Unfinished films - Links of interest

[Harvey Chartrand]

In the mid-seventies, Welles was set to star in a film version of Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man. I am not sure if Welles had a hand in writing the screenplay.

Written in 1857, The Confidence-Man, Melville's last novel, was a harsh satire of American life set on a Mississippi River steamboat.

The film would have been directed by Jonathan Demme.

Anybody know anything about this project that, sadly, was not meant to be?

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

k2k magazine, i think, interviewing Beverly Gray.

"Beverly Gray: I had actually participated in some of that fake publicity and thought it was really amusing. I was told, early on, to go out and find... invent some project that sounded good and they'd put it in the trades. So, with my literary background, I came up with - Orson Welles was going to star for Roger Corman in Melville's "The Confidence Man." This was duly published in the trades. I have a copy of it. It was pretty neat, especially because I knew that this was an absolutely unfilmable book. There was no possible way they could make it into a movie. You couldn't make any kind of