Yet more on OSotW

[target practice]

Speaking of the lousy Franco Don Q, I wonder if any of you gentlemen saw J Rosenbaum's interview with Raul Ruiz in the last issue of the Canadian magazine CinemaScope (which is very good, BTW)? It seems JR tried to interest Oja Kodar in getting Ruiz to do the job, but she saw one of his lesser films and decided to pass. Seems a damn shame to me, because I can't think of a director more suited to it, nor one of more "wellesian" propensities.

But -- why Franco? I'd turn it over to my cat first.

(oh, this is my first post here -- hello, have enjoyed lurking on the board for some time)

[Jeff Wilson]

Welcome to the board. Why was Franco chosen to work on Quixote? Presumably because he worked with Welles on Chimes, and had some knowledge of what Welles was doing duing that period, when he was also working on Quixote. It was a project doomed from the beginning, though, because a good deal of footage was missing and/or not allowed to be used by Kodar. Plus, it's Jess Franco we're talking about here, and despite the Euro-trash fans who think he's great, having worked with Welles does not necessarily mean you're equipped to finish his films.

[Terry]

While I agree that Franco's soft-porn films like Vampyros Lesbos and Lust for Frankenstein are sheer crap, I do find that his assemblage and postproduction of the footage he had access to from Quixote is pretty damn admirable. I've watched his version a dozen times now, and with each viewing I've appreciated it more deeply. It's true to Cervantes, it's true to Welles' style, at least it enables us to see a couple hours of Welles footage, and if any forthcoming assemblage of The Other Side of the Wind does as competent a job I'll be suitably impressed.

I'm happy to see any version of the lost Welles, and this includes It's All True and One Man Band. While I can hope for something better, I'm not too foolish to be thankful for what I have.

As to Beatrice and her alleged legal clambering ... [explitive deleted.]

[Fredric]

I agree about DQ. Enough Welles shines through that I quite enjoyed it. It's no worse than the studio castrations that took place throughout OW's career.

[target practice]

my mileage differed, sadly, thought Franco made it into something a Welles film should never be -- dull. I was reminded of OW's remarks in the BBC Arena interview of what the Chimes battle scene would have looked like without his rigorous editing -- "truly impoverished". But i agree, i guess, that it's nice to have the footage available in some form.

Perhaps another drawback to a Ruiz edit -- I doubt he wd've been content to simply try to reconstruct Welles's intentions (probably impossible in this case anyway) but would have tried to create something of interest beyond museum piece (which is, i think, about what the Franco Don Q could be considered, by kindest evaluation). I think, since Ruiz is a talented, interesting director, this may have been the better choice. Best of all would be turning over the footage to a variety of talented directors to work with, along with a DVD release of the original footage unedited. But this is obviously the territory of dreams

[ToddBaesen]

Here's what Oja Kodar had to say about the mess Jess Franco made out of DON QUIXOTE.

And incidentally, Jonathan Rosenbaum didn't suggest Raul Ruiz for putting together DON Q., but rather for a version of THE DREAMERS, incorporating 20 minutes of the Welles' footage that was already shot, and using Welles' script and ideas, since Ruiz, like Welles, was a big fan of Isak Dinesen's work.

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Q: When you gave the DON QUIXOTE footage to the Spanish minister of culture, did you know that Jess Franco was going to be the one editing the footage?

OJA KODAR: Yes, and at the time I thought he'd probably be one of the best people to help. He had worked with Orson, he's a cultured man who knows Cervantes, and he actually loved Orson, but I don't know what happened. Maybe in his old age he became a cynic and just wanted to make some money. Who knows what goes on in the minds of people, but at the time, I did not feel I was doing wrong to Orson's material. We had the Minister of Culture of Spain behind it, we had Jess Franco, a man who worked with Orson and loved him—or at least he proclaimed he loved Orson. Orson never talked to me about him, so I assumed he loved Orson. I wish he had a vision, but what we ended up getting from him had no vision at all. He just threw it together.

