Locarno Wrap-Up

[Gordon]

J. Rosenbaum wrote:

Another motivation, I suspect, is the fact that the character he plays in the film, Brooks Otterlake, is a fairly cruel caricature of himself, and he may want to exert some damage control about this.)"

I think Bogdanovich's motivation is likely to be more altruistic than that.

[dmolson]

Something MrG-Anders said tweaked my memory and an ensuing twist ~ that TOSOTW was just lacking an 'explosion' to be complete. It's the same reason we've heard as to what kept 'The Deep' from moving into a releasable state, along with Don Quixote, tho that one I'm not completely certain... And wasn't his 'The Trial' to end with a big bang? Was there a gloomy themeology that Welles was following during the last two decades of his life? Is it perhaps the 'bomb' was his way of saying 'To hell with you all, I'll make my movies and have my fun but don't expect to join in on the fun'... Just a weird theory...

[Roger Ryan]

The ship explosion in "The Deep" is not that crucial to the film's continuity (the characters played by Welles, Jeanne Moreau and Michael Bryant are already shown rowing away in a life boat from the burning ship - the ship exploding would be a nice bit of eye candy, but is not necessary for the film to work). More problematic is the missing shark attack which brings an end to both Welles's and Laurence Harvey's characters. Also, it appears that only about 15 - 20% of the film's dialogue was recorded either in wild sound or post-synched; the majority of the audio would have to be recreated using actors imitating Welles and Harvey and possibly the others. I used to read about how the only thing missing was the boat explosion as well, not realizing how much of the audio was missing until I viewed the work print in Locarno.

[chrissie]

Just to be clear: this alleged 'explosion' in TOSotW is a confusion with the one missing from The Deep, right? It's been said that Other Side is complete numerous times, editing notwithstanding.

[Roger Ryan]

Whether TOSOTW was completely shot or not is still an uncertainty. I was told on fairly good authority that there are still a number of shots/scenes (?) missing. I've only seen about a half hour of footage, so I don't have much insight into this. Does anyone know whether the final scene where Hannaford crashes his car behind the drive-in movie screen was shot in its entirety? That's where the "explosion" was supposed to go, I guess.

[Glenn Anders]

Gang: I would bow to Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Ryan and several others here anytime. Certainly, we have not heard lately from Larry French, who knows more about THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND than anybody else whom I've met personally. However, Bogdanovich has said a number of times that Welles made him promise to finish it, and I heard Graver say that the film was complete but for "an explosion," at the San Francisco premiere of the OTHELLO restoration.

I know that it has been posted on the forum before, but for those who have not read it, six months ago, The Sunday Times published an excellent three (3) page article about THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, which confirms my contentions, and recapitulates some arguments made by others here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 74,00.html

Hope this URL helps.

Glenn

[chrissie]

Well, if it is just an explosion, it wouldn't be hard to work something out, I guess. From the little I've seen, I don't think it's going to generate much enthusiasm outside of the 'converted', but I'd love to see it finished.

Of that footage, I loved the scene with Huston, was indifferent to the projection sequence (context might help), but did think the oft-mentioned sex scene was... very uninspiring, painfully extended and kinda ugly. Which I'd like to think was the point, but the comments from those involved suggests otherwise.

[GM]

Roger, would you mind giving us your general impressions as to the overrall quality of "The Deep"? Jeff said the 116-minute workprint could lose 30 minutes easily, and Rosenbaum on Yahoo said he didn't think there was much of a film there at all. Is that why Oja has pulled the plug on any further work?

[Store Hadji]

There's certainly enough interest in The Deep to make it commercially viable (and I hope some distributor shares that view) but if those in control of it (Oja, I guess) feel it is a poor example of Welles' output, might they hold it back rather than tarnish his reputation as a director?

All I've seen of it is the trailer, but I think it looks excellent. I'm ravenous to see it released.

[Roger Ryan]

Jeff is correct that the current presentation of "The Deep" could easily lose 30 minutes and there is good reason for that: at 116 min., the work print contains a number of scenes/shots which are repeated with different camera angles and editing. Stefan Droessler explained to me that Welles was working on several different work prints at once; when Droessler compiled these work prints, he left some of the alternate versions of scenes intact edited next to each other. This demonstrates the different approaches Welles would take with the same material (I'm assuming in these cases that Welles himself had not made a final decision on which shots or versions of scenes he would use). This is practical as well for anyone attempting to complete the film now to see what options are available for a given scene. Of course, ultimately, a finished version of the film would only have one version of each scene presented which would automatically reduce the running time.

