Jaded, a late 1980s cinematic effort by Orson Welles’ partner, Oja Kodar, has never been released on home video and remains unseen by most Wellesians.
The movie marked Kodar’s debut as a feature film director. The 93-minute drama was an Olpal Production – a moniker derived from Kodar’s birth name, Olga Palinkas.
Filmed in Los Angeles in the spring of 1988, Jaded centered on an abused wife, who leaves home and seeks refuge at her cousin’s place, surrounded by a strange assortment of characters, including an equally abused transsexual. Jaded starred Lee Benton, best known for her role as Jenny in the television series The New Mike Hammer and a pair of associated made-for-TV movies.
The film employed crew members who worked alongside Welles and Kodar during The Other Side of the Wind shoot in the early 1970s. Gary Graver, Welles’ loyal cameraman, served as cinematographer and a producer. R. Michael Stringer worked as key grip and Kevin Cloud Brechner had an on-screen role. Alexander “Sasha” Welles, Kodar’s nephew, composed the film’s score and served as sound mixer.
Jaded had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 8, 1989, but was subsequently saddled with poor reviews and limited distribution.
Variety critic David Stratton noted that “Jaded harks back to the Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey school of filmmaking” before adding “this drama about a bunch of lowlife characters living at Venice Beach, Calif., is skillfully structured but repetitive and ugly, and makes a disappointing debut for writer-director Oja Kodar.”
Wellesnet founder Jeff Wilson detailed the plot and panned the film in a post on the website’s Message Board. Wilson wrote, in part, “I had the questionable privilege of watching Jaded, which as many of you may know includes a brief snippet of footage from Welles’ Merchant of Venice. I’m sorry to say that the film is just awful, with a ludicrous script and some truly terrible performances… Some of it is entertaining in a car crash sort of way, but it really is a mess, and I’m sorry about that, because I did want to like it. But it’s simply a poor, poor movie.”
Despite Jaded‘s poor reception, Kodar would return to the director’s chair in 1993 for the Croatian wartime film Vrijeme za… (A Time for…), which garnered better reviews. Two years later, she would co-direct the documentary Orson Welles: The One-Man Band.
Jaded has remained out of sight for decades. The nearly two-minute preview trailer, which heavily promotes Kodar’s connection to Welles, includes glimpses from The Merchant of Venice. The trailer is available on YouTube and other online sites.
Update: A faithful Wellesnet reader has pointed out that at seven-minute sequence from Jaded has been available on Vimeo. It is posted below.
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