[jaime marzol]

too bab oja didn't have her laptop nearby when the minister of bad culture approached her with the director franco. she could have dialed up www.imdb.com, seen that franco worked under 50 aliases, and had a string of exploitative, low budget titty movies to his credit.

then she could have come to america, landed in las vegas, and hired the services of american movie weasel, ray dennis steckler, better known as cash flagg. he only worked under 10 aliases, already making him 5 times better than franco, and steckler had the good taste to have no titties in his exploitive, low budget titty movies.

[Terry]

The more times I watch Don Quixote, the more I like it. I'm even convinced that it's a masterpiece. It does fail a bit in the Spanish section, devoted to the vices and virtues of the bullfight, when Sancho is reduced to a bumbling pest asking everyone if they've seen his master, but there are fine moments after he does rejoin the Don, and all this poo-pooing of Franco's fine editing and postproduction of Welles' unfinished footage is just a mistake. Like the rest in the canon, you really need to think hard into this film if you want to enjoy it. And having a viewable copy of the film helps too!

[jaime marzol]

i have no problem with Don Q even though my copy is barely visible, i also think it's a masterpiece. the editing could have been better, but you can say that about ambersons, mr arkadin, touch of evil.

when the heck are you going to e-mail me about out trades hadji?

[Terry]

Well, I have emailed you and sent you personal messages on this board and mailed your package days ago and I defy the Postal Service to not have delivered it to you yet. I emailed to your cinema vortex thing last. I believe you're watching your new copy of Quixote as I type this. :p

[Michael]

I actually still have never seen the Don Quixiote. Amazing, since I'm such a fan! Yikes!!!

Michael

[Jeff Wilson]

I've provided a link to a BBC report on the OSotW controversy, which features David Thomson. He makes mention of there being two wills, one of which gave everything to Paola Mori, which is at the root of the problem, so he says. Anyway, listen for yourself; the link is about halfway down the page.



BBC story

[Le Chiffre]

Interesting. I'd like to find out more about this Hewlett Packard guy that wanted to buy all the TOSOTW footage, and why that fell through. Thompson started to go into depth on it and the moderator cut him off. Too bad.

[Peter Tonguette]

Thanks for the heads-up on the BBC program, Jeff - unfortunately, for some reason that link isn't working for me.

Would anyone be kind enough to summarize what Thomson had to say?

Thanks.

Peter

[ToddBaesen]

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You're not missing much, because as Mr. Thomson indicated in his terribly inaccurate Welles bio, ROSEBUD, he felt that THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND should never see the light of day! So, he obviously feels Beatrice is doing the right thing in trying to block it's release.

His tone is also very anti-Oja Kodar, and why he feels this way, I have no idea. He says, Oja "allegedly" has rights to all the unfinished Welles films. Now why would he say "allegedly," since it's quite clear in Welles's will that anyone who contested Oja's claims was to be disinheirited. So Welles's will clearly favored Oja Kodar, and not Palo Mori (or his bloodsucking daughter, Beatrice, who Daddy saw fit to leave only a small bequest of $10,000).

The sad part about all of this, is that Oja and Palo Mori were scheduled to meet and sign an agreement regarding the will, the day Mori died in a car crash in Las Vegas. If that agreement had been signed, Beatrice would have very little legal ground to stand on today, and the final editing and release of OSOTW could go forward.

But like Pauline Kael, Mr. Thomson really has no idea of what he's talking about - and apparently done very little real research into Welles' life. He also admits he's only seen a few fragments of OSOTW (the same few that everybody's seen from the AFI tribute, since Oja would never show him the film).

Mr. Thomson also seems to delight in taking cheap shots at Welles, (just as he did in ROSEBUD), saying that Welles's
will left his affairs in "chaos - just as his life was" - and goes on to talk about Welles as a home movie maker, which is
why he left so many uncompleted films.

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