Reactions to 'The Other Side of the Wind'

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Ray, amazing program. At the 1:12:00 mark Friedkin also says, "The Other Side of the Wind disturbs me tremendously; that that would be Orson Welles's legacy film. There are a lot of people who won't see anything else (by Welles), won't see Citizen Kane, because of The Other Side of the Wind. Young people."

He had no idea what he was doing and he says so...It's not shot by Welles like a Welles film.

True, but of course in fairness to Welles, I think he was trying to make a "New Hollywood" film with Wind. He may have felt that he had said all he had to say with the old Welles style, and was looking for a new direction, which he found by trying to imitate, or critique, the New Hollywood style, or styles.

[RayKelly]

Thanks Ray, amazing program. At the 1:12:00 mark Friedkin also says, "The Other Side of the Wind disturbs me tremendously; that that would be Orson Welles's legacy film. There are a lot of people who won't see anything else (by Welles), won't see Citizen Kane, because of The Other Side of the Wind. Young people."

He had no idea what he was doing and he says so...It's not shot by Welles like a Welles film.

True, but of course in fairness to Welles, I think he was trying to make a "New Hollywood" film with Wind. He may have felt that he had said all he had to say with the old Welles style, and was looking for a new direction, which he found by trying to imitate, or critique, the New Hollywood style, or styles.

I like Friedkin, but I thought he was way off the mark here. And I am troubled to learn he thinks "a lot of Welles films are rubbish."

[Le Chiffre]

He seems like a guy who shoots from the hip. I remember reading an interview with him many years ago after THE EXORCIST came out, and he said something similar: that he loved CITIZEN KANE but didn't care for any of Welles's other pictures. Then he said he couldn't even equate the intelligence that made Kane to the intelligence that made THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. In recent years, he has become an Ambersons devotee, so he has at least changed his mind about that one, maybe after he found out about the butchering, and that the Ambersons he and everyone else have seen was far from Welles's intended vision.

[Wich2]

From here, it seems that what we have now at least gives us a fair taste of what Orson's OTHER SIDE would have been.

And though I certainly would not call it his best, I think it is a wholly honorable job done at what was, as many have said, an attempt at something new.

(Though I do see threads of this type of film in some of his other work.)

- Craig

[atcolomb]

Liked the film and the documentaries plus it was my first time streaming. I give Orson credit for trying something different.

[I=Eye]

It took a year, but Jonathan Rosenbaum has finally posted his The Other Side of the Argument on his website: http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2019/10/the-other-side-of-the-argument-first-thoughts-on-orson-welles-demonic-fugue/
It was first published a year ago in Europe, so he had time to rectify some mistakes and pretty bizarre claims.

• Rosenbaum forcefully maintains Oja Kodar co-wrote the screenplay, even though there is no shred of physical evidence to back that up. (I believe McBride addressed that in his Pauline Kael Rides Again article.)
• He claims she directed three sequences, including the stunning car/rain sex scene — again even though no one in the film has ever said they were directed by her.
• A LOT of other weird observations like Susan Strasberg is "playing a cross between Pauline Kael and Barbara Leaming" (the latter who Welles met a decade after filming concluded) ... John Dale is effeminate (maybe he meant androgynous?) ... The Actress' "beads spill and scatter like semen" (um, okay)..... "John Huston as his [Welles] fictionalized mouthpiece in Wind." (Welles was not a macho, swaggering pig known for hurling racial epithets at parties.)
• Lastly, he takes a veiled shot I believe at this website for criticizing Kodar during the prolonged negotiations, writing that she is an "easy scapegoat for some Welles enthusiasts and commentators, mostly male..."

[RayKelly]

It took a year, but Jonathan Rosenbaum has finally posted his The Other Side of the Argument on his website: http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2019/10/the-other-side-of-the-argument-first-thoughts-on-orson-welles-demonic-fugue/
It was first published a year ago in Europe, so he had time to rectify some mistakes and pretty bizarre claims.

• Rosenbaum forcefully maintains Oja Kodar co-wrote the screenplay, even though there is no shred of physical evidence to back that up. (I believe McBride addressed that in his Pauline Kael Rides Again article.)
• He claims she directed three sequences, including the stunning car/rain sex scene — again even though no one in the film has ever said they were directed by her.
• A LOT of other weird observations like Susan Strasberg is "playing a cross between Pauline Kael and Barbara Leaming" (the latter who Welles met a decade after filming concluded) ... John Dale is effeminate (maybe he meant androgynous?) ... The Actress' "beads spill and scatter like semen" (um, okay)..... "John Huston as his [Welles] fictionalized mouthpiece in Wind." (Welles was not a macho, swaggering pig known for hurling racial epithets at parties.)
• Lastly, he takes a veiled shot I believe at this website for criticizing Kodar during the prolonged negotiations, writing that she is an "easy scapegoat for some Welles enthusiasts and commentators, mostly male..."

