Filming Othello

[Skylark]

Just read the transcript of 'Filming Othello'.

Filming Othello

It's nice - Welles as film essayist is a cool thing. He quotes some fine essayists (Coleridge, Carlyle, Emerson) so you can see the serious of intent in these kinds of endeavors and he takes the discussion to a certain degree of depth (i.e a reflection on the nature of good and evil, etc...) To get him to talk about his film methods and concepts is always nice(although coyly via quotes from other authors in this instance) and he remains here ever the born raconteur - Steady as she goes...

[mteal]

It's a minor but entertaining Welles effort. Hopefully it'll make it to DVD someday. I snuck a little tape recorder into a rare theatrical showing of it some years ago, and I still have the tape somewhere. Every time Welles puts the cigar in his mouth you can hear someone in the audience laughing. That cigar action is something you don't get from reading the script.

[Store Hadji]

That might be another film which plays with PAL speedup on the bootlegged copies, as I've always had trouble following the 'conversation.' I'll try the speed adjustment on that one as well. I'm sure my mental processing rate is a bit sluggish, so maybe I'm just doing the cinematic equivalent of large-print books for people whose eyes have crapped out. Whatever works. I'm not sure about whether varying the playspeed violates a directors intentions (in the same way that recropping the image or colorisation does) but I think many an elderly brain would get more from films and spoken audio that are played with a reduced speed. Should be a standard option on all dvd and cd players.

[Tony]

mteal:
I don't know why you say it's minor; Welles says some of the most important things about his art and his Othello here, and it's a beautifully crafted thing, esp. when he is sitting and talking to the camera. When you see the bits of Othello on the monitor, Rosenbaum has pointed out that it's distorted shards of Othello, re-edited into a new little film. And the script is a masterful construct of several sources, especially two of the very best writers on Welles, Andre Bazin and Jack Jorgens. However, Welles's interpolation of these authors into his talk is a whirlygig of overlaps and twists and turns, so that you don't know where Welles begins or ends, and the same with the other authors too, including Shakespeare. THe whole thing is at once dizzying and deceptively simple, and one can only regret that the shots of Welles in a gondola with the early morning Venice light illuminating his pointing out of the settings of Othello were stolen.

No, I must admit I believe this to be a little masterpiece, one which, as with all Welles films, does not fade with repeated viewings but only grows in meaning. Welles's whole aesthetic universe, and the lodestar of his soul, is in this gem of a film. I don't think the length, or the fact that it's not a drama, lessens it's importance.; if that was the case, I wouldn't care about The Fountain of Youth or F For Fake.
:;):

[Kevin Loy]

Myself personally, I've always found Othello to be an interesting film. Not necessarily one of Welles' best films, as some critics assert, but quite gripping at times. I certainly understand its importance, but I suppose the juxtaposition of the newly-recorded soundtrack against the limited fidelity of the dialogue track has always made it difficult for me to fully immerse myself in the film.

'Filming Othello', however, sounds quite intriguing. Perhaps it is because my appreciation of F For Fake has steadily grown, or perhaps it is because it is Welles' final finished 'film'. Still, even though I don't quite consider F For Fake to be a true masterpiece, I still think it is vital as a portrait into Welles' personality, and since Filming Othello is supposed to have a similar atmosphere, I would think that it would be every bit as essential.

What would really be great is if Criterion would someday tackle Othello as a 2-DVD set, with the original release on the first DVD and Filming Othello on the second. Unfortunately, though, I've read elsewhere that Criterion has no current plans to release any more of Welles' works. Pity.

(consequently, if anybody out there who has either the LD version of Othello on DVD or 'Filming Othello' wouldn't mind doing a trade [whether for something from my limited collection or 2 for 1 trading], please PM me)

[mteal]

I don't know why you say it's minor; Welles says some of the most important things about his art and his Othello here, and it's a beautifully crafted thing, esp. when he is sitting and talking to the camera.

That's mainly what it consists of: Welles in front of a camera, telling stories. I like all of Welles's movies very much, but I say FO is a minor effort compared to his other feature films, and I doubt Welles intended it to be a masterpiece; it seems to me to be more along the modest, autobiographical lines of the Sketchbook series. I'm not even convinced that OTHELLO itself is a masterpiece, but then that accolade is a very subjective kind of thing.

Unfortunately, though, I've read elsewhere that Criterion has no current plans to release any more of Welles' works. Pity.

That is a pity. Makes me wonder if their ARKADIN set didn't sell as well as they had hoped?

[Tony]

Perhaps you're right, mteal, but I am seduced by FO in a very special way: it may be the most sensuous, intimate portrait of Welles there is, esp. in the 35 mm print Gary Graver showed.

As for Arkadin selling, no release could have gotten more press, but I think it's such a stinker that most strangers to Welles's work would be severely dissappointed. I find Arkadin fascinating, but I think it's a terrible movie. Perhaps they should have released Chimes instead.

