Hopper / Welles

[Wellesnet]

Extensive footage of the November 1970 meeting of Citizen Kane creator Orson Welles and Easy Rider director Dennis Hopper has been uncovered and assembled by The Other Side of the Wind producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski. Politics, Christianity, fraught family relationships and, of course, moviemaking are among the topics touched upon in Hopper / Welles — an unscripted 129-minute talk directed by Welles. It will premiere at the 77th Venice International Film Festival in September.
https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-dennis-hopper-venice-film-festival/

[atcolomb]

Is there a chance this can be a extra on the future Criterion disc release of The Other Side of the Wind?

[RayKelly]

Is there a chance this can be a extra on the future Criterion disc release of The Other Side of the Wind?

I would assume it depends on who acquires the distribution rights to Hopper/Welles.
Filip has indicated he would like to see a blu-ray full of extras.

[Le Chiffre]

That's great to see they're making use of all that extra footage. Maybe several movies will come out of it. I'd like to see one of the Jaglom/Mazursky conversation too.

I've heard Hopper got pretty stoned for his interview with Welles, so I guess we'll see how clear and coherent he is with a sustained conversation. Anyway, it sounds sort of like a microcosm of TOSOTW itself: old Hollywood meets New Hollywood. Should be very interesting.

[RayKelly]

I've heard Hopper got pretty stoned for his interview with Welles, so I guess we'll see how clear and coherent he is with a sustained conversation.

I believe Joseph McBride in his last book on Welles reported Hopper was stoned.
In the movie, Hopper is chowing down on the pasta dish Welles made and drinking gin and tonic. It appears Welles is drinking Fresca. Hopper is coherent, especially in a conversation about being pressured by the FBI. He tells Welles he is uncomfortable talking politics after a recent visit from agents.

[Wellesnet]

"It fucks me off, though, the amount of time that's spent mocking Orson about his weight. OK, so he liked to eat - so what? The bottom line is this: Orson wrote, directed, edited, produced and starred in Citizen Kane. You ever accomplished anything of that magnitude? No? Then go fuck yourself." - Dennis Hopper.

NYT article about the making of Hopper's "The Last Movie".
A Gigantic Ego Trip For Dennis Hopper? (NYT, May 10, 1970):
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/10/arch ... opper.html

Chinchero is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The tiny, remote village sits at the top of fertile green and yellow valleys and Inca ruins. In the distance are great glaciers, snow fields and snow‐capped mountains. Luxurious vegetation thrives here. And poverty. The poverty of the Indians who live in Chinchero. The beautiful people of Peru. The Spanish conquered them in 1533 and the Americans in 1970. In the village square a Western movie set has been constructed. An American temple overlooking the sacred valley of the Incas and a breathtaking view of the Andes. This incredible view was one of the reasons Dennis Hopper decided to make his second film at this location.

“The Last Movie” takes place in a faraway land after a company of American film makers have come, made a Western, and left. What we will see is the effect on the primitive village and its people ... in reality, what actually may happen to the people of Chinchero after “The Last Movie” is finished and everyone has left.

[RayKelly]

Orson Welles planned to make a Dennis Hopper documentary back in 1970 when he was shooting THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND., according to his daughter, Beatrice.
The interview footage makes up the new HOPPER/WELLES and will be shown next month at the Venice film festival.
https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-dennis-hopper-documentary/

[Le Chiffre]

Interesting. I've never heard Welles say anything about EASY RIDER, so I'm wondering why he had such an interest in Hopper. Maybe because, unlike most of the other "New Hollywood" directors, Hopper was willing and able to do it on both sides of the camera. Maybe Welles recognized a kindred spirit in him that way, just as he later had high praise for Clint Eastwood's western, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (Eastwood had made his impressive debut as actor/director in 1971 with PLAY MISTY FOR ME).

But of course, that would then bring us to that other famous modern actor/director, Woody Allen, whom Welles seems to have had little respect or affection for, either as director or actor, according to Jaglom's 2014 book, MY LUNCHES WITH ORSON:

"I hate Woody Allen physically, I dislike that kind of man. He has the Chaplin Disease; that particular combination of arrogance and timidity sets my teeth on edge. Like all people with timid personalities his arrogance is unlimited. Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant. He acts shy, but he loves himself; a very tense situation. It's people like me who have to carry on and pretend to be modest. To me, it's the most embarrassing thing in the world - a man who presents himself at his worst to get laughs, in order to free himself from his hang-ups. Every thing he does on the screen is therapeutic."

[admusicam]

The anonce of the Hopper-Welles film is such an increadible surprise ! One of the most interresting thing is the fact it come from The other side of the wind, as another film in the film, another way to expand it and see it in à more profund and complexe way. Again, it put this film as a still living project, not only with the fact the film come to life long after Welles death, but is even able to "create" or "generate" a new and autonome film !
There is no other exemple of this in cinéma history.