As to the film's overall quality, I can only speak about my perception of the film's potential. Since the current work print of "The Deep" is missing about 80% of its soundtrack, it's almost impossible to judge its quality in terms of storytelling or dramatic impact. I feel that all of the scenes taking place on the boat with Welles, Jeanne Moreau and Michael Bryant have potential to be exciting and humorous in a typical Wellesian way. Certainly Welles himself is pretty amusing as he tosses off asides in the manner of Hank Quinlan as the two others try frantically to keep the boat from sinking. Intercut with these scenes are sequences taking place on another boat, Bryant's boat, which has been hijacked by Laurence Harvey's character with Bryant's wife (Oja) on board. Unfortunately, I see little potential for these scenes to amount to much. As Jeff alluded to, Oja's character, although a victim, is never actually restrained by Harvey and has ample opportunity to knock him unconscious or to take matters into her own hands. Instead, she is shown wandering around the boat, occasionally being surprised by Harvey's sudden reappearances and taking on a kind of dull, mesmerized countenance as her "captor" blathers on about a troubled childhood and how he "likes her feet". Often, Welles shoots these conversations as intercut close-ups of each actor staring or talking directly into the camera with little variation. Even with the missing dialogue, one gets the impression nothing much is happening and I found myself waiting impatiently to get back to the sinking boat. My opinion is that the Harvey/Oja scenes should be cut down significantly for the finished film to be an effective thriller. As it is, I never get the impression that Oja's character is in significant danger.

Again, the lack of a soundtrack hurts. Since there is a script, there is the potential to post-synch the correct dialogue where needed, but as I mentioned in a previous post, that would require a lot of work.

[GM]

It sounds to me as if Welles may have wanted to suggest that Oja's character might actually prefer Laurence Harvey to her husband. Maybe there was at least meant to be some ambiguity there. Regarding post-synching the soundtrack, they ought to get someone like John Lassiter from Disney who has done some very good English-language tracks for Miyazaki's anime films. I guess he doesn't get much compensation for that, though, and I have no idea how much of a Welles fan he is. As far as the climactic shark attack goes, I agree with you that that sounds like a bigger problem. Thanks for the info, Roger.

[jollytinker]

All very interesting ... but I'd be happy just to read more of the script to 'Wind' .. then I can salivate more on the movie.

[R Kadin]

I suggest a film be made that acts as a framing device that pulls together all the substantially shot but unfinished films. For Hollywood pitch-session purposes it would be described as Memento meets The Lady from Shanghai. Instead of post-it notes, the amnesiac main character would awaken in a bloodstained motel room with no clues to what has happened to him other than 35mm movie frames scattered about. He convinces himself that, if he can only piece the fragments together in their proper sequence, everything will make sense.

The frames are, of course, snippets of The Deep, DQ, The Dreamers, The Merchant of Venice and TOSOTW and, along the path to his attempted enlightenment, he finds himself in the employ of a limping lawyer whose cynicism and scheming, beautiful companion both know no bounds. (Forgive me if, in the casting, the actress playing the companion should bear a soupcon of resemblance to one BW-S; but art simply will not be stopped from imitating life.)

As the tale unfolds, our man becomes increasingly obsessed with his patchwork mission, mesmerized by the infinite range of possibilities suggested by merely changing the order in which any two or more fragments are put together. Soon there are layers within layers and films within films, their images confronting each other starkly and startlingly like those found in a funhouse.

But, what's this? It is a funhouse we're in, only this funhouse has a projection booth. The flickering images appear and disappear randomly while our man chases after them around a room whose perimeter is nonexistant in the surrounding gloom. We see him studying the lips of the speakers in the soundless segements, giving voice to their dialogue. He repeats their babble to himself, over and over, insistient that, in them, he will find the heart of the matter, the truth he seeks. All is becoming a mad, mad crescendo.

Suddenly, one image answers him back directly, calling him by name. He looks up to see the full, reflected face of the lawyer's lady with a crazy-quilt of film fragments flickering around it. Here the BW-S resemblance is at its most uncanny and our man is driven to the very brink of insanity as he strives in anguish to comprehend the sensory vortex in which he now stands enveloped.

She is beckoning him to give up his mad, futile quest and join her. United, they can storm the booth, seize the dreams embedded in its projector and ransom them for all time to come!

He falters, our fellow does, transsected by the sharp angular shadows cast by the mirror edges on all sides. So close, he thinks. So close to knowing the answers - if there are indeed answers to be known - and yet still so far from certainty. She, however, offers certainty. So cool, calculating and beautiful - all that he lacks, wants, needs. She, he tells himself, she IS the answer, she must be, for nothing else around him is making sense. But, what if he's wrong about her? How far can a woman be trusted who seems so prepared to leave out and betray her husband?

