BRIGHT LIGHTS 55 TOSTW Interview

[Store Hadji]

Uh oh, he's writing something long and mean. I can tell! :laugh:

[Glenn Anders]

True, Hadji, but no one likes to be dismissed.

It happens that, thanks to Todd Baesen, I have seen an hour or so more of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND than either you or Tony have. It helps to speculate from a position of knowledge.

I'll stand by my interpretation of "J.J. "Jake" Hannaford."

But, looking about at the reaction, hey, I could be wrong.

Glenn

[Tony]

Welcome to the postmodern condition!

5 people watch The Immortal Story::


:p :angry: :O

[rizibo]

I believe the final signature now needed is Oja Kodar's. The rights with the Iranians and Beatrice are supposedly now worked out, and Oja was reportedly presented with the contract, which she has not signed since late last year...

What her exact objections are at this point, or why she won't sign it is anyone's guess, especially since she is getting a very big payment.

Wow, this is shocking news but it makes sense because it was already reported that the Iranian and Beatrice Welles weren't obstactles anymore and if there was only one signature left then it has to be Oja's. I would have never guessed that Oja would be delaying the project because it seemed that she wanted it released more than anyone else. She might be getting scared about how the film is going to be edited since the bad experience with Jess Franco editing Don Quixote.

As for the origin of the title The Other Side of the Wind, I thought I read that it was based on an inside joke Welles had.

[Store Hadji]

True, Hadji, but no one likes to be dismissed.

I'll second that.

It happens that, thanks to Todd Baesen, I have seen an hour or so more of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND than either you or Tony have.

I'd love to hear you guys expound on that footage, for those of us not so fortunate. What's your take on the direction/editing/acting/cinematography/what have you?

[Tony]

I like your pirate flag, Terry; very cool!
:;):

Yeah, Glenn: Expound on the Wind footage you've seen!! don't keep us in the dark.

[Glenn Anders]

Tony, hadji, I just did expound on the "direction/editing/acting/cinematography/what have you." The project needs that "final signature," a Wellsian concept, and a first rate editor. Unfortunately, I was only able to add a "Wellsian concept," and you found it all too boring to be taken seriously -- even to comment upon it.

["The Inside of the Wind" may be an "inside joke," but the title must front a real movie. "Citizen Kane" and "Rosebud" may have been inside jokes, but given subtance and artistic resonance, they took on universal meaning. I think that my interpretation of a meaning for "The Other Side of the Wind" may point a way toward a similar salutary conclusion.]

Your true fantasies seem much more satisfactory, I guess, than my informed ones.

Glenn

[Kevin Loy]

Yikes!

Well, if I might present this thought...I think the film doesn't need an editor *like* Welles, it needs an editor that understands Welles. Initially, I didn't think that Bogdanovich or the late Gary Graver were good choices, but the more that I think about it, the more that I am unable to see anybody else editing it. True, there are good film editors out there who could do a good job...but I think that editing the film requires the sort of insight that only somebody who worked with Welles on the project would have. That isn't to say that anybody who appears in a film or works on a film is competent enough to edit it, but given the closeness in relationships that both Bogdanovich and Graver had with Welles, I can't imagine at this point in time that there are any other people who would be more qualified to edit it (this is, of course, assuming that they used Welles' notes as a guiding factor). Whether Graver made any editorial input, or whether Bogdanovich will edit it (if it hasn't already been edited), remains to be seen, I suppose.

And, as I've said before, the documentary version of "It's All True" is exceedingly boring in places. Actually, though I know it would never be funded, perhaps the footage could be re-visited as a DVD-Rom, allowing people to compile their own versions of "It's All True" from the available footage, or to view raw film segments, etc.. I don't think that the "documentary" route is appropriate for TOSOTW, though, since the film was already something of a documentary (albeit a fictional one).

[ToddBaesen]

Glenn:

Thanks for your very interesting post on OSOTW. As usual, I don't totally agree, but still found it very insightful...

