Locarno Wrap-Up

[Wilson]

I will post a more detailed account of what I saw in Locarno, but I am beat from 18 hours in planes and airports and can't do it now. We did make a quite exciting discovery, but I will let Roger detail that when he gets back online. You can all live in suspense until then... The festival was quite a lot of fun, and wall-to-wall Welles for those who wanted it. You could have literally spent from 9 AM to midnight each day seeing something directed by, with, or about Welles. Locarno is quite a beautiful area, located on a lake in the Alps, and we had five days of gorgeous weather, which was nice for the times I wasn't sitting in a theater.

Got to see a wide range of stuff, including the workprint of THE DEEP, the reconstruction of MR ARKADIN, OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND scenes (which were some of the same scenes we've seen, but in different edits than what has commonly been viewed), the original European OTHELLO (with spoken credits, etc), VIVA ITALIA (aka PORTRAIT OF GINA), FILMING THE TRIAL, a lot of QUIXOTE material I hadn't seen, two Welles interviews with Roger Hill, and more I can't even remember right now. Met a variety of people in the Welles world, including Christopher Welles Feder, Joseph McBride, and a couple folks from here on the board. The festival produced an excellent book with one of the OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND screenplays (one of nine, as I was told), and the book also includes several critical essays of interest. I'm sure that copies will show up on eBay for silly money prices before long.

The workshops I was able to attend were all good; got to see Roger's AMBERSONS reconstruction, which also featured Joseph McBride presenting some material. Catherine Benamou was unable to attend the IT'S ALL TRUE workshop due to illness, but she sent some unseen rushes from the film, and McBride presented some compelling evidence of RKO's deliberate sabotage of Welles in South America. Finally, the DON QUIXOTE workshop featured a detailed evolution of the film by Esteve Riambau and Ciro Giorgini, and also featured an interview with Roberto Perpignani, who was an editor on THE TRIAL.

More to come tomorrow...

[maxrael]

thanks jeff! i'm sure i'm not the only one who's been checking the site over and over hoping for any morsel from Locarno!

Very much looking forward to hearing about it all it in detail!

Would love to see the book as well, i don't suppose there was any mention of selling left over copies via the web to those unable to attend?...

--------
max rael

[chrissie]

I'd like to know if there's been any clarification one way or another for certain on whether the new Arkadin goes on the Criterion release!

Otherwise, wish I could've afforded such a trip and lots of detail all round would be nice...

[Wilson]

Okay, some further details...

THE DEEP: Stefan Droessler, trying to discern Welles' intentions from the footage at hand, set the film up using a dream sequence format. He emphasized that there was no concrete proof for this structure - he was just going by the footage present. The footage was a mix of B&W and color, based simply on what was easiest to do from the materials at hand, and having nothing to do with the film itself. In other words, there was no artistic reasoning for one scene in color and another in B&W. The workprint follows a linear plotline, which most everyone is familiar with. Michael Bryant and Oja Kodar are on their honeymoon, when they see another boat. Leaving the boat is Lawrence Harvey's character, who splits with Oja when Bryant leaves to try and salvage anything of value from Harvey's boat. Harvey has told them that the other people on board are dead, which of course turns out to be untrue when Bryant arrives. Welles and Jeanne Moreau remain on board, and the ship is sinking. Bryant, being the sailor, tries to fix the situation. Welles has several amusing one liners, such as responding to Bryant's order to start working the pump with a "Sieg Heil, mein fuhrer" comment. The stuff with Harvey and Kodar is a mix of mundane and odd; Harvey is supposed to be from Florida, and has a pronounced southern accent. An annoying story flaw is Oja's repeated chances to take Harvey out, which she repeatedly fails to do.

Some shots are dubbed, some are silent; there are a good deal of closeups, and on one occasion, night shots are mixed with day. The workprint lasted about 116 minutes, and a good 30 of that could be dumped easily. This would have been akin to THE STRANGER, a short thriller that showed Welles could helm a commercial project. It appears that not much will happen with it from here on out though, as Oja has apparently put the breaks on doing anything further with it. Also learned that the shoot was not very friendly; Moreau, when asked, basically refused to comment about it.

