmentation, a mad rush around a maze with no center and no exit, a Eurotrash
Citizen Kane in reverse. If Kane's trajectory is basically centripetal, winding down to the memory palace where the (non)answer to a life might be found if one knew where to look among the clutter, Arkadin's is centrifugal, a whirlwind investigation initiated to erase the past rather than reveal it. Both end in smoke.

This is the film in which Welles let the seams show, cracking open the piecemeal construction of Othello (where a reverse shot sequence could cross continents in a splice and, according to Welles, "Any time you see someone from the back . . . you can be sure it's a stand-in") to take rootlessness as an explicit theme. Zip pans link locales, each tipped with a perfunctory signifier (baguette: France): We're in Thomas Pynchon's Zone, a borderless territory where history survives only in junk, bad jokes, and rumor. The seams show, too, on the borders of Welles's magnificently phony wig and beard, but who's to say this labyrinth doesn't have the monster it deserves? A pantomime ogre, a report that annihilates itself, a portrait of Hitler stowed away in a Munich attic, a toy racetrack in the shape of an infinity symbol—all fit elements for a fractured fairy tale, as told in the Zone.

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0407,welles,51097,20.html

[sergio]

This is truly incredible news and I hope all the details get confirmed really, really soon - when it comes to the latest news about Welles, I always want everything confirmed in triplicate.

Thanks to a kind person on this forum, I was able to finally see the 'Corinth' version of MR ARKADIN, and I am certainly convinced that it is by far the best version of the film, with the UK CONFIDENTIAL REPORT coming definitely second.

Just the idea of an audio commentary by James Naremore and Jonathan Rosenbaum has me salivating - let's hope it's all true (sic) - I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed.

Is there any more news about this new version that Stefan (who is this person?) is preparing? I hope it is more satisfying than Criterion's fascinating but annoyingly brief and limited essay on the mutliple versions of NIGHT AND THE CITY - I ended up feeling illuminated, but frustrated that they didn't include more of the variances between the UK and US versions of the film - if they'd really wanted to, they could have used branching to include both versions, but I suppose that considering it's a slightly marginal title, they did what they good (which is a hell of a lot - I recommend the disc to anyone who hasn't seen the film - excellent transfer and a fine commentary).

Including CONFIDENTIAL REPORT really sounds like a good way to go, although to be perfectly honest, in its admittedly un-restored fashion, the Region 2 UK release is actually more than adequate from a quality standpoint.

This is the most ecxiting bit of Welles news I've heard in ages - bravo to everyone involved!

[Wilson]

Stefan is Stefan Droessler of the Munich Film Archives, where most all the unfinished Welles materials reside.

[sergio]

Thanks for the clarification - lets hope he does pop in and let us know what it's all about!

[L French]

I talked with the "Mr. Arkadin" producer, Issa Clubb at Criterion, and although they very much want to include it, it looks like there may be some sort of problem in getting the restoration of "Confidential Report" from the Munich Film Museum that Stefan Droessler has worked on. As with all of Welles projects, nothing is ever very simple, but it would be a shame if it doesn't work out, because "Mr. Arkadin" was partly shot in Munich and Stefan has access to some very important material, so I'm sure he has done a marvelous job with his restoration.

In any event the disc will have the 100 minute Corinith version of "Confidential Report" which is the version Jonathan Rosenbaum watched when he did his commentary. Issa said he would like to present as many versions as possible, so it seems likely that, at the least, there may be a feature on the many different versions of the film which will highlight the variations in them, such as the opening credits and the flashbacks. Tenative release date is for Oct or Nov of this year.

[stefan]

