Welles series coming to New York

[colwood]

Check out http://filmforum.com/films/welles.html for more info.

[Jaime N. Christley]

I've been to all three press screenings anticipating the New York
Welles retrospective. The prints for THE MAGNIFICENT
AMBERSONS and THE STRANGER look fine, not super-duper-perfect but very
good.

The print for CONFIDENTIAL REPORT, which FF's press liaison says came
from a French lab, looks stunning - the best I've seen. Either this
is an archival print that's been kept clean for fifty years, or a new
(and thorough) restoration. Even the worst shot in the film - Milly's
first lines, "You know we can't afford any trouble," etc., as she
backs across a huge crate - a shot that looks (on the Criterion
laserdisc and the British DVD) to have been shot using an 8mm home
movie camera, looks fine. The print greatly alleviates the heavy
grain of the British DVD and the lack of clarity in the laserdisc
transfer. (I've never seen it on tape.)

Going by Jonathan Rosenbaum's essay, this is ARKADIN #6, the one
called CONFIDENTIAL REPORT. It includes: bats in the titles, the
framing device which begins with Van Stratten's meeting with Jakob
Zouk, the Georgian toast, the scene near the beginning with the black
American pianist, and so on.

Word is, OTHELLO will be the newly-scored "restoration" version.

I found THE STRANGER to be much stronger than I remembered, first
seeing it at the tender age of fifteen or sixteen. It's also more
Wellesian - against the grain of its thriller/anti-Nazi template -
than general wisdom would have it.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Wow, i noticed they're showing Tomorrow is Forever, and Filming The Trial? Wow! How much of that got finished, by the way?

[colwood]

I believe Filming the Trial consists of 80 minutes of Q & A between Welles and a audience at USC in '81 (?). The Munich Filmuseum combined that and the film's trailer as part of its restoration.

[jeff]

The restoration of "Confidential Report" sounds great! Was there any mention of it or "Filming 'The Trial'" being released by anyone on dvd?

[colwood]

Running concurrently with the Welles series at Film Forum, the Posteritati gallery is having an exhibition of 100 posters from 25 different countries spanning Welles' entire career.

Info at http://www.filmforum.com/films/posteritati.html

[mteal]

That's quite a Welles blowout they're gonna be having in N.Y.. That poster exhibition sounds great- fascinating Polish poster of OTHELLO (I've seen it on ebay before but it was beyond my means). I've always thought Criterion's LD of CONFIDENTIAL REPORT looked very good, but if this new print of CR blows that away, it sounds like a must see. If I was there I'd probably also want to see the double feature of THE STRANGER and LADY FROM SHANGHAI, both in new prints. LADY especially, is always fun to see with a large audience.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Is it really mteal? Please explain.

[mteal]

Well, it probably is due to the fact that in LADY FROM SHANGHAI Welles gives his quirky, almost loony sense of humor free rein, perhaps more so then in any other film he made(with the possible exception of TOUCH OF EVIL). All of Welles' films have quirky senses of humor, but LADY's overwrought oddness and style becomes almost delirious (just as the plot does), as if Welles was having a great time laughing at the Hollywood bosses who had hired him to make a straight-up Rita Hayworth picture. I've seen the film with a good-size audience three times, and it always gets alot of laughs, especially Glenn Anders' performance. Strange thing is, different audiences seem to laugh at different things. I have no idea why, but it's interesting.

[Jaime N. Christley]

Film Forum lists CONFIDENTIAL REPORT as a new print, not a restoration.

Only THE STRANGER is listed as being a 35mm restoration. TOUCH OF EVIL is the 1998 project. OTHELLO will likely be the tinkered version from the 1990s.

Titles listed as new prints:
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
TOMORROW IS FOREVER (Pichel)
MAN IN THE SHADOW (Arnold)
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
THE SOUTHERN STAR (Hayers)
HOUSE OF CARDS (Guillerman)
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT
A SAFE PLACE (Jaglom)
THE V.I.P.s (Asquith)
F FOR FAKE
PRINCE OF FOXES (King)
THE BLACK ROSE (Hathaway)
THE THIRD MAN (Reed)

Although I'll bet you anything THE THIRD MAN is the late-1990s Rialto print that's been beat up and ate up from being run so many times, lots of splices, etc.

[colwood]

Removed by order of common sense. Thanks to those who replied.

[Glenn Anders]

Wisdom would suggest that this is some kind of traveling show with local ancillary projects. In other words, what has been seen is pretty much what we'll see.

I hope that I'm wrong but . . . .

Still, I look forward to the exhibition when it reaches San Francisco, probably the Castro Theater.

Glenn

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Colwood - restoration doesn't necessarily mean reediting, but it does mean a radical improvement of the picture quality, much more than just cleaning. An example is the restoration of Vertigo which can be found in the latest Hitchcock collection. There is a doco on that DVD which explains about the restoration of Vertigo. Apparently its a much longer process than cleaning which tries to get the film to look as bright and colourful (in this case) as it did on first release. That's all i know.

Mteal - how exciting. I find Shanghai the most disconcerting of Welles' works, and take great joy in the fact that the audience were laughing. I believe its intended to be quirky (especially Glen Anders!)

[nathan_h]

Two articles in this week's Village Voice online about the fest:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0407/welles.php

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0407/hoberman.php

[blunted by community]

i predict during a safe place EVERY ONE IN THE AUDIENCE WILL PASS OUT FROM BOREDOM, then the usher will have to wake up the audience when the picture ends, much like i experience with the rolling stone's SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL.

THE BLACK ROSE, THE SOUTHERN STAR, TOMOROW IS FOREVER, PRINCE OF FOXES though are better than A SAFE PLACE are still difficult to sit through in a theater. you can't press pause to take a breather, build a bar b q pit in your back yard, then come back inside to finish watching the films. you have to watch them all in one sitting. that's a bit tough, unless you are a european and are used to watching films like LA NOTTE in one sitting.