IT'S ALL TRUE: Saw further material, rushes to be exact, for the sequence where Jacare and company arrive in Rio. Some nice footage, but nothing revelatory. More interesting was the discussion of how RKO deliberately torpedoed the film, and more explanation for Welles' decision to go. Welles, because he had gotten out of the draft, was under great pressure from Hearst and groups like the American Legion (prodded by Hearst), to brand Welles as a coward, Commie, etc for not going into the Army. So Welles felt compelled to make IAT, as his way of contributing to the war effort. Welles was supposed to have a budget of at least $1 million, but RKO cut him off long before he reached that point. Joe McBride read a phone transcript between two of RKO's execs that details the thought processes at work within the company, as well as the blatant racism at work.

MR ARKADIN: This would be the reconstruction under way, and it works quite well, though it still needs some work to finish it up. As I think has been mentioned, there aren't vast quantities of new material, it's more a question of how it's been organized. The film opens with the shot of Milly on the beach, and uses the Spanish title card, moving straight into the film. The band is now playing "Silent Night" as Van Stratten walks to Zouk's place, which I don't think worked a well as the original music, but part of that was due I think to the music not fading out as the camera pulls away down that dark corridor as Guy climbs the steps. The flashback structure is used, and there is some subjective footage within the place at end, taken from the Spanish version, in addition to a silent shot of the plane crashing. The credits with the hanging bats plays at the end, with the cast introduced via clips, as we've seen. Regarding the inclusion of this version in Criterion's DVD edition of the film, I'm not sure I'm at liberty to say what I heard, but I imagine people will be pleased.

DON QUIXOTE: More workprint material, as preserved by the Cinematheque Francaise; it didn't appear to be in much order, but there were several scenes I had not seen before, such as Sancho dancing in front of a group of clapping children, DQ and Sancho being interviewed about their trip to the moon, DQ causing sheep to "stampede," before being thrown from his horse and run over by the sheep; DQ in the outdoor bath, with "Cerveza Don Quixote" signs in the background; Sancho and DQ in the midst of modern Spain, with appaluding crowds around them; and DQ in an oxcart, with Sancho berating those who have stuck him in there. Some of this material had Welles dubbing, and some did not. Quality was pretty good.

Esteve Riambau presented a powerpoint presentation on the film, detailing its production history, beginning in 1955, up through 1972, when Gary Graver shot what was apparently the final footage made for the project, color shots done in Pamplona.

Ciro Giorgini then presented some further rushes from the film, and spoke about them. We then saw some of the Patty McCormack footage, which included her dialogue, but not Welles' as he wanted to dub himself later. This footage included OW and PM on a patio, with her reading the beginning of the book. Footage of the two of them in a carriage, and the famous movie theater scene, were also included, though the movie theater scene still lacks any sound.

ORSON WELLES TALKS WITH ROGER HILL: These two 30 minute interviews were done for Welles' planned autobiographical project ORSON WELLES SOLO. The topics covered included discussion of Todd School, Everybody's Shakespeare, Marching Song, and more. Hortense Hill appears with Roger in the second part.

FILMING THE TRIAL: Parts of this have been seen, but the entire thing is a nice look at the film, with a few added topics thrown in. The TRIAL trailer opens the film, and the deleted computer scene is included with subtitles, due to the missing audio. 82 min in length.

OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND: Saw a series of scenes, all of which had different editing than what we've seen elsewhere. They all looked pretty nice as well, despite not being taken from the negative. The scenes were prefaced with a clip taken, I assume, from the Mayles short about Welles, where he describes the concept of the film.

First scene was one I had never seen, with Hannaford, Brooks Otterlake, Charles Pister, and Charles Higgam in a car, with the two film scholars peppering Hannaford with inane questions (is the camera a phallus and so on). Hannaford is ignoring them, commenting only that he needs a drink. Otterlake, however, is happy to entertain them, while he pours Hannaford a glass of booze. It's quite a funny scene.

Next up is the screening room scene between Billy (Norman Foster) and producer Max David, which includes extra footage of the film within a film. Again, some amusing dialogue ( Max: "He looks like a girl." Billy: "They all do nowadays"). The scene was missing the end lines about Hannaford making it up as went along, for reasons I am unaware of.

