According to Jonathan Rosenbaum,�a book�collecting his articles and pieces on Welles should be out next summer.� Additionally, he notes that a very important French book on Welles published by Cahiers du Cinema�should be out�this November entitled “Orson Welles au Travail” (Orson Welles at Work), with an English edition�possibly forthcoming next year; the authors are Francois Thomas and Jean-Pierre Berthome, whom�he regards as the two best current French Welles scholars.�And finally,�Mr. Rosenbaum affirms that Catherine Benamou’s long-awaited book on Welles’s Brazil experience will also be out next year, in the spring; this will be an important publication as well, since Ms. Benamou is quite probably the greatest living expert on “It’s All True”.
Here’s an excerpt from a�short piece Prof. Benamou wrote on “It’s All True” for the Brazilian documentary film festival called “It’s All True” in 2002:
“IT’S ALL TRUE”
An Event Remembered, An Unfinished Film
“…The material filmed in Mexico and Brazil has never been entirely edited by Welles – who wanted to include samba recordings originally composed by Dorival Caymmi, Herivelto Martins, Grande Otelo, and Pixinguinha, and sung by Emilinha Borba, Orlando Silva, Linda Batista, and Chucho Mart�nez Gil. For the episode “Jangadeiros,” the soundtrack of his dreams would comprise Heitor Villa Lobos, and for “My Friend Bonito,” the Mexican modern composer Carlos Ch�vez. The soundless rough copy of the movie, lacking a final script of the Brazilian episodes, has hindered the RKO specialists’ task of deciphering the plot and the cultural importance of what had been filmed.
After Welles’s departure to Europe in 1947, his studio practically cannibalized his scripts and much of his material recorded on film in movies such as “Pan-American” (John H. Auer, 1945), “Notorious” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946), and “The Brave One” (Irving Rapper, 1956), among others. As a counterpoint, Welles managed to rescue some of his aesthetic and thematic ideas through a series of quotations made in the following movies: “The Lady from Shangai” (1948), “Macbeth” (1948), “Othello” (1952), “Mr. Arkadin” (or “Confidential Report”, 1955), “Touch of Evil” (1958), and “Chimes at Midnight” (1965). However, these quotations were ignored for many years, probably due to the refusal of Welles’s critics in Europe and in the U.S. to recognize the existence of a project which, although canceled during its execution, was still almost entirely in the memory and imagination of its Brazilians, Mexicans, and Americans creators.
The film’s cultural legacy lives on the Portuguese and Spanish languages. During the years when the material was vanishing, it lives on essays written by critics Tom�s P�rez Turrent and Emilio Garc�a Riera ( M�xico), Ant�nio Paranagu�, Paulo Emilio Salles Gomes e Vin�cius de Moraes (Brazil), and in the movies by Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Glauber Rocha at the dawning of the Cinema Novo. After its recovery, this legacy has become visible in cinematic homages, like the trilogy by Rog�rio Sganzerla.
Besides some excerpts, which can be cherished in a copy that this Festival will screen, there is a larger text and story to be rescued from the cans stocked up in the UCLA collection and yet labeled “It’s All True.” They are 68,145 feet corresponding to “My Friend Bonito”; 32,000 feet in black-and- white, and 3,000 feet in Technicolor corresponding to “Carnival,” and 48,500 feet in black-and-white of “Jangadeiros.” This material still needs to be preserved – a process that depends not only on the recollection of the events and of such a peculiar project in the continent’s history, but also entails the public appreciation of those countries involved in its production. Welles and his collaborators’ innovative efforts in a moment of shared artistic inspiration deserve all our support.”
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Tony