Welles's nephew editing TOSOTW

[Tony]

Welles's nephew is apparently editing THe Other Side of the Wind.

Well, at least it's not the studio janitor!

[ToddBaesen]

I think this info must be considered very preliminary, since Glenn and I also talked to Joe Dante, but the strange thing is, if the sticking point was that Oja Kodar wanted control over the final result, why would she let a nephew of Palo Mori (Beatrice's cousin) do the editing?

But maybe that was part of the deal Oja made with Showtime. As with all Welles project, Ain't it Strange?

Actually, it seems to me, an essay film about (and including footage) about THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND would probably be the best way to go now, if only somebody equal to Welles was around to do it in the manner of F FOR FAKE.

Sadly, when you think about it, tho, there is no director or editor currently around who could possibly hold a candle to Welles in this area...

Today's top directors... I mean really...
There's just no one on the level of Orson Welles out there...

For instance, what if Spielberg got a hold of OSOTW, like he did with A.I. He'd wreck it just as he did with A.I. Just imagine, now we can have a happy ending to OSOTW... instead of crashing his car, John Huston will go off with his leading man, with all the angels singing to a beautiful John Williams score! What could be happier?

[Tony]

Todd: actually, it would surprise me if it was put out as a feature, since both Beatrice and Oja have both implicitly stated their opposition to that happening: Beatrice is against "finishing" anything her father didn't finish and labelling it "Directed by Orson Welles" (which was her oppostion to the 98 TOE) and Oja has always maintained that she would follow the final intentions of Welles toward a project (for example, his attitude toward DQ), and in the case of TOSOTW, his stated intentions, (shortly before he died) that if he were to regain the footage of Wind, he would finish it in essay form, an essay about the making of the film.

But what shocks me is:

a) a person apparently without professional credentials and experience is doing the job, and

b) this seems to be a conjoining if the Oja/Beatrice camps, since Paola's nephew would be Beatrice's first cousin.

The weirdness continues.

[RayKelly]

Tony,
Do you know the name of this nephew and what his background is?

[Tony]

I don't, Ray. Perhaps some other Wellesnetter does? At any rate, it smacks of pure nepotism, not a good sign.

[The Night Man]

Is this nephew actually making the final editing decisions, or is there a supervising editor under whose authority he is working? Is it possible that he's just an assistant (or even apprentice) editor whose relation to Welles might be useful as a p.r. hook, thus explaining his employment on TOSOTW?

I can't imagine that the editing of a project of this complexity would be handled by a single person or, for that matter, that Showtime would put up money to finish the project if its editing was entrusted to the control of someone with no experience.

We need more details before coming to any conclusions.

[Glenn Anders]

One of Oja's Croatian relatives in LA, anyone?

There are many possibilities.

For instance, there are more "Alexander Welles" in Hollywood than you can shake a kane at. Not to mention a feminine contingent, including the Alex's and Alexander's, not to mention the Sasha's.

Perhaps Todd Baesen should take his old drinking buddy, Joe McBride, to the Ha-Ra Club, ply him with Carl K's rare gin especiale, White Heat, and a little Nellie McKay. Find out what's going on!

Glenn

[LamontCranston]

Sadly, when you think about it, tho, there is no director or editor currently around who could possibly hold a candle to Welles in this area

Terry Gilliam?

[i]For instance, what if Spielberg got a hold of OSOTW, like he did with A.I. He'd wreck it just as he did with A.I. Just imagine, now we can have a happy ending to OSOTW... instead of crashing his car, John Huston will go off with his leading man, with all the angels singing to a beautiful John Williams score! What could be happier?

No need to worry about that - I'm surprised you hadn't heard about this - Spielberg and a bunch of other Hollywood heavyweights were given a screening of OSOTW by Graver & Oja back in 2004 or 2005 or something like that, the reaction: declared it too experimental and declined to help.
(I guess the money needed for OSOTW could be much better spent on cinematic masterpieces like Transformers)

[tonyw]

This news is so sad and typical of a billionaire director who would not pick up the lunch tab for somebody he supposedly admired. Yes, TOSTW is "too experimental" for these mediocrities and Jonathan Rosenbaum is right when he says that Welles was not a Hollywood director - for good reason!

[Roger Ryan]

I believe the screening of TOSOTW footage for various Hollywood heavyweights happened in the late 80s/early 90s. It's reportedly true that Spielberg and others felt that the material, if not exacty too experimental, was too fragmented and rough to assemble into a commercial whole. I imagine these filmmakers were thinking they would see something akin to Welles' 40s output or maybe "Touch Of Evil" and were completely taken aback by the approach (and subject matter?). Someone who was familiar with "F For Fake" might have seen the TOSOTW footage in a more complimentary light.

Oliver Stone was reportedly one of those who saw the forty minutes of TOSOTW that Welles had assembled. Given that both "JFK" and especially "Natural Born Killers" borrow from the "lightning fast cutting of different film stock" style displayed in the Welles' film suggest Stone took something positive away from the screening.

[tonyw]

Doesn't the Stone example support Oja Kodar's claims that these people were ready to rip-off Welles at every opportunity but not help him when he most needed it? Quite obviously, all these types conveniently forgot the experimental nature of independent film in the 1960s which deliberately attacked the commodified nature of studio film that these coporate types now embody!

Was Scorsese there?

[MartynH]

Roger is right about the OSOTW screening taking place a long time ago. Clint Eastwood gives us a clue as he pinched 'Of course you are' from this film for his 'White Hunter Black Heart' and that came out in 1990. So work it out from there.

[Alan Brody]

That line was actually in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, when a busty girl named Plenty O'Toole comes up to Bond in a casino and says "Hi, I'm Plenty", and Bond, looking at her boobs, replies "But of course you are".

Speaking of Eastwood, I had heard he was interested at one point in the '90's in putting up the money to buy out the Iranian producers of TOSOTW, but as soon as they heard Clint Eastwood's name, they raised their asking price. I can just imagine what they would have raised it to if they had heard Spielberg was involved.

[chipm]

Let's not forget all the legal entanglements that this project has had over the years. As big a fan of Welles as I am sure all the directors who were approached, no one likes to "buy a headache." And let me tell you, I am sure that some of them were thinking the Iranian problem was just the tip of the iceberg. As big a fan I am of Welles, I can certainly see why no one would want to jump into this mess. I think what looks to have happened is the only real course that could ever have been taken - the Iranian mess resolved itself and Bogdanovich and Oja were able to move forward.

C.

[MartynH]

The point is that Eastwood was at the screening of OSOTW - probably shortly after Welles died - and it was fresh in his mind. No doubt that line could have originally come from a film made in 1931 and been used in six other movies since.

Perhaps Welles was a secret James Bond fan or Eastwood for that matter, but I doubt it very much. I know one thing from being in contact with artists is that they are so busy making their art they have little time to watch/hear what other people are doing.