The party scene was next, which had a bit I didn't recall: Juliette Rich stumbles over her words, ending in a buzzer sound on the soundtrack, like she was disqualified from a game show. There was an additional bit of footage when Hannaford is presented with his birthday cake and told to make a wish. He comments that it will "take a lot of blowing" and then asks "Where's Miss Rich?"

The car sex scene with Oja's character, John Dale, and the driver is longer, and ends with the driver trying to take Oja himself, which results in Dale and Oja being tossed out the car bare-assed, after which he follows her home.

A second birthday party scene is present, with Paul Mazursky, Henry Jaglom, and Dennis Hopper, shot in B&W. They make a variety of pompous film comments, with Jaglom's "character" berating Hannaford for his treatment of actresses.

Finally, the scene where Dale leaves the production for good. The scene in the film within the film is a sex scene between Dale and Oja set in the open on a wire box spring. The only sound is Hannaford giving direction to Oja, and mocking Dale, making frequent jokes about Dale's sexual prowess, which resulting in him walking off into the distance naked, to Hannaford's jibes.

VIVA ITALIA: aka PORTRAIT OF GINA, an early attempt at the essay film, blending still shots and interviews with Rossano Brazzi and Lollabrigida, with appearances by Vittorio De Sica and Paola Mori. I found it quite entertaining, and important as an early chapter on the road to F FOR FAKE.

CITIZEN OF AMERICA: ORSON WELLES AND THE BALLAD OF ISAAC WOODARD: This was not the actual documentary of that name, but a promo version intended to give a taste of what the actual film will be like. Hopefully, full financing will be found, as the promo reel was excellent.

OTHELLO: As mentioned this was the European release version, and the not the hack-job restoration. I haven't seen the French tape people here have mentioned, but I presume this is the same thing, albeit with the English soundtrack. I liked it more than the American cut, and was glad to see it, since we'll never see it released here, unless Beatrice learns from the studios and decides to double-dip with an expanded release.

ORSON WELLES' JEREMIAH: In the style of the readings from Moby Dick, with Welles performing a three minute reading from the Bible's Book of Jeremiah.

ORSON WELLES SELLS HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL: Jay Bushman's short film, set during the rehearsals for DR FAUSTUS. Jay told us that he's planning to mount the full play this is a part of next year in LA, with the eventual goal of making a feature film out of it. I liked the short film, which featured an actor fairly well-suited to play Welles, which is a rarity.

There were new prints of THE STRANGER, LADY FROM SHANGHAI, JANE EYRE, and JOURNEY INTO FEAR, all of which looked good. And there were/are screenings of a variety of fasincating documentaries and other materials, which I will be updating on Wellesnet itself, now that I am aware of most of them.

What else...Christopher Welles Feder brought copies of her sel-published book The Movie Director to sell, with the proceeds going to the Munich Film Museum's Welles' work. It's quite a moving work, a series of poems/dramatic monologues written both from the "movie director's" point of view, and of his family, lovers, and friends. She made it clear that this was fiction, and not to be taken as a factual portrait of Welles or anyone else involved, but it's obviously tempting to read between the lines. She is working on a memoir of her father, and hopes that this first book could get a publishing deal as well as a result. It certainly deserves one.

And I think that is about it; I can try to answer any questions, and Roger will weigh in at some point soon with his opinions and news as well.

[GM]

Fabulous run-down, Jeff. I look forward to hearing more when you get the chance. I've seen the European version of "Othello", and even though I only saw the French language version of it, I agree with you that it seems better then the American version, especially with the extra footage at the beginning.

Interesting that you mention "The Deep" scenes where Oja fails to take out Laurance Harvey's character. That makes it sound a bit like Polanski's "Knife in the Water", where the wife actually has an affair with the stowaway while her husband is away. That there was tension between Kodar and Moreau on the set is something I've heard before. I remember reading an interview with Moreau years ago where she talked briefly about "The Deep", referring to Oja as "that Kodar woman".

[colwood]

Thanks for the great job on the rundown, Jeff. Not being able to attend myself, I've been checking daily to see what happened there.

The Deep footage sounds great, sounds like the same footage that played NY and LA last year. Like you, I didn't like the scenes with Oja not taking out Harvey. I guess if she had, the movie would have taken a dramatically different turn.