However, some of the reaction here to your piece gives me a clue as to why no Hollywood executives would seem to want to touch this project. The script is 160 pages long, and is very dense and difficult to understand unless you give it the proper time and attention it demands from a reader. It is so packed with ideas, it cannot just be skimmed over and thrown aside to get an idea of the "story." In fact, I was very disappointed when I first read the script. It was only after literally studying it, that many of Welles concepts and stylistic devices became clear to me. But having the script is really the key to understanding the movie, because in the script, as well as in most of the edited excerpts, there is a tendency for Welles to not only fragment nearly every scene, with cutting back and forth, but also with interruptions from different characters, making it a very Cubist-style approach. This does not make the script a typical "easy read," and I think most people would not like or understand it on their first approach.

So if people who like Welles can't get through your short piece on OSOTW, imagine what most executives would think if they tried to read the script? Most of them want to read a two page synopsis, anyway, but I imagine after reading twenty pages or so of the script they'd quickly lose interest and say, "this is boring... nothing's happening." As Gary Graver explains, here is the typical studio reaction:

GARY GRAVER: I’ve had several screenings with Peter Bogdanovich, at Columbia Pictures, and with his agent at CAA, but because it’s not a complete story in a finished narrative form, you’re just seeing scenes. A scene here, a scene there, and people say they don’t know what it’s about. Well you’re not going to understand it and see it all put together, until we have the money to do that. And they say, “Well, we don’t want to put any money into it, until it’s all put together.”

[Store Hadji]

As for THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, I think the key to the editing comes down to the title itself. The questions are: What is "this side" of the Wind? What is "the other side" of the Wind? And what is the Wind itself?

This is the point where Glenn can scroll down to the next post. (I'm TEASING you, and not too tortuously, I hope.)

I've always liked that title, not that I've had a clue as to what it means, what even it means to me, let alone what Welles might have thought. Did Welles have an allegorical meaning for the 'wind' or even a symbolic one (symbolism in a Welles film?)

Is wind more than just a moving air mass? I'm sure he didn't intend references to 'break me wind' or 'wind-bag' or 'full of hot air.' Perhaps 'second-wind,' though; certainly what Welles was hoping for in his directorial career at that point. How about 'upwind' and 'downwind?' Wasn't Welles' wish to escape from the stink of his own controversial reputation? But I don't think it was any of those. If this were a Jim Carrey film, then flatulence it would be, but no such simple substitutions for Welles.

Of course wind is moving from one place to another, from a zone of high-pressure to one of low-pressure, an automatic and reflexive function of nature attempting to equalize two areas of unequal concentration or density . The area of high-pressure is being drained, siphoned; that of low-pressure is being filled, transfused. This already has me picturing vampires and blood-loss victims on guerneys with an IV dangling from a pint bottle. Any such leeches or depleted victims in the film?

The 'other side' is either the place in the low-pressure zone where the wind hasn't yet reached (and isn't it ever the harbinger of storms?) or the place in the formerly high-pressure zone where the tension has already been reduced, the pressure already dropped. How does this bear on the film, then? What about Brooks Otterlake, PB's character, the young hot-shot director? He's certainly enjoying his own stable-pressure zone at the moment, which of course must change just by the forces of nature. Is the wind coming to blast him in the face and bring a storm? Or will it sap him until he's drained and empty? I think he must be the high-pressure zone, waiting to be depleted. And what about Hannaford? (And how's that for a couple of suspicously geographical names, Brooks Otterlake and Hannaford? Do they reinforce the meteorological interpretation of wind? Has anyone analyzed the extended analogy of fords and brooks in the film?)

Jake would be the low-pressure zone, beyond the tail-end of the wind, after everything's been drained from him, even the wind has left, and he's trying to rekindle his career. Is he trying to grab that tail-end and prevent it from leaving? Is that a portrait of futility, attempting to catch the fleeting wind? Isn't a ford a crossing? Is Jake then 'riding the wind?' And doesn't that lead only to death in any Welles film?

