(Editor’s note: We are pleased to present Wellesnet founder Jeff Wilson’s account of “Wellespring: A Centenary Celebration of the Inexhaustible Inspiration of Orson Welles” symposium at the University of Michigan).

By JEFF WILSON

In 2005, the University of Michigan became a vital force in Welles studies by acquiring archival materials from Oja Kodar and the estate of Richard Wilson, in addition to other smaller collections and items over subsequent years. That status was highlighted in the University’s presentation of a symposium on Welles in his centennial year, presented in conjunction with the Cinetopia International Film Festival on June 7-9.

Sunday, June 7, saw a screening of the miraculously recovered Too Much Johnson footage in a staged reading format at the Detroit Film Theater, only the second time such a presentation of the material has taken place. Following an unexpected but brief greeting from Oja Kodar, Welles scholar Vincent Longo gave a detailed background of the project and how it figured into Welles’ intentions at the time. Due to the unfinished, uneven nature of the footage, one doesn’t wish to judge any presentation of it especially harshly, but my own impressions were as such: the first section, far and away the lengthiest, is quite enjoyable. The second and third filmed sections, though much shorter, add little, and feel forced even at their brief length. One is amazed, however, at the risks taken by Joseph Cotten and Edgar Barrier in blithely clowning about on rooftops!

The question that seeing a integrated reading like this raises is one of how Welles would have made the two formats work together. The difference between silent comedy style, knockabout hijinks and Gillette’s brand of farce doesn’t, at first glance here, seem to mesh especially well. For a farce, much of the staged material is simply characters standing around talking. It is telling that the opening film chase sequence (the most exciting part of the whole performance) was invented completely by Welles, as the original play starts already on board a ship. The play itself is a fossil and only occasionally produces even a chuckle. Consequently, it’s easy to see why Welles chose such a novel approach to the play as he did, given the need to excise so much of the text. The bigger question is what he saw in it in the first place. All that said, it was a unique opportunity to see the footage thus presented, and my thanks to everyone involved in putting it on. On a final note, the music accompanying the footage, composed by Frank Pahl and performed by Little Bang Theory, was very good indeed.

As an added bonus, the program concluded with four of the student actors reading brief excerpts from the recently re-located autobiography Welles began during the 1980s. Focusing on his time in Ireland after leaving Todd School, it was pleasant and similar to the previous material published in France before his death.

Monday opened the symposium proper, beginning with University of Michgan professor Matthew Solomon and Welles scholar and professor Catherine Benamou, who spearheaded the efforts to get the Wilson and Kodar archives at Michigan. A presentation by Richard Wilson’s son, Chris Wilson, followed, and Wilson’s speech featured numerous interesting anecdotes, covering most of his father’s time with Welles, as well as his subsequent work in the film industry after leaving Welles to strike out on his own.

Among the tidbits:

• Wilson left Welles once Welles expatriated to Europe, as Wilson couldn’t see flying to Europe multiple times per year to be at Welles’ beck and call, hustling for backers and whatnot. Plus, with a wife who had been subpoenaed by HUAC and a young child, he essentially had to decide between them and working for Welles, which was obviously not much of a decision.
• Wilson felt Welles abandoned his 1948 film of Macbeth when troubles arose over the editing because he felt it was a failure and not worth the effort of saving.
• Wilson routinely took breaks from the Mercury Theater during its early years to work on projects of his own, as he felt that doing so kept him from becoming too much Welles’ creature.

Finally, Wilson wrapped up his presentation by noting what he felt were Welles’ keys to his early success: minimum front office oversight; a stable group of acting talents; radio type deadlines, which forced him to deliver on time; and a role as an innovator/upstart. Overall, it was an interesting talk with a different perspective on Welles and his work.

That talk was followed by the chat with Oja Kodar, with questions from moderator Elliot Wilhelm (head of the Detroit Film Theater) allowing Kodar to range freely over the topics discussed, with a few diversions as well.