The Other Side of the Wind scenes are great. I always liked the one with Dale and Oja having sex to the point that Hannaford chases Dale off. Also, the party scene you mention with Susan Strassberg being stopped like on a game show, I think this may be the version that was used in the German One Man Band.

Maybe it's just me, but with regards to TOSOTW, DQ, The Deep, even Mr. Arkadin, I'd love to see reconstructions, which it seems are close to being done or finished. But since Welles true intentions may never be known on any of these, I think a more appropriate course might be a series of documentaries a la It's All True. I mean setting up The Deep as a dream based on the footage but without any evidence that this was what Welles wanted, I don't know, but to me it just does not sound right.

Great news on Othello. When I first read about the French version two years ago, I dismissed it. But having seen it, it really is a better version. If the European cut and the French are the same, that's great that there is an english track to go with the french edit. If only this version could get a dvd release.

BTW if I'm reading you correctly, that's great news on criterion and arkadin. If only we could get a release date now.

[Roger Ryan]

The exciting discovery Jeff mentioned in the above post was the screening of an alternate version of "Journey Into Fear"... which was not promoted as such since no one apparently recognized it as different from the one released by R.K.O. in '42! Please read my longer post concerning this discovery on the "Film Discussion" page...

Because he's modest, Jeff didn't mention that he handled the opening Welles workshop detailing the man's radio career entirely on his own. Some very entertaining clips were played including a humorous one featuring Charles Laughton that I had not heard before. I thought Jeff's coverage of "War Of The Worlds" broadcast was especially good.

I'll post more later, but agree with Jeff on all of his assessments, especially concering the earlier European version of "Othello" - the scenes set in Venice work so much better than in the later U.S. version which was purportedly used for the '93 "restoration"; I can hardly believe that Welles truncated these scenes himself.

[chrissie]

I'm expecting a copy of the French Othello soon, and now an English language print! Something else to fantasise about. Oh, maybe worth mentioning: the French-released DVD isn't this print. It goes really cheap, so it was worth taking a chance, but in fact it's just a surprisingly ropey copy of Beatrice's contrivance. (I read that Jonathan Rosenbaum recently bought it wondering the same thing, so that makes me feel less stupid. )

Re. Beatrice, has anyone ever talked to her about this? Does she understand what the problems are with it? She may be a Luddite and working from the honest impression that it's an improvement, but if someone could persuade her that it isn't...

Another thing: given Welles' own comments on sync problems (i.e. Arena), which don't appear to be evident on the Criterion release, did they in fact work on restoring a faulty print anyway? That would render 50% of the work done more or less redundant, regardless of the quality of the result.

I guess the best angle with Beatrice, though, is if someone could sell her on the virtues of a completely different cut with extra footage -- that the version she's put out is 'incomplete,' therefore not representative of her father's original intent in a very self-evident way.

[Store Hadji]

Superb recap, Jeff. Thanks!

Chrissie, it's always been my guess (but only that) that the only release print of Othello which Beatrice could use (for some strange legal distribution reasons probably) was the one which did have terribly garbled sound (nothing like the superb laserdisc from years ago.) Her restoration is certainly an upgrade from that, as it was unreleasable in that form (its original American release version, no less. Hearst minions again?) The Beatrice version is, of course, greatly inferior to the old laserdisc and probably the French and Locarno versions, but if you want to promote your father's work and make a buck off your inheritance, I guess that's what you do.

Oh, Jeff, question: The first scenes from DQ you describe sound like they're all from the infamous Franco version, did they differ somehow?

I like good news regarding Arkadin and Criterion. I love the F for Fake set. I couldn't believe someone had dug up Elmyr's "friend" Mark. And Cliff Irving kept that amazing charisma right til his end. If Arkadin is anywhere near as good, I'm thrilled. Any sites with info on content and extras?

[Kevin Loy]

And Cliff Irving kept that amazing charisma right til his end. If Arkadin is anywhere near as good, I'm thrilled. Any sites with info on content and extras?

"Til his end"? Did Clifford Irving pass?