Jonathan Rosenbaum has always been very open about his friendship with Oja Kodar, visits to her home and the very high regard he has for her — so little of this is surprising. In fact, he made some of these point at the 2018 Chicago Film Festival and we posted the audio on YouTube at https://youtu.be/7EmxaBxuVQU

[Le Chiffre]

Nice to finally have Rosenbaum's thoughts in an official review, since he is more or less Oja's spokesman, at least for English speaking Welles fans.

Very interesting that it was Oja who came up with the "bang the woman in order to vicariously possess the man" part of the story. Thinking about it, it somehow doesn't seem like something Welles would have come up with. We can't be sure though.

[TheMcGuffin]

I was wondering if someone in the community may be able to assist on a small request. I am follow indigogo contributor and received my poster several weeks ago. Unfortunately my posters were pretty beat up by our (not) friends at the USPS. I've tried emailing info@othersideofthewind.com and othersideofthewind@gmail.com trying to get replacement posters almost weekly since the end of august and still haven't gotten a response. I know some people here have a bit more of a direct connection to the Wind team than I of course do so I wanted to see if there may be anything that can be done. I actually live in LA so I don't mind even going to the location of where these were sent to ensure I have good copies of the posters. I was really hoping to frame and put up both.

[Wellesnet]

The Italian film magazine Cabiria has pulled together reflections from a dozen Orson Welles scholars across the globe to mark the one-year anniversary of the release of The Other of the Wind.
Organized by Alberto Anile (Orson Welles in Italy), the Italian language magazine Cabiria sought out essays from Americans James Naremore (The Magic World of Orson Welles), who offered an essay previously published in Cineaste, Shakespearean scholar Richard Burt, and Ray Kelly of Wellesnet; Spanish film scholar Esteve Rimbau (Orson Welles: An Immortal Spain); Brazil's Adalberto Müller (Don Quixote Reconsidered); Italy's Alessandro Aniballi, co-founder of Quinlan.it, Formacinema co-founder Massimiliano Studer, and Cabiria editor-in-chief Marco Vanelli, among others.
https://www.wellesnet.com/other-side-wind-cabiria/

[MartynH]

I have never even received my download of TOSOTW, despite several promptings. Has anybody else suffered this?

[RayKelly]

The Italian film magazine Cabiria has pulled together reflections from a dozen Orson Welles scholars across the globe to mark the one-year anniversary of the release of The Other of the Wind.
Organized by Alberto Anile (Orson Welles in Italy), the Italian language magazine Cabiria sought out essays from Americans James Naremore (The Magic World of Orson Welles), who offered an essay previously published in Cineaste, Shakespearean scholar Richard Burt, and Ray Kelly of Wellesnet; Spanish film scholar Esteve Rimbau (Orson Welles: An Immortal Spain); Brazil's Adalberto Müller (Don Quixote Reconsidered); Italy's Alessandro Aniballi, co-founder of Quinlan.it, Formacinema co-founder Massimiliano Studer, and Cabiria editor-in-chief Marco Vanelli, among others.
https://www.wellesnet.com/other-side-wind-cabiria/

The English translation of my contribution can be found at https://www.wellesnet.com/cabiria-other-side-wind-part-2/

[Wellesnet]

The Italian film magazine Cabiria has pulled together reflections from a dozen Orson Welles scholars across the globe to mark the one-year anniversary of the release of The Other of the Wind...

The English translation of Alberto Anile's ([Orson Welles in Italy) contribution to Cabiria magazine can be found at https://www.wellesnet.com/cabiria-other-side-wind-part-3/

[Wellesnet]

In this article for Cabiria, Italian film scholar Massimiliano Studer looks at Orson Welles' papers related to "The Other Side of the Wind."

https://www.wellesnet.com/cabiria-other-side-wind-part-4/

[Le Chiffre]

Terrific job, Ray. I like your phrase "A brutal smackdown of both machismo and New Hollywood". An apt description of the two factions at Jake's party.

Great work by the others too. I especially like Massimiliano's contribution. That film-within-the-film synopsis sounds mightily interesting per his description of it.