By MIKE TEAL
Orson Welles’ longtime companion Oja Kodar made a rare appearance at Welles’ adopted hometown of Woodstock, Illinois, on May 9 as part of the town’s month-long salute to Welles.
Accompanied by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kodar, who resides in an isolated Croatian village with little Internet infrastructure, noted she rarely goes online so she depends on others to keep her informed about what’s going.
Charming and friendly, Kodar told some wonderful stories for the crowd of 150 at the Off the Rails restaurant near the town square.
Among the revelations and anecdotes:
- Welles and his brother Richard rarely saw each other, but exchanged letters on a fairly regular basis. She said Richard had a “flowery” method of writing that amused his brother. “I have, during the holiday festivities, contracted gonorrhea”, he once wrote.
- Her story about Welles hiring Gary Graver differs somewhat from Graver’s account. Contrary to Welles’s statement that Graver was only the second cameraman (after Gregg Toland) to offer his services, she said Welles regularly received lots of offers from young camermen offering their services. But because they had time to kill after the collapse of the “Midnight Plus One” film project, they decided to give Graver an interview. He charmed them sufficiently that Welles hired him. MIDNIGHT PLUS ONE by Gavin Lyall was a book that Welles liked a lot and wanted to film. Burt Schneider and Bob Rafelson were going to produce, with Robert Mitchum and Jack Nicholson playing the leads. Mitchum turned the part down, which killed it.
- Welles also liked Paul Theroux’s ST. JACK, and felt betrayed when Bogdanovich offered him the chance to direct a film of it, and then wound up directing the film himself.
- Chimes at Midnight is her favorite of the films Welles completed before their relationship. She wants above all for people to understand how hard Welles tried to complete his films. She loved him dearly and still misses him.
- She said that she was in Croatia when Welles died, and that her nephew Sasha is the one who found his body. Four days after Welles’s death, she received a letter from Welles saying, “Henry is killing me”, apparently referring to the secret taping of the lunches.She said his death was almost a blessing though, because he was in so much pain, from diabetes, heart problems, and kidney disease. He had a special machine to extract water from his legs, as they were so swollen.
- The Deep was not finished because Jeanne Moreau refused to dub her lines. It had nothing to do with Lawrence Harvey’s death. Jeanne Moreau and Welles apparently had had a romantic relationship because Moreau was very jealous of Kodar on the set of The Deep. “You’re going to do the same thing to me that Antonioni did with Monica Vitti!” she screamed at Welles. Welles’s lawyer, Arnold Weissberger, advised Welles to sue Moreau for breach of contract, but Welles did not want to do that as he still considered her a friend. Later, when they tried to track down the negative of the film, they were told by the warehouse that it had been claimed and taken by another company. When they tried to trace this company, they found that it had gone out of business. And that was the end of The Deep negative.
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Talking to The Other Side of the Wind star John Huston was like going to confession. The devilishly charming actor-director was like an “unfrocked priest” and when you talked to him you had a strange urge to confess.
- When she first came to Los Angeles with Orson, he hired a man to drive her around town. While driving her, he viciously insulted a native American man who got in his way. Furious, Kodar refused to let him drive her anymore and got out. She became very curious about the native American man and later wrote a short story about the incident, calling it, “The Other Side of the Wind”. She also says that Orson reminded her of a force of nature, like the wind. John Huston also seemed the same way to her, as does the character of Jake Hannaford. She misses Huston too and said he had a devilish charm.
Kodar also spoke about Welles’s fondness for Woodstock and his long friendship with Roger Hill, her early years with Orson, and touched on the sometimes shabby treatment he received in Hollywood and elsewhere.
She spoke on several other subjects as well. All in all, a very enjoyable evening.
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Special thanks to Kathleen Spaltro and Peter Gill.
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