What of this high-density mob besieging Jake at his party? Isn't that the wind of media attention blowing his way and exactly what he's been wanting? And doesn't Otterlake steal that wind, even sensing that it should be 'Mr Hannaford's night?' Is Welles transmuting the laws of physics here? Is Otterlake not only a walking high-pressure zone, but also one of increased mass, density, and gravity, irresistably drawing everything towards him and stealing the limelight from his old friend?

And what of The Boy? Is he in the quiet spot where the wind hasn't yet reached, or is it already coming? How many dynamics are at work here? Just Hannaford<>Otterlake and Hannaford<>The Boy, or are there more? In which direction is the wind blowing in each dynamic?

And since the function of the wind is to equalize the two points, does that further infer 'we are all equal in the end?' Certainly the case in the Hannaford<>Boy dynamic.

Sorry, no answers here. Just more questions.

Your piffle, Glenn.

[Tony]

Glenn: when Store asked that you "expound upon the footage", I think he meant "describe what you saw" not your interpretation of it. At least, that's what I meant when I asked you to do that.
And when you write "It helps to speculate from a position of knowledge." and "Your true fantasies seem much more satisfactory, I guess, than my informed ones" it seems to imply that merely viewing footage provides one with an exhalted understanding of, in this case, Welles's intentions, and I'm sure that's not what you meant- is it?

[Store Hadji]

Yeah, what Tony said about the "describe the footage" part. :p

[ToddBaesen]

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND was Oja's title. As Welles admitted, he was terrible with titles, so no doubt he deferred to Oja on this point, since his own original script was titled THE SACRED BEASTS, when the script was about a Bullfighter. Of course, the movie Jake Hannaford is making is titled THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND as well, so it's meant to be something of an enigma, but here is Oja on her reason for naming it THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND:

OJA KODAR: In a way, it’s the other side of everybody. People have their other sides. Also, it refers to the capricious climate, because I live in a country where there is a very warm wind, and suddenly it turns terribly cold. People would ask me why I go out with a sweater in the warm wind, and I’d say, “there’s another side to this wind.” Also, when Orson was planning on doing THE MERCHANT OF VENICE in Italy, we were looking for sets, and we were at Cinecitta studios, looking at the sets for Zefferelli’s ROMEO AND JULIET. Orson was wearing his big black cape, and there was a big gush of wind and his cape flew up, and I thought, “Orson is so multifaceted, he has so many different faces, I’m going to write something and call it "The Other Side of The Wind”

[Store Hadji]

:(

That is so anticlimactic.

[Glenn Anders]

Tony: I WAS describing the footage I saw, as far as I'm able, and as far as I'm willing because the whole matter is the stuff of several legal actions right now, most of which I have little knowledge of. Do you get that?

And no, I don't speak from any "exhalted position," but the material cries out for the kind of synopsis I gave you.

What the hell good would it have done, if I had meticulously described every frame I saw, to the limits of my memory, adding a couple of pages to my post? Would someone not have said: "Oh, it's just Glenn again. I always scroll down after the first of one of his paragraphs"?

The hell with it. Go back and CAREFULLY read what I wrote for you. I know what I saw, and I tried to give you a clue. But you don't have one, evidently, nor do you want one!

Todd Baesen: I always defer to you because it was you who slipped into the Burbank Film Repository, and in ten days, using a pen-lite and 4, 952 video-catches on your cell-phone camera, copied all the existing footage of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. Within an old beer cooler, down the cellar stairs under the Ha-Ra Club, you have the goods, in its next cutting-edge format: Cell-ar-Vision!

There may be some truth, Todd, that Miss Kodar suggested the title, but as Hadji remarks, her explanation is anticlimactic as to the title's meaning. The ripeness of the title is all. Just as Schaefer is supposed to have given CITIZEN KANE its title, off the top of his head, meaning more than he knew. The meaning of the metaphor runs on several levels, as I shall attempt to demonstrate for those of you who demand more proof, and can stay focussed long enough.

