OW Shakespeare films - link and info

[ToddBaesen]

I just got the new book of the Welles scripts adapted from Shakespearian plays, which features his Vodoo MACBETH. It's supposed to be extremely bad luck for an actor or director in the theater to actually mention the name of the play, and Welles seems to have done "the Scottish play" in more different mediums then any of Shakespeare's other plays. (on stage at least twice, as part of the Mercury Shakespeare books and records series, and of course as a film). Maybe that brought him bad luck, just like the Vodoo witch doctor who cursed IT'S ALL TRUE.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

I don't think that Mr. Welles had good or bad luck.

I just think that everyone was against him.
he did the war of the worlds
people got mad
citizen kane
people got mad

so they were already not liking him. I mean how would you feel if you were:
a rich tycoon
who started wars, and got away with it
had a famous castle
everyone on your side
an old fart
ugly as hell
and all of a sudden came along someone to take your place and get
filfthy rich
terribly handsome
24 years old
did a good job on a movie
people were loving
and became the #1 man in america

well, mr.hearst (God Forgive Me) felt that his life was going to be over or taken over by Mr. Welles so he did everything in his power to prevent it from happening from
trying to buy it
wanting to burn it
spies on the set of the movie
and more than anything, since he was a newspaper and magazine tycoon, printed nothing but bad reviews or none at all

I don't think Mr. Welles had luck good or bad, he just had a lot of people that were jealous of him. Even when he grew a beard, jealousy because he looked better than they did, and they knew it

i don't know

[Tony]

Here's an interesting page of scans of Othello posters and lobby cards, most of which i've never seen before:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045251/posters

and here's an oddity: the entire film transcribed:

http://pubpages.unh.edu/~dml3/wellesothello.htm

[mido505]

It seems the entire movie is up on Youtube in a nice looking print: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOhq0AyRNjY

Seems to have gone up on April 27th.

[Glenn Anders]

Isn't it marvelous! Now many of us who have never seen it in a decent version may begin to fairly judge CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT.

My initial impression is one of great mis-en-scene, superb camera work and tracking, some very good casting, synchronization better than I remember. The main problem, for me at least, may reside in the hurried editing of a lot of the line-readings, which speeds up the action, but does not add to understanding and deprives us of a certain necessary emotional closeness, which would seem approachable in many segments of the film otherwise.

That said: Thank you, thank you, thank you, mido505 (and VomBear, wherever you are)!

Glenn

[RayKelly]

From ArtDaily http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=51489

Unseen archive of Orson Welles's hidden masterpiece for sale at Bonhams

LONDON.- Bonhams is to sell a treasure trove of material about Orson Welles’ hidden masterpiece “Chimes at Midnight,” regarded by the director as his favourite film. It is estimated at between £60,000-80,000.

‘Chimes at Midnight’, (Falstaff in the USA), was made in 1965 and nominated for several awards but post production problems and wrangles over ownership have conspired to made it one of his least known films. A restored version, screened in the UK in August 2011, was the first cinema showing for decades. Critics, however, have long ranked it among Welles’ masterpieces and the director’s performance as Falstaff as his best. Welles himself said, “If I wanted to get into Heaven on the basis of one movie, that’s the one I’d offer up”.

The archive belonged to the executive producer of ‘Chimes at Midnight’, Alessandro Tasca, a cousin of Guiseppe Lampedusa, author of the classic Sicilian novel ‘The Leopard’. It includes 23 wash and watercolour drawing by Welles for ‘Chimes at Midnight’ together with production notes for the film and for Welles’ unfinished project to film Don Quixote.

Welles and Tasca had an affectionate but tempestuous relationship over many years and the archive contains several letters of contrition from the director who was notorious for losing his temper (he was furious, for example, when Tasca left the set to attend his daughters wedding). There are also fascinating glimpses into Welles’ working method as in this memorandum about the kind of cameraman he was seeking, “...in my pictures I am, to a very considerable extent, my own cameraman. All basic decisions particularly as regards the lighting must be made by myself. This means that we require a good technician... (who)..must accept a sort of partnership in which I am, in the crunch, the senior partner.”

[Vicvic]

Hello,

I have a copy of one of the original Othellos (the european one) but it's subtitled in french. I dont like to see it with subtitles because, for me, it kind of disturbs the musicality of the editing, you know (for films that have a great editing it's good to have optional subtitles but this was before dvd, so you have that constant tic-tac like a watch in front of your eyes, disturbing the movie behind, anyway)

My question is : since there is also a french-dubbed release of the same european original version (I have it too, the subtitled version came from tv and I bought the dubbed version in vhs), wouldnt it be possible to make a mix of both (f.ex. like these Star Wars fans who complained about the reeditings and so did themselves a remake of original versions), I mean take the sound of the subtitled version and the image of the dubbed version, and put them together (I dont know if its technically easy or not), so to have the original euro Othello, in english WITHOUT these annoying fixed subtitles ? I dont know how to do it myself so I'm just asking here, because it seems that they will simply never issue the original Othellos on dvd, so why wait for it.

