Harvard Film Archive festival

[Roger Ryan]

A nice collection of material for those who haven't had a chance to see these films (especially on the big screen). I'm sorry that the longer (better) European cut of OTHELLO is not the version being screened, but maybe that's illegal in the U.S.

[jbrooks]

I'm surprised the program calls the 1992 Othello restoration "wonderful." The problems with that restoration have been widely discussed, and the Criterion laser disc of the unrestored version clearly shows that no restoration was necessary in the first place.

One would think the Harvard Film Archive would know these things.

[The Night Man]

This line jumped out at me:

...It’s All True, the deliriously ambitious Rockefeller-funded Latin American project begun with great promise in 1942 only to collapse under its own impossible weight.

It's All True may have turned "deliriously ambitious" at Rockefeller's urging, but it was RKO's money, not Rockefeller's, that funded it.

[ToddBaesen]

From The Welles news page at Topix, comes this report on the upcoming Harvard Film Archive program of rare Welles films:

http://tiny.cc/FEVpJ

There is also a nice shot of Welles I'd never seen before on the set of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT:

Orson Welles studies his script on location at Cardona Castle (outside of Barcelona) during the shooting of Chimes at Midnight. Note King Henry IV's crown on his throne behind Welles.


The Boston Phoenix article notes that the OTHELLO print is the restored version, but this appears to be incorrect, as the Harvard Film Archive website indicates the 35 mm print they will be showing comes from the Library of Congress.

Anyone in the Boston area who goes to the show, please give us a report!

[RayKelly]

Anyone in the Boston area who goes to the show, please give us a report!

Work permitting, I am hoping to hit the final night. I'll try to take good notes <g>

[Nate H]

edit: Chimes was wonderful. The print looked great, the sound was good, and the house was packed. A sizeable number of people applauded after the credits.

It's All True, on the other hand was a disaster. The film stopped for at least a minute, just after Welles' introduction. Then, when they restarted it, the sound did not match the film that was shown! The sound was at least 1 reel ahead of the picture. A few of us went out to the lobby to complain, but they did not do anything. The guy told my girlfriend that that was "how it's [the film] printed," which is obviously not true, and there was nothing they could do.

So we sat through a full reel of out-of-sync sound and picture, until the next reel started and everything was fine again. In the end we missed about 15 minutes of the film, and heard 15 minutes worth of sound twice.

No one ever bothered to apologize or attempt to explain to the audience what happened, nor to offer a refund. The ticket guy said that they would NOT refund our money, but would offer a rain check! We drove 2 hours to see these films! Very disappointing.

[ToddBaesen]

It sounds like the typical Welles Gremlins were at work for the IT'S ALL TRUE screening. But as Welles noted, the film had a Voodoo curse placed on it!

What I really find interesting is how certain American cities are so receptive of Welles genius. It's no surprise that some of the biggest Welles cities are these: New York, Cambridge, San Francisco and New Haven.

Los Angeles, which certainly has many fanatical Welles devotee's living there, is left off the list for obvious reasons.

In any case, the recent Harvard show, reminded me that the Orson Welles Cinema, was based in Cambridge. And it was the first cinema named after Welles, and while he was still alive!

Too bad Welles doesn't have any daughters to carry on his legacy. Apparently, neither Beatrice or Christopher are interested in playing Cordelia in saving Grace Hall, or worse, willing to give any time or effort towards getting Orson Welles featured on a the "Legends of Hollywood" U.S. postal stamp series.

I guess the Welles daughters are truly made in the image of Shakespeare's Lear.

++++++


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles_Cinema

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=109252

[Glenn Anders]

Todd: I think you are being a little harsh on Christopher Welles.

Admirable as our attempts to save Todd School's Grace Hall may be, perhaps, both she and her sister have reasons to avoid imbroglio in the arguments we so excitedly enter into. Beatrice Welles speaks of guarding the privacy of her father's work, and Christopher may, in this case, at least, not wish to engage in a battle with the Woodstock, Il, city council, or with an Evangelical enterprise.

Hopefully, Christopher has her own insights to contribute, when the time is ripe.

Both she and Beatrice should be spared certainly replying to the sophomoric, snide review that the Harvard Crimson originally gave F FOR FAKE. That reviewer should be sweeping out a barn somewhere, quietly chewing upon his own words or anything else he can pick up off the floor.

[hmm . . . ten minutes later: I just see that the Crimson reviewer, Mark T. Whitaker, became the first black Editor of Newsweek in 1998, (of any modern major American news weekly, really), and has just been named to replace the late Tim Russert as head of NBC's Washington Bureau. Well, maybe, he has learned something over the years. I'll stand on my criticism of his review. I find it snide and offensive -- and more importantly, terribly imperceptive. His recent session on Chris Mathews' Hard Ball, criticizing President Elect Barack Obama, didn't impress me either.]

Glenn

[ZenKaneCity]

Looking down the list of threads, I realized that I had never jotted down my impressions of the last evening, "Unfinished Works, Part Two," which I attended. Put me down as another fan of THE DREAMERS' "garden sequence." I find that, of the entire program, that's what has stuck with me the most (with the possible exception of QUIXOTE). Very haunting, very effective. I found that Ms. Kodar's controversial performance (going by previous threads) worked for me perfectly well in that particular scene. Even the bare-bones setting seemed to work in its favor.

I was very impressed by Mr. Droessler. As reported elsewhere, he was refreshingly candid in some of his remarks and appraisals of the work, but just as refreshingly respectful of the integrity of the work in his role as archivist. A long night at the movies (four hours?) that seemed to fly by.