But I quite agree, Todd, that the average producer would have a tough time with a synopsis of Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind," far less the script itself because only the ghosts of indications for the films within the film are indicated. For instance:

P. 4 -- The FLASHBACKS [my emphasis] begin with Jake shooting a scene for his movie in progress, depicting a Turkish steam bath. . . .

P. 5 -- . . . The viewer only becomes aware we are on a sound stage watching a movie being filmed when director JAKE HANNAFORD'S [John Huston's] voice rings out, bringing the scene to an end.

JAKE
Okay . . . Cut!

P. 12 -- MAX DAVID [Geoffrey Land, very good in this film], the latest (and who knows, maybe the last) big chief of one of the last big movie companies, stands in front of a blank screen . . . .

P. 16 -- . . . Elsewhere some of the girls (the nudes from the steambath) are grouped around old MANOLITO [Benny Rubin?] (JAKE'S pet gypsy musician -- who is supposed to play the part of a mysterious OLD MAN in his FILM).

[Here, I think, rather like Paul Misraki's score for CONFIDENTIAL REPORT/MR. ARKADIN, is the main score for THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.]

P. 20 -- A MOVIE SCREEN IN THE STUDIO PROJECTION ROOM

The lights go out. THE FILM begins. BILLY O'BOYLE [Norman Foster, type casting] sitting behind MAX DAVID, is doing his best to act as interpreter, salesman and apologist.

During this sequence we see scenes from Jake's film, which features Hannaford's newest male discovery, JOHNNY DALE [Bob Random] along with an attractive young INDIAN ACTRESS [Oja Kodar]. These scenes are intercut . . . .

P. 21 -- On screen, the young and alluring INDIAN ACTRESS walks out of a building and gets into the passenger side of a car. JOHN DALE watches her, and as her car drives away gets on his motorcycle to follow her.

P. 22 -- MAX
(Sarcastically, but not
pressing hard)

Oh, you old guys are trying to
get with it. Is that what this
movie is about?

BILLY can't think of an answer.

MAX
No? Well, just what is it about?

BILLY
I'll try to explain, Max --
as we go along . . .

CUT TO:

JAKE'S CAR (DRIVING TO THE PARTY)


P. 26 -- MAX

And the girl? How does the box feel
about her?

CUT TO:

THE ACTRESS (DRIVING HER OWN CAR) .

Like everyone else, she is on her way to the birthday party.
TRUMAN LOCKWOOD [?] is sitting beside her with his camera . . . and LUCAS RENARD [?] holding a tape recorder. JAKE'S car comes to a stop next to her car. They're both waiting for a traffic light.

OTTERLAKE [Peter Bogdanovich]
(aside to Jake)
Pocahontas . . .


P. 27 -- THE FILM (ON SCREEN AT THE STUDIO PROJECTION ROOM)

Mirroring the previous scene, JOHN DALE (on his motorcycle)
pulls up besides the INDIAN PRINCESSES car stopped at the traffic
light. DALE stares at her through the car window, but she looks
straight ahead, pretending not to notice him.

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

I do not want to encourage ADD or premature Alzheimer's, but I've elided the early continuity, and you can see how the film could work marvelously on several levels here. [Yes, Tony, including an obviously autobiographical one.] There is a lot of wind and dust. The action is in the desert, both in the flashback from Jake's burnt out sports car at the start, and in Jake's movie within the flashback, and most of the cast is heading for Jake's birthday party at a largely abandoned drive-in movie theater up in the high desert (shades of TARGETS). There is wind and sand blowing around [in the footage I've seen].

Let's cut to the final chase because I'm no doubt losing some of you (not you, Hadji, Kevin or rizibo -- but Baesen tends to nod off):

P. 157 -- THE RANCH

The real JOHN DALE moving through the empty house . . .

The voice of the handy-man can be heard calling again: "Mr. Hannaford . . . " Silence at first, then murmuring from another room . . .