"Husband??" she laughs back at him, "What husband?" He didn't realize he had uttered that last thought aloud.

"But...I thought...I thought...?" he stammers, quite unable to think at all.

"It's ALL RIGHT", he hears the lawyer's approaching voice calling amid the punctuation of his crutch and footfalls as he maneuvers his way into the room. "This time, at least, your assumptions won't kill you - will they, Dearest?" It is at this point, as lawyer and companion exchange knowing looks, that we see the lawyer more clearly and he looks amazingly like BW-S's henchman. "Help us", he continues, "and you'll be set for life. Get in our way, however..." (the point of one crutch now pressed dangerously up to our man's - ahem - vulnerability), "...and you can assume the worst. Savvy?"

"I savvy", our fellow responds sounding faintly Irish. We see him taking in the twosome (who appear joined at the hip), eyes darting to the tantalizing film images, then back. A look of angst-ridden indecision gathers and overpowers his expression. Perspiration is beading like mercury on his brow. His lips part slightly, dry and trembling. No sound but the hint of a shallow and quickening breath. Back and forth dart the eyes. The images are now not much more than a blur. The camera dollies in closer and closer on his face, at one instant anguished, another firm and resolute. The expressions trade places with increasing rapidity, so much so that we cannot make out which one it is that lingers just long enough for him to say, "I, I've decided. I know what I must do. I'm going to -"

Ah but, Dear Reader, this is where I must entrust you to your own devices, for only you can decide for yourselves which way our man will go. I leave you poised on the border between wish and probability, charged with only one task which is, of course, to come up with the right ending. Now, what could be easier than that, hmmm?

[jollytinker]

That is quite an idea, too bad it would never happen, but it's damn fine thinking R. You know you should protect that thought, take it from a writer and movie maker, that is seriously creative, even with originality, and there aren't many if any original things left. Hey, make your own movie sans Welles (with Welles of course would be more interesting), I'd pay to see it..
Can anybody get me a copy of the 'Wind' script ....?????!!!!!

I don't know how that damn smiley got in there

[Kevin Loy]

To only turn out documentaries about Welles and his work, when a completed work such as THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is within reach, smacks to me of exploitation, and a cheapness in regard to his memory which he would have found sad.

After all, according to Bogdanovich, Welles told him that he wanted it finished, and wanted Bogdanovich to do it.

I couldn't agree more about the exploitative nature of merely making a documentary about any film that is close enough to completion. And remember, even if this film is only lacking an explosion, it certainly would not be the first time that a Welles picture was released without a crucial component...

Ideally, the best notion would be to create a documentary as well as an edited film and release both (like, say, Smile finally being released [and being just as brilliant 38 years later as some of us swore it was], and then a documentary dealing with the initial creation and re-creation of it being released afterwards).

As far as who should edit it, well...Yeah, I know that Gary Graver was Welles' preferred cameraman in his later years and everything, but being a cameraman doesn't make you a film editor (likewise, Robert Wise has often proven that being a great editor doesn't make you a director). I must also admit, though I'll probably be inundated by hate mail for saying it, that I kinda feel that Oja Kodar's artistic worth to Orson's final years was peripheral at best. A muse, sure, and certainly a catalyst for Orson to do things that he probably would not have done on his own. I'm just not terribly impressed by her 'acting' (then again, I wasn't impressed with Paola Mori either, though I think she came off a bit better than Oja does, and I couldn't possibly tell you why). She may very well be a talented visual artist, but I have never seen anything that she has sculpted or painted (or anything else). And, per the above note, being a talented visual artist (if she is one) doesn't necessarily make somebody a great editor. (and as a side comment, it isn't as if every performance by one of Orson's better halves lacks merit...in fact, at least in my opinion, Rita Hayworth [along with what I feel was an amazing performance by Everett Sloane] makes The Lady From Shangai worth seeing)

As for Bogdanovich, I've seen two of his films: Targets and Mask. For as much as I'd like to kick Bogdanovich for whatever reason, at least he has avoided softcore land (unlike Graver). I still think, for all of his passion about cinema and his research and devotion, he isn't a particularly gifted filmmaker. A smart filmmaker, perhaps, but not an inspiring one.

The thing is...didn't he apparently leave detailed notes regarding The Other Side Of The Wind's editing? If he did (and if they were as detailed as the Touch Of Evil notes), wouldn't it be at least somewhat reasonable to complete a somewhat approximate edit, at least without considering that he could have changed his mind at any minute?