A First Review of FADE TO BLACK - Review of FADE TO BLACK

[Gordon]

Is it not reasonable for you, as webmaster, to know the correct name,
(keeping it in confidence) of all posters?

[Glenn Anders]

Lest I leave an old wellesnet wound to fester into this New Year, I have been planning a mea culpa about FADE TO BLACK for some time. I wanted to do it on New Year's Day, but did not get around to it, and so here it is:

I was wrong about FADE TO BLACK being released last Spring by the Weinstein Company, or any other time in 2007. After festival presentations in Germany and Mexico in 2006, the European leasing arrangement gave theatrical showings of the film in Spain and Croatia, but after that things broke down.

And so I was wrong, and I apologize. But all is not lost. A distinguished and loyal member of the board (who was largely driven away by the above exchange) undertook to ascertain the status of FADE TO BLACK. Through a series of correspondence with, Tabitha Jenkins, Special Assistant to the Producer of FADE TO BLACK at Ealing Studios, he confirmed, hopes had been that Alan Parker's film would be released in America "sometime after Easter" of 2007. But that didn't happen. Here, with permission of the member (who does not wish his name used) is Miss Jenkins' last reply, sent late in 2007:

Hi _____
>
> Thanks for your message. [FADE TO BLACK] came out in Spain
> recently will be coming out in the UK this summer
> but is yet to find a home with a distributor in the
> US so I'm afraid we don't have a release date at the
> moment. We hope this will come in time.
>
> Thank you for your continued interest.
>
> Best wishes
> Tabitha Jenkins

-------------------

And so, FADE TO BLACK apparently will be shown in London within the next six months or so, and perhaps that will determine its theatrical fate in the United States.

I'm sure that we are all pulling for a U.S. release in this bellwether year for Welles of 2008.

With regrets.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

Honestly, there's nothing to be gained from dredging up this thread again. It should be locked, if not deleted entirely.

[Glenn Anders]

Sorry that you, Hadji, who have contributed all the wonderful radio material, should feel this way. A number of us, including myself, acted badly here, but the subject of FADE TO BLACK, a small but potentially major motion picture about Orson Welles, is an important one. That's why I innocently began the thread.

Let's say, Hadji, if you don't think the progress, or lack of progress, for this film is worth commenting upon, that's your business. For myself, I like to admit my mistakes. Having initiated the thread, this is my way of making an apology, to whomever I offended, in whatever sense, for the mistake I made -- that is, with the facts. Only way I function.

I'm away to look for some more!

Glenn

[Vidamonte]

I bought it last week and it was better than I expected.
All the cliches (which we love) of film noir-genre are there, although
OW gets beaten too much and it makes one wonder, would old liberal and anti-fascist have gotten so involved, or just grabbed the money(for his film) and the girl...

link to see cover art of Finnish DVD
http://www.iltalehti.fi/leffat/200711286903355_ad.shtml

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, vidamonte. My Finnish is a little rusty (but then, Finnish -- way up there in the North -- is a rusty language, I suppose). Nevertheless, I was able to figure out that the review suggests, most of the players do fine, but the film may be a bit over the top. Just as you say.

Emerson remarked that change was not necessarily progress, but we thank you for showing us this change in the picture's progress.

We can start to look for it like the squirrel-nutkins we are.

Glenn

[mido505]

Dear Glenn:

You are without question a hugely important and insightful member of the Wellesnet Board. You recently wrote, on the SHE WAS REALLY GREAT, WASN'T SHE thread, one of the most eloquent posts that I have run across here, in the many years that I have been a fervent Wellesnet reader in general and fan of your posts in particular. You write wonderful things, and if you have your moments of pretension, incivility, and verbosity, well, so don't we all, including myself, and those who criticize you. But Store is right; why resurrect this thread, which is an ugly thing, especially when you really have nothing new to contribute. FADE TO BLACK still does not have an American distributor, which is where we were at when Jaime Marzol got kicked off the site and the whole thread sputtered to well-deserved oblivion. Let it rest. You know, I avoided posting at Wellesnet for the longest time, and have subsequently considered going away, because of the tendency of the threads to degenerate into the "histrionic pissing contests" that Store has so aptly named. It shouldn't be so. When things start to get ugly, how about we put a check on emotion and ego and shoot for the higher ground? Sometimes it is better not to post than to make one's point, and I suspect this post will, ironically, be a perfect example of that. I am sorry if I am offensive to you, or to anyone else on this site, but I think that Wellesnet has failed to fullfill its complete potential as the essential source for all things Wellesian because a certain pettiness has become dominant in the discourse. The pettiness and rancor that result from insecure egoism almost torpedoed Orson Welles' career; let's not perpetuate it. In the end, the only real way that we can honor Welles's legacy is to avoid the kind of behavior that nearly destroyed it.

[Glenn Anders]

Fair enough, mido505. But because I began the thread, I simply want to own up to the fact that I had been wrong in my optimism about the distribution of FADE TO BLACK. And in reviving the thread, I wanted to add definitive current news from a primary source about the status of the film. [How many other major motion pictures do we have in which "Orson Welles" is the main character?] My effort elicited an extension of Hadji's critique, something he has been consistent in, which is fine. And then, vidamonte added a source where FADE TO BLACK might newly be found on DVD, something we had not known before.

As I've always said here, mido505, facts are what I try to deal in.

If that's an example of the "pretension, incivility, and verbosity" we all tend to share, I accept my blame. I really do appreciate your judgment that I was found wanting in this entry.

Now . . .why don't we go out and try to find the movie itself, so we may have a fair discussion of its strengths and weaknesses? That possibility was my hope from the start.

Glenn

[Harvey Chartrand]

Glenn,
I am compelled to rise to your defence. For what it's worth, I always enjoy seeing that there is a new post by Glenn Anders. I read all your entries straight through, as you are a knowledgeable and sophisticated gentleman of the old school – and quite amusing at times, I might add. (I suspect I'm not that far behind you age-wise.) I think the way you are being treated by some of these Wellesnutters is shabby, to say the least. ESPECIALLY as you are being criticized (that's not a harsh enough word) for pipelining useful information to the dwindling numbers of us who drop by Wellesnet from time to time. The fact is FADE TO BLACK was completed (unlike many films directed by the Master) and it will get some kind of straight-to-DVD release or pay-per-view exposure because Danny Huston is in it, for God's sake, and he's been a real comer ever since 21 Grams came out in 2003 – more recently Danny Huston was the head vampire in 30 Days of Night, and he was marvelous. He always is a first-rate performer. Danny Huston guest starred as a casino manager on CSI, so how established can an actor get? Therefore we will all definitely at some point have the opportunity to see him in FADE TO BLACK. I hope certain individuals who "contribute" to this board (you know who you are) take a vow of silence and that YOUR entries remain a permanent feature of Wellesnet. You are being trashed for providing us with the best available information on a film in which the lead character is Orson Welles and this cattiness ON THE PART OF PEOPLE WHO OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER is absolutely unconscionable. Don't go away, Glenn. Lord knows this board can't afford to lose you. Stay, Glenn, stay.

[Jeff Wilson]

Everyone's had their say more or less, and as I don't see this going anywhere else constructive, let's close this thread. If we get real news about FADE TO BLACK, a new thread may be started. Thanks, everyone.