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, that's a good way to look at it, admusicam. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is still very much a living project, still generating new films. And no, I can't think of another example of it in film history, except maybe Welles's other unfinished projects, such as IT'S ALL TRUE, DON QUIXOTE, ORSON'S BAG, THE DEEP, and ORSON WELLES' MAGIC SHOW

Just think of how many Welles-related films could be made with all that footage.

[Wellesnet]

Movie lovers at the Venice International Film Festival can catch one of 10 screenings of HOPPER/WELLES. Fingers crossed it won't be long before it is shown in the U.S.
Venice film festival announces ‘Hopper/Welles’ screening dates:
https://www.wellesnet.com/hopper-welles ... ing-dates/

[Wellesnet]

3-minute excerpt from the new movie at Deadline.com.

‘Hopper/Welles’: Watch Dennis Hopper & Orson Welles Discuss Filmmaking Craft In First Footage From Unearthed Welles Film:
https://deadline.com/video/dennis-hoppe ... XMY5mFRfAk

[Wellesnet]

Review from the Venice fest (Translated from Spanish):

Venecia recovers unprecedented dialogue: Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles
https://www.ambito.com/espectaculos/cin ... s-n5129050

The Festival announced for the 8th of September the full version of another legendary dialogue that, until today, has only been seen in fragments. Dennis Hopper with Orson Welles shortly after Hopper's first work as director, "Easy Rider".

Historically, there have not been many dialogues between leaders of the film art, discussing their past experiences and methods. Before this 1970 Welles/Hopper discussion, there were two classic examples, both made in the 1960s. One of them was between Alfred Hitchcock with François Truffaut which, after numerous conversations, ended in the book “El cine según Hitchcock ” or "Hitchcock/Truffautt", which has become a "must" for any student or film buff since its publication, and which has had countless editions.

The other, a little less known, was between Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard, because of the running of “El desprecio” (where the director of “Metrópolis” was an actor in the film of the pioneer of the New Wave). This extensive and exciting conversation will take you by the title “The baby and the dinosaur”, definition of the Lang religion during the conversation (the same ‘dinosaurio del cine’ y ‘baby’ to Godard). In both cases, the young Truffaut and Godard then questioned their teachers who also slipped something of their own conceptions of the film.

Now, the Festival of Venecia announced for the 8th of September the full version of another legendary dialogue that, until today, has been seen only in fragments. It was made by Dennis Hopper with Orson Welles right after Hopper's debut as director, “Easy Rider” (“Busco mi destino”, 1969), classic of the counter-cultural generation that inaugurated the famous "New Hollywood", whose reign ended up with the return of the overproduced popcorn movies and the environment of superheroes.

Responsible for this film are the producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski, the same people who did the restoration and release of the incompleted Welles' film “The Other Side of the Wind” , which took two years.
Justly, the dialogue between Welles and Hopper took place in Los Angeles, in 1970, when the director of "Citizen Kane" called the rebel filmmaker to participate in an experimental film about two Hollywoods, that of the great overpowering studios and that new one that Hopper represented as one of its young stars (there are also appearances from John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, Paul Mazursky, Norman Foster, Stéphane Audran, Claude Chabrol and many others).

In keeping with anticipation, the film finds the two artists at contradictory moments in their careers: Welles, who had broken with Hollywood for years, was trying to return as a freelance director, with a strong anti-establishment message. At that time he was also afflicted, in addition to personal and artistic hardships, by legal problems due to his many debts.

Hopper, on the other hand, came from the margins, from working as Roger Corman's second unit director on "The Trip," and found himself suddenly, through "I Seek My Destiny," with world fame and the welcome of the "system". Everything indicated that the one who was looking for his destiny was the great teacher, while the hippie motorcyclist had already found it.

The conversation took place in a tavern, by the log fire. Hopper, at one point, told Welles that one of the hardest things to do in "Seeking My Destiny" was cutting. "Editing is a painful process," he says in the film. "It's like having to cut off the arms of a newborn baby."

[RayKelly]

Alberto Anile has a piece in Italy's largest daily (for subscribers and in Italian) at
https://rep.repubblica.it/pwa/generale/2020/09/03/news/quell_incontro_segreto_tra_welles_e_hopper-266176726/

There is also an article on Deadline
https://deadline.com/2020/09/hopper-welles-how-producer-filip-jan-rymsza-pieced-together-another-lost-orson-welles-movie-venice-film-festival-1234569943/

[RayKelly]

My interview with Filip Jan Rymsza and Bob Murawski is now online. Special thanks to both gentlemen for making time to talk with Wellesnet about the footage and the finished Hopper/Welles.
We also touched on a TOSOTW Blu-ray and their interest in other Welles projects.
https://www.wellesnet.com/inside-hopper-welles/