By the way, I'm also searching for a copy of the second original version, the american one from laserdisc. Does anyone have it ?

Thanks a lot,
All the best,
Vincent

[A Sled in Flames]

Hello there, Vicvic. In response to your question, it would be relatively simple to make the English audio of the subtitled version match with the French version, surely much easier than those who "De-Specialize" Star Wars. Though your two Othellos are virtually the same version, they are probably different transfers, meaning slightly different timing so the audio won't sync perfectly with no editing.

You just need to "rip" the video of the French version onto your computer in a format which can be opened by editing software and in a quality high enough to determine what the characters are saying; you then "rip" the audio of the subtitled version. In some cheap video editing software, you can trim the audio where necessary in order to get it to sync, matching their mouths. You just then need to export the audio in an .ac3 format and then pair it up with a lossless version (an m2v video file) of your French version. Then you should have a DVD ready to burn. I have a feeling I'm making this whole thing sound more complicated than it is; there may be guides online that explain better.

There is one difference between the two versions: after Desdemona's death, there is a close-up of her dead in the French dubbed version. There is no corresponding shot in the subtitled version, presumably censored. You should handle this as you see fit. I don't believe there are other differences, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Alternatively, I believe there is a copy of the Othello European cut in English without subtitles floating around trade circles. If you're trying to get the American version of Othello (IMO, a superior edit), then you may as well try to get this one too and save yourself the trouble of syncing audio. Anyway, good luck, VicVic. It's a shame there's no official release, making this whole thing much easier.

[Vicvic]

Thanks. I'm not gonna do it myself and by the way I wouldn't want to mess with the non-syncing words, in my opinion the dreamlike aspect of Othello is very much connected with the so-called bad synchronicity of the words to the lips of the actors, like with the Fellini films.

[ ...Alternatively, I believe there is a copy of the Othello European cut in English without subtitles floating around trade circles.]

I'd like to find that. In which trade circle did you see it ? Does anyone owns a copy in this forum ?
And/or a copy of the american cut from LD ?
If so I'd be happy to buy or trade : I have f.ex. a 1h conference by Welles to the students of the french cinematheque, and maybe I could find other things.
You can write me here or at vic.p@bluemail.ch
Thanks
Best
Vincent

[dianjo]

Does anyone know how widely Chimes was shown in the UK when first released? and in particular was it shown in Newcastle upon Tyne?

thanks for any info....

[aysie]

Not sure if this will be any use... but the Chimes At Midnight book published by Rutgers contains some original reviews from when the film was released in the UK, from the likes of The Times, The New Statesman and The Spectator.

If there's no one here who can let you know about the Newcastle question, I'd suggest you could try consulting some old copies of the city's local newspapers in the library archives - even if you don't find reviews, you'll find old cinema listings in the pages. The dates of the reviews in the Rutgers book are all late March, 1967. I think there was sometimes a bit of a lag in films getting out from London to the rest of the UK back then, so maybe between late March to early May would be the time to check out.

[Honest Iago]

Hi,

I seem to recall hearing about an old DVD edition of Welles' European cut of Othello, dubbed in French. Does anyone know if such a disc exists?

I've just gotten a hold of the European cut with the original English soundtrack, but the image is VHS quality with subtitles.

I would like to combine the soundtrack with the best image I can find.

If anyone has any information or leads, please let me know.

[Vicvic]

Hi,
I'm sure you got wrong information, there was really no official dvd of the european cut, it was only on vhs tapes, one subtitled and one dubbed.

Hi,

I seem to recall hearing about an old DVD edition of Welles' European cut of Othello, dubbed in French. Does anyone know if such a disc exists?

I've just gotten a hold of the European cut with the original English soundtrack, but the image is VHS quality with subtitles.

I would like to combine the soundtrack with the best image I can find.

If anyone has any information or leads, please let me know.

[Wellesnet]

FROM WELLESNET FACEBOOK:

Thanks to Mike Hinerman for directing us to this Pauline Kael piece (no, not THAT one) on Orson Welles. Here is her review of "Chimes at Midnight", later reprinted in one of her books as ORSON WELLES: THERE AIN'T NO WAY:

http://www.newrepublic.com/node/89426

[Wellesnet]

http://archive.org/details/FilmingOtheloByOrsonWelles