Criterion's site always lists content/extras prior to a disc's release. The problem, of course, is that they don't put information about a disc on their site until about two months in advance:
http://www.criterionco.com

[Store Hadji]

I thought he had passed. I don't know why. I'm checking the web for that status now. deadoraliveinfo.com lists him as alive, which is a good thing.

Terrificbooks.com is selling his legendary Autobiography of Howard Hughes, first edition hardcover $100.

[chrissie]

Yeah, the Arkadin release sounds like it might be a fantastic release.

I was really pleased with F for Fake -- my only contact with it being that trashy Brazil version (apart from this memory I have of it being on TV in the mid-'80s), which didn't do wonders for my opinion of it. I liked it more as soon as I watched it all through again. (I do, however, still have some criticisms on its structure, but being a very poor critic I've not made any effort to write 'em down.)

Unofficiality aside, how well-researched and accurate does Cliff's bio appear to be? Anyone read it?

Seeing Fake again coincided almost with our viewing The Aviator recently, so the topic of H. Hughes seems to be in my head a bit. So, one's thoughts go to 'was there really no sightings of him after 1957?' and the Web spits this item up:



Which is kinda on-topic (for FfF), though impertinent to Locarno, mostly: apologies. It purports to be circa 1972. Good match on nose but upper lip seems too long, gravity or not, and the hairline around the temples actually looks less 'wide' than the younger pic, which points to a possible F for Fake. Opinions?

Othello: is there really a legal situation with different prints of the film? Anyone have definitive info on this? She was able to nix Criterion's release, which suggests absolute ownership to me rather than ownership of a specific version.

[Tony]

Chrissie:

Look at the ears: completely different angle.

As for ownership of Othello, you should check the archives, as we've had many posts on this. The lowdown seems to be that Beatrice owns everything up to .. well, I'm not sure; maybe Chimes, or Immortal. And Oja owns everything past that- BUT: it seems Bea is contesting Oja's owning anything. And in addition to this, Bea contests everything put out to do with OW; her reason given is "protecting Dad's reputation", but as has been often said around here, she has singlehandedly frozen almost the entire OW cottage industry these last 10 years, because she launches frivolous law suits, etc., and people pay her just to go away. One prof out west has a whole book ready to go on OW's writings, which he rearched for years, and a contract with U. of Cal. Press, BUT: Bea wants so much money for permission to print, that the prof has just put it on hold, as he wouldn't make a dime. She seems to be "not very nice". She stopped the premiere of the re-edited TOE at a film festival, because of some gripe, and made them remove the commentaries and documentary, even though she has absolutely no legal hold on that work at all: she has a sharp yet slimy lawyer, and she makes her living off her Dad in this cannibalistic way. It's sad, and terrible for her Dad's work, the worst irony of all.

Jamie, Jeff and others can probably tell you more, and don;t forget to check the archives.

[Tony]

Oh yeah: this one really gets to me: When they "reconstructed" Othello back in 92, they completely redid the music, and had some guy transcribe it from ear. Of course, they could never recreate OW's magical audio mysteries (they redid the sound effects too), but here's the really weird thing: they never asked the composer (Lavaningo) if he had the scores: in fact, they never contacted him at all. And his children told the press they were thinking of suing, as the butchered score was "not their father's music". Bea just has a chip missing, just like Brad Pit.

[R Kadin]

We're sort of veering off-topic, here, but one guess I might hazard is that it didn't escape Beatrice's notice that something like an Othello reconstruction could build her some credibility before the courts as an earnest protector of her father's legacy. Such credibility could prove most advantageous to her in her various lawsuits.

With such an intention in mind, how much might the quality of the final product have truly mattered and how little hesitation might one have had about tinkering around with what was one of Welles' most highly-praised works? It was a legendary title, one to which she had undisputed rights of access and so little seen that its claim to being a real technical improvement over the original would have been hard to challenge - except, perhaps, by an inconsequential minority. The only significant downside would be suffering a financial loss on the deal, a risk that one generally minimizes by keeping costs as low as absolutely possible.

But that is just so much speculation on my part (and honestly, what do I know about why anybody does anything?). Still, as a theory, it could explain why we got the restoration we did - a theory that requires no "missing chip" but, instead, the mind of a cool and calculating strategist working more than one agenda at a time.