Oja Kodar made her first public comments about Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind since signing the deal with Netflix that allowed its long-awaited completion to begin.
Speaking with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Kodar said Friday that she has opted not to see the finished film until its official release. (It will premiere at the Venice Film Festival and later be streamed worldwide by Netflix on November 2.)
Kodar expressed mixed feelings about the movie’s completion, which has been shepherded by producers Frank Marshall and Filip Jan Rymsza.
“For some time I thought it would be good to make a feature length documentary about all the problems struck by The Other Side of the Wind, but now I’m on the fence; maybe it’s better that the film has been made,” she said. “In any case, I don’t want to see it before the public does.”
It was unclear from her brief comments if she had seen any of the footage during the months of post-production.
Kodar co-starred and is credited as co-writer of the film. Welles, her longtime companion, bequeathed his partial ownership of the film to her.
During the Welles centennial three years ago, Kodar avoided talking about the movie as negotiations with producers dragged on.
Asked about The Other Side of the Wind at a University of Michigan symposium in June 2015, she said simply, “I don’t believe the film will ever come out.”
However, Kodar finally reached an agreement with producers and Netflix in late February 2017. The film’s negative was flown from Paris to Los Angeles three weeks later.
After 4K scanning and editing, a rough cut was assembled in January 2018. Post-production work and scoring by Michel Legrand (F For Fake) was completed three months later.
The Other Side of the Wind was completed by Academy Award winning editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker) and four-time Oscar winning sound mixer Scott Millan (Apollo 13, Gladiator).
Peter Bogdanovich, who was tasked by Welles to complete the movie in the event of his death; and the late filmmaker’s youngest daughter, Beatrice Welles, were among the executive producers.
In addition to the completed movie, Netflix has produced a feature length documentary on the film’s troubled production. They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is directed by Oscar winner Morgan Neville.
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