JAKE'S VOICE
. . . remember those Berbers - up in
the Atlas Mountains? They wouldn't
let us POINT a camera at 'em. They're
certain that it . . . dries up something
in the soul . . .

Following the sound of JAKE'S VOICE, JOHN DALE moves into:

THE BIG ROOM

Here sprawled in a huge leather chair, HIGGAM is sleeping , his tape recorder is on his lap . . .

JAKE'S VOICE
. . . The old eye, Y'know, behind the
magic box. Could be it's an evil eye,
at that . . . The Medusa's eye . . .
Whatever I look upon finally dies
under my gaze . . .

P. 158 --
CUT TO:

THE DRIVE-IN THEATER

A deserted field, except for THE ACTRESS sitting alone in her
little car . . .

The wailing wind and the gypsy song on the theatre's sound track
are joined by the wailing of police sirens - heard very
distantly . . .

The sky is clear enough to show the hint of a black pillar of
smoke somewhere far off . . .

ON SCREEN: The moving images fade under the pallor of
the rising day . . .

THE ACTRESS starts up her car and drives away.

P. 159 -- On screen THE ACTRESS seems like a ghost as she returns to the shapeless wreck which is all that's left of the OLD MAN'S
dwelling place.

For a moment longer - dim as the image itself - there rises from
somewhere beneath this ruin the gypsy lament.

But already the wind is blowing it away . . . Blowing everything
away . . . Layer upon layer flies off into the sky . . . And then, as
the great dust settles --

[I am indebted to Colonel Viktor Kleinhaagen of Quarto Negro, who procured the above script for Todd Baesen, when he was "Grand Bungler of Knights of the Red Branch, in 1988. Having buried the script, wrapped in oil cloth, at Wyatt Earp's grave in Colma, California, he served time for crimes committed as "Grand Bungler." Recently paroled for all the interviews he has conducted from his jail cell, or on safe conduct, he unearthed it with my help one dark and stormy night. The manuscript is now in safe-keeping at "The Miles and Irma Archer Memorial Information Center," of which I am curator.]

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

I won't give away the ending, gang. Bad luck, I think. Sorry, but them's the breaks, especially given your recent greetings. But some of you will know the ending already. Very ironic, in view of what we now understand.

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

Hadji: Yes, me lad! Yes, all of that! Or most of it, anyway.

You are into it now: "The Other Side of the Wind" as Metaphor!

On the one side of the wind is the crazy reality of a good Welles film, and on the other, a surrealistic psychodrama such as Antonioni [or some depressed Eastern European or . . . Dennis Hopper!!] might have made at the time. All those turgid films critics praised back then, and no one can remember now.

The passage about the wind in the drive-in theater parking lot that I've just transcribed above may very well be taken from David O. Selznick's prophecy of what would happen eventually to the Old Hollywood: It would just blow away, he said, like the fake sets of a bogus Egyptian dynasty.

[To become E-Channel: "The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith."]

And to the title, Hadji:

My guess is that "The Other Side of the Wind" derives, as a title, many pardons to Oja Kodar, from what is supposed to be an old Irish farewell: "May the wind always be at your back." Meaning that, with the wind behind you as you climb a hill, sail your boat into new adventures, or make a new kind of movie, God, the Devine, Luck, Vigor, will undoubtedly assist you. But what if the wind is against you, or if you are at slack water? Then, you are on the other side of the wind. That's where this story, this film, and Welles' life seem to have been during the years it was shot, and ever since.

[This saying was uttered by many a celtic visitor on TV after the death of JFK, and then of RFK, in the Sixties, and later by TV hosts like Merv Griffin. Both Welles and Huston would have liked to put an ironic twist on its sincere but slightly fatuous message.]

To those who say THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND would be old fashioned or out of date, I would reply that its truth applies every much to the phenomenon of Anna Nicole Smith (a kind of a media stereotype of a stereotype) this evening as it did to Welles, the Wonder Kids and the Old Hollywood. Turns out, the latter were much closer to the real thing.

Glenn