[Store Hadji]

I think we won't be seeing any version of Othello other than the restored version. McBride's latest book mentions that the laserdisc version from 1995 of the unrestored print was quickly withdrawn from the market after a lawsuit from Beatrice. She must have worldwide distribution rights, as the restored version is all that's available even in Europe.

Arkadin, a stinker? What gave you that idea? I won't object to seeing any box sets like that devoted to any of his work, even a collection of tv commercials. I think Welles newbies are going to see Kane or Touch of Evil on tv long before they shell out the bucks for an expensive box set.

Of course Falstaff should be released in a box like that, but it's my belief that the US distribution rights are held by whoever it is that has that horribly scratched and ruined print which is the only version sold domestically. That's not the case in Europe, so there must be no holder of worldwide rights on that one. I don't want to see that ruined print released by Criterion nor do I wish to see anyone restore it. I'm sure TCM would play a good print of it if they could, or the unrestored Othello if they could. Apparently they cannot .

[mteal]

A double-disc set of OTHELLO and FO sounds like a great idea, but I wouldn't want it to happen with Beatrice's restoration. And you're right Hadji that it probably wouldn't happen any other way. In fact, it probably won't happen anyway.

The CHIMES situation is such a mess that I don't even think about it anymore. Just out of curiosity tho, I wonder whatever happened to Beatrice's planned 'restoration' of that?

I am seduced by FO in a very special way: it may be the most sensuous, intimate portrait of Welles there is, esp. in the 35 mm print Gary Grave showed.

That sounds like a nice memory to have.

[Kevin Loy]

The CHIMES situation is such a mess that I don't even think about it anymore. Just out of curiosity tho, I wonder whatever happened to Beatrice's planned 'restoration' of that?

Nothing, hopefully. Mind you, I don't doubt (well...I don't doubt it too much, anyway) that Beatrice had good intentions when she put money into 'restoring' Othello, but I think the end results speak for themselves. I do at least have the Spanish version of Chimes on DVD, though, in case it is ruined in a similar fashion.

As for the laserdisc version of Othello being withdrawn, it could also have to do with the fact that, given the limited commercial prospects of the film anyway (it was on Laserdisc, it was Shakespeare, and it was directed by Orson Welles), it is also possible that they backed out, feeling that it wasn't worth the trouble to get involved (another example of this, though to a lesser extent, is their Cassavetes box set).

Personally, I'd be happy with a single-DVD release of Chimes, so long as it had a better transfer than the Spanish DVD (which isn't too bad). For as nice as bonus features are, I find that I rarely go through most of them more than once.

[Roger Ryan]

While this is not a "Chimes At Midnight" thread (nor is the PAL speed-up thread which has talk of "Chimes..." as well!), I thought I'd throw out here that two reels of a restored "Chimes..." were shown at the Yale Symposium last Saturday. Apparently the rights issues are nearly resolved and the widow of Harry Saltzman has been prepping a restored version for a new release (whether this is the same partially completed restoration attempt that was reported on nearly ten years ago, I'm not sure). The entire restoration attempt would have been shown had the snowstorm in Chicago not prevented half of the film from arriving. Symposium organizer Dudley Andrews decided to run an old print of the film for the first 90 minutes or so, then run the concluding two reels of the restored version. To be honest, there's wasn't a huge difference in quality. The old print was the same one I had viewed in Detroit a number of years back and it remains in very good quality. The restored version featured a similar good-looking picture (apart from a couple of dark lines running through the coronation scene) and a slightly warmer sound to the audio. The synchronization may have been slightly improved (although the synch wasn't bad on the old print either), but I did notice an attempt to create a little more depth with the placement of dialogue (characters in the background sounded more like they were the appropriate distance from the camera, etc.). The end title music was remixed into stereo for a rather incongruous effect, but the audio work done on the film proper was a lot less intrusive than what was done in the "Othello" restoration.

[Store Hadji]

While this is not a "Chimes At Midnight" thread (nor is the PAL speed-up thread which has talk of "Chimes..." as well)

So?

Sounds like Studio Canal Falstaff is the definitive one. With the mono soundtrack the way Welles did it.

[mteal]

The entire restoration attempt would have been shown had the snowstorm in Chicago not prevented half of the film from arriving.

I had the pleasure of shovelling out from under that storm. Tough luck about the print. Good news about the resolution of the legal rights, though.

The end title music was remixed into stereo for a rather incongruous effect,

Bad idea. But since Beatrice's stereo forgery actually did have some critical/financial success, I suppose it's inevitable that they may go back to that well. Next they'll be redoing FILMING OTHELLO in stereo.

[Tony]

Box sets have just been released of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges; I wish they'd release two box sets of Welles: one European, one American.

[mteal]

A box set of FILMING OTHELLO and FILMING THE TRIAL would be nice. I don't see what the holdup has been for FO going to video. Who owns it anyway?