It is quite strange to read here at Wellesnet about me, Stefan Droessler, and Criterion's problems with MR. ARKADIN. It's true that Filmmuseum Muenchen and Cinematheque de Luxembourg worked on a kind of reconstruction of the film by using all the existing versions and workprints as well as all available paper works and remarks done by Welles in interviews. All in all the final film is about 106 minutes, containing no "great new scene" but a lot of additional shots in the transitions between the episodes as well as one unknown flashback scene in the attic, the crash of the plane filmed with a subjective camera and, of course, Mily's dead body in the very beginning. Concerning the different orders of scenes in the different versions we were able to find enough indications for the right order. Nevertheless, it is not THE original version, it is the best version combining all the good elements we have - and to our surprise it works well. So we offered it to Criterion. The work tape is the blueprint for redoing it in a high quality digital format. This needs some preparation and some time to be done properly. Criterion decided to set the deadline on the end of March, but we need the April to finish it. The dispute about three weeks of work is the only reason (as far as we were told, I never had the honor to get in a direct contact with Issa) why this version is excluded in the DVD. I couldn't believe it - but I also had problems with the Criterion F FOR FAKE DVD for which I did some researches. We were able to trace the original ELMYR-film by Reichenbach which was the basis of F FOR FAKE. Could you imagine that Criterion even didn't try to include this very revealing item? It's not the only thing I miss on this DVD, there also won't be neither Oja Kodar nor the restored color trailer for F FOR FAKE nor clips of THE MAGIC SHOW.
Normally I don't like to talk about such quarrels in public but I don't like to be blamed for something which is not explained. Of course we will finish the work on MR. ARKADIN, and the result will be presented in the Welles retrospective of the Locarno Film Festival in August.

[Wilson]

I appreciate the information, Stefan, and the reconstruction you're working on sounds great. Criterion will do what they do, and hopefully the version you're working on will find a wider audience on DVD at some point. It certainly seems silly on Criterion's part not to wait, but that's their problem.

[colwood]

I don't think anyone was blaming you for anything, Stefan, but thank you for clearing up the situation. I too hope that the MFM's new work on CR gets another avenue for home video release. Truly disappointing on Criterion's part, considering that they are at times considered the epitome of great dvd releases, yet it took them (what?) almost seven years to release their first Welles title while at the same time they released films like Armageddon and the forth coming Life Aquatic.

On that note, jeers to Criterion for also dropping the ball on F for Fake. Doesn't include the original Elmyr film, doesn't include the color-restored trailer or Oja (I presume this is in regards to the commentary?). What is it including? Another version of OMB and a norweigian doc on Elmyr. At this point, I'm thinking that my LD-DVDr transfer of the film and trailer will suffice and I'll probably just save myself the $30+.

[Knowles Noel Shane]

What? Criterion couldn't wait three weeks for a 106-minute reconstruction of Arkadin and decided to release the old print of Confidential Report instead? Who the hell are these people? They've done a great job on the Gilliam films but this news is too absurd and disappointing to apply to anything other than a Welles project. How pathetic. We are ashamed of you, Criterion. I have an incomplete copy of The Gong Show Movie on Betamax, if you'd like to release that next week.

[L French]

In light of what Stefan says above, I think it's absolutely idiotic for Criterion not to wait and bring out the 106-minute version of MR. ARKADIN - especially since they actually would like to include it.

Anyone who agrees, please post your thoughts and comments below and I will forward them on to Issa Clubb at Criterion and maybe we can get them to wait and hopefully include the Luxemburg/Munich Archive version before we find that there's another Welles DVD (like TOUCH OF EVIL), that is far removed from the ideal version we would all like to see.

And since this is not primarily a money issue, I think it should be fairly easy to bring some public influence to bear on Criterion before they make their final decision. But on the other hand, who knows what sort of corporate politics may be behind the decision - maybe it's just a matter of them wanting to have a 50th Anniversary edition out by the end of the year.

[Glenn Anders]

Larry: Some here will remember a review of MR. ARKADIN which I did for Epinions (as Macresarf1). Clinton Heylin affords me credit in his recent book for a description I give of seeing the film in its first week of release in London, in Summer 1955. The version which Mr. Droessler describes, complies with my memory ot it. I remember when I returned to my alma mater, Kent State University, describing in detail the film I saw. How disappointed I was with the American theatrical release, a couple of years later! The MR. ARKADIN I saw in London was the second best Welles' film I had seen. (Who knows? It may be still.)

Please pass along my urging, for what its worth, that Criterion wait for Mr. Droessler's 106 minute edition. It may not be the MR. ARKADIN I saw, but it sounds much more like it than any version I've seen since.

All hail to Mr. Droessler. I fully agree with the other remarks of praise made here.

Given that her mother is featured in the picture, might Beatrice Welles figure in this mystery?

Glenn

[Tony]

Jeff: You might want to send Glenn's original memories about seeing Arkadin in the 50's along to Criterion, as they seem to accord with Stefan's version. And I'll add my vote for waiting until Stefan's version is ready so as to include it in the package: Arkadin is already a pre-post-modern work: the more versions, the better for this labyrinth!

Tony