Questions from the audience touched on the standard topics, but for some observers the most notable response came in regards to The Other Side of the Wind and its crowdfunding effort, which Kodar dismissed by stating bluntly that she didn’t think the film would see release.

Whether that meant ever or from this latest effort is unclear, as further questions did not push the issue, and she didn’t seem keen to discuss it.

Finally, the Monday events were wrapped up with a re-dedication of the Welles archives, with several students from the university describing how their work in the archives had positively affected their education.

Tuesday opened with a panel on work derived from the archives, which began with Catherine Benamou discussing her work on It’s All True, tying together disparate strands of thought into a fascinating whole. That was followed by a talk on Welles as writer, delivered by Sidney Gottlieb, a late replacement for James Naremore, who was forced to cancel. Gottlieb suggested the intriguing idea of Orpheus as a metaphor for Welles; like Orpheus, Welles’ legacy has been separated into many disparate pieces, but archives allow its reconstitution.

The final two morning presentations were from Michigan students whose work in the archives there has attracted attention; first up was A. Brad Schwartz, whose book Broadcast Hysteria used letters sent to Welles and the Mercury in the wake of The War of the Worlds broadcast to get closer to the truth of what actually happened that night – namely, an early version of news going viral. Lastly, Vincent Longo presented work on Welles’ 1946 theatrical flop Around the World, looking at how it incorporated multimedia into its presentation, much like Too Much Johnson would have done had it worked out as planned. This presentation really brought home the hugely ambitious nature of the show.

Tuesday’s second panel was a much looser, rather disappointing affair, as it delivered less material of interest than one would have expected. The participants included Welles scholar and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, Stefan Drossler of the Munich Filmmuseum, director Chuck Workman, director Michael Almereyda (a last minute replacement for The Other Side of the Wind co-producer Filip Jan Rymsza), and Criterion Collection producer Issa Clubb. After lengthy introductory remarks by Michigan professor Lawrence Goldstein, the panel were each allowed to give some general remarks on Welles and his legacy.

Probably of most interest to readers is what Clubb had to say about Criterion’s upcoming work on its three Welles projects (Othello, Chimes at Midnight, and The Immortal Story). Had there been more for Clubb to talk about, that might have been the case; instead, we learned that he had only just been assigned the titles, and work proper apparently had not begun (or, more likely, anything he did know he simply couldn’t talk about yet). Consequently, it was opened to questions from those present, and things turned into a live version of one of those home video forum Q&A sessions with a studio rep, with people asking about bringing out The Magnificent Ambersons (answer: no), what extras might be included (no real idea yet), would different cuts be included (maybe), et cetera.

On Monday and Tuesday evening were presentations of the Munich Filmmuseum’s Unknown Welles, featuring unfinished and otherwise lesser known projects from Welles, including The Dreamers, The Other Side of the Wind, Moby Dick, The Deep, Orson Welles’ Sketchbook, Fountain of Youth, Viva Italia (aka Portrait of Gina), The Magic Show, and the London segments of Orson’s Bag. Stefan Drossler introduced each piece, and he delivered the news that the original copy of the Welles-cut trailer to The Deep had just been located (more like stumbled upon, really, by its owner) in Los Angeles, having previously only existed in a battered workprint copy.

If you read Joseph McBride’s report on this site about the recent Welles celebration in Barcelona, you’ll be aware of Drossler’s suggestion there to audience members that supporters of the crowdfunding effort for The Other Side of the Wind are throwing their money away; he repeated that assertion again here. This correspondent will only say that crowdfunding comes with risks, and donating money is exactly that: A donation, with no guarantee of a finished product.

To conclude, the Michigan Welles symposium provided some enjoyable, low key engagement with Welles and the archival quest to further understand him and his work; archives like those at Michigan are critical resources in our pursuit of further knowledge, and we should be grateful for those who both make such collections possible, and those who maintain them and make them available. If you’re near Michigan between now and September, do stop at the graduate library at the University of Michigan to see the Welles exhibit, which runs through mid-September.
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