Locarno Wrap-Up

[chrissie]

That's very illuminating. I have read a lot of the archive stuff, but not much on Quixote -- I felt more distanced from it than the other works until finally seeing some of it, I guess.

If the '92 version was produced entirely without access to this cut Orson himself had almost completed, then, actually, it can't really be considered the same film at all. I'm encouraged by reading this, because even ignoring the obvious problems and ineptitude of the production, what it shows doesn't look very promising.

I have another question, now. One oft-repeated story is that Francisco Reiguera replaced Mischa Auer as Quixote at some point during the shootings due to the latter's death. I'd like to be clear on timelines. When was all this footage shot? Starting maybe in 1956, running through to 1969?

Francisco died in 1969, so no footage with Quixote could have been filmed after that date. But here's the thing. Mischa died in 1967, only two years earlier. I was under the impression that FR was the 'main' Quixote -- by far in more of the footage. (They actually look very similar under makeup, but FR has less hair, which is one immediately obvious difference.) A minor point, maybe, but it looks like me like Auer might have abandoned the production quite some time before his death. Perhaps the nature of the beast wasn't to his liking.

It's also interesting to note that Reiguera was almost 20 years older than Auer! And in very good shape by the looks of it, albeit painfully thin.

When was the last footage shot? Was anything more filmed after both Quixotes were gone?

[Tony]

Auer was only in the 57 shoot; Welles started again with his new Quixote (FR) and stuck with him through the rest of the shoot; I don't know why Auer was replaced, but it certainly wasn't because of his demise. The 69 shots were just of landscapes, according to the man who shot them ( in the Rosabella doc). Gary Graver shot a couple of landscapes in the early 70s in colour, but that seems to be it. Again: check the Stainton article and the Rosabella documentary plus the Rosenbaum timeline of Welles' career (found at the back of "This is Orson Welles") for the basic info on the DQ shoot. I believe my info here is roughly correct.

[tonyw]

Most of us have seen the abysmal Franco footage, /but what happened to the scenes Welles shot with Patty McCormack including the scene where Quixote charges at a cinema screen?

[Tony]

Tonyw:

Bonnani has them, went to court against Oja to keep them, and apparently just showed them at Locarno.

[NoFake]

I also recall hearing something to the effect that material that was unavailable for screening at Locarno would be screened at the upcoming Venice festival. Roberto Perpignani, who was on the Quixote panel, said he would try to convince Bonanni, who has the original negative, to make this material available outside Venice.

[jrosenbaum]

A few (hopefully clarifying) points:

In Locarno, Oja Kodar showed me a document that suggests that the reason why Bonnani has been unwilling to give the Quixote material he has to anyone is that he wants to be assigned sole editing credit on the film. Of course, the odds of him receiving such a credit in any circumstances are just about nil. But Marco Mueller of the Venice film festival tried to get Bonnani to edit what he had for a Welles event this year. No one in Locarno seemed quite sure about this, but it seems that it didn't pan out.

It's clear that there isn't (or, more precisely, wasn't) one version of the Welles Quixote but several successive ones, none of them quite completed. (When I met Welles circa 1972, he told me that it was nearly finished even then!)

It appears that Bonnani is the only one who possesses the Patty McCormack footage. The Filmoteca Espanole in Madrid has ten hours apart from this, however, and I have an appointment to look at all of this in November, shortly before I attend a conference in Valencia on Don Quixote and the Cinema. (Perversely, I'll have to turn in a copy of my paper BEFORE i see the footage!) As far as I know, the only other significant Quixote footage is some edited silent material held by the French Cinematheque, some of which was seen in Locarno.

The Franco edit is without question the worst thing that has ever been done to any Welles film, judging from the portions that I saw years ago that were screened by Oja at a New York University Welles conference. Some of the Franco version is dubbed by Welles, but most of it is dubbed by whoever Franco could drag in off the street. He has refilmed portions of the footage, added ugly zooms, and, as I've written elsewhere, cut in much material from Welles's hack Italian series IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE as if it were part of the same project. Worst of all, a formerly reliable Welles scholar, Robert Stam, has written about the Franco version as if it represented Welles's intentions, in a new textbook, where he also erroneously claims that Oja (misidentified as Welles's wife) is in it. (Oja in fact had nothing to do with the film, but Paola Mori appears in one scene and worked as an assistant on it.)

[The Night Man]

tonyw wrote:

what happened to the scenes Welles shot with Patty McCormack including the scene where Quixote charges at a cinema screen?

And Tony replied:

Bonnani has them, went to court against Oja to keep them, and apparently just showed them at Locarno.

The Patty McCormick scenes from QUIXOTE were also screened (along with much other material from that project) at the Welles retrospective in Los Angeles in 2004, courtesy of Stefan Droessler.

What I saw there was really stunning. The thought of a near-complete QUIXOTE (apart from the Jess Franco abomination) is too exciting for words. I only hope I live long enough to see such a thing if it truly exists!

[Roger Ryan]

Colwood - The situation Mr. Rosenbaum alluded to regarding "Quixote" is indicative of the political/legal quagmire that has affected virtually all of Welles' work, especially the previously unreleased/unfinished projects. For this reason, I do not believe that there are imminent plans to release anything on DVD with the one exception both Jeff and I referred to obliquely earlier in the thread (keeping fingers crossed everything stays on track).

Christopher - I'm sorry to hear the "Chimes" print at Locarno was disappointing. I saw the film once in 1997 when it played Detroit and the 35 mm print was in fantastic shape! I have to think that better prints are still out there.

Chrissie - Just to clarify the "Quixote"/windmill thing: reportedly, Welles never shot any windmills or windmill scenes during his 15 years of filming the project, so anything found in Franco's version was done in '92. I only saw the first 10 minutes of the Franco release at Locarno but was horrified by the cheap posterization effect he chose for the windmill shots, an effect more akin to an Iron Butterfly TV appearance in the late 60s than a Welles film!

[Eve_h]

To Christopher,

about the screening of the CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT print in Locarno: I saw it and agree with your observations' ... However I'm very unhappy to have to admit that I'm most likely the least competent member on this board to comment about it, since all I've seen until this screening was a dubbed version on VHS and therefore I was deliriously happy to have seen it at all for the first time.

(again please excuse my English)

[Store Hadji]

I'm most likely the least competent member on this board

Funny, I always figured I was. You shouldn't think such things. And your English is perfectly articulate.

Roger - where did you see Chimes in Detroit in 97? Was it at the Fox or the DIA? I saw Kane at the Fox in 91 or so and The Third Man at the DIA some years later. I'm pissed that I missed it!

The Filmoteca Espanole in Madrid has ten hours apart from this

Jonathan - It's staggering that that much more of Quixote footage exists. Please let us know what you think once you see it. Are they able to release any or all of it?

At this point, the best approach to the Quixote footage is no more attempts at reconstruction but just to dump everything onto several DVDs, edited and unedited, silent and dubbed alike. Wouldn't we all like that footage to peruse, linger over and wonder about? Maybe some new documentary about the protracted filming, editing and its strange aftermath would justify a release and all that other footage could ideally be appended. Would that have commercial appeal?

Has anyone seen In the Land of Don Quixote? Was that project completed? Did it use footage Welles had shot for Quixote or just original stuff?

Orson, you're driving me mad! What is this trail of flotsam you've left strewn across two continents in the hands of a dozen disputed owners? I won't live long enough to see all this mess resolved. Maybe I should give up cigarettes and Oreos. Not my black coffee however!

[GM]

Just to muddy the waters even more, there was a 40-minute assemblage of the Quixote footage done in the 1980s by Costa-Govras for the Cinemateque Francais that was said to be far superior to the Franco version in conveying a Wellesian spirit. I wonder what happened to that assemblage? Does it still exist, and will it ever be seen publicly again?

If there is now a bad scratch on the "Chimes at Midnight" negative, that's a terrible shame, but it would seem to serve the two warring European parties right for their obstinance and inability to compromise over the legal rights to the film's distribution. It would also seem to throw the Chimes ball back into Beatrice's court, what with her impending "restoration" of the film. Any more word on that?

[Roger Ryan]

Store Hadji - "Chimes" played at The Magic Bag in Ferndale when they still had theatre seats (it was not a "Brew & View" showing!) - I would say there were about 20 people in the audience.

Since we already have the families of two producers fighting over "Chimes", I can't imagine Beatrice entering into the fray with any kind of positive outcome. I've been reading about her interest in doing a "restoration" of it for over 10 years ("The Trial" was another one she was interested in), but I have no idea whether she has any legal options in place. An article published in the Chicago Tribune in '98 said that Miramax was midway through a "Chimes" restoration which was reportedly shut down due to legal issues.

I should add that the print I saw in '97 did not require any restoration unless one feels it necessary to digitally touch-up some of the synchronization issues, although "Chimes" is easily the best of Welles' post-synched European productions.

[Store Hadji]

Roger - sorry I missed it. Of those 20 people, probably Jeff was there too, or should have been. No theatre seats any longer? That was done to the Royal Oak Music Theatre too. A bad trend.

I'm sure I agree with everyone that Chimes and The Trial should not be restored by anyone, especially BWS. I can't even imagine why she should want to. Madness.

[Vidamonte]

As I was in Locarno only few days and unfortunately couldn't stay until "The Other Side Of The Wind"-workshop, could someone who was present tell us the latest news about that.
Has Kodar found money...?

[GM]

Store Hadji wrote: "I'm sure I agree with everyone that Chimes and The Trial should not be restored by anyone, especially BWS. I can't even imagine why she should want to."

If Beatrice is allied with Miramax's legal/financial muscle, It's hard to see how anyone could stop her permenantly, at least not in America. Apparently the Europeans have stopped her once, but the project was resumed in the past year or so, and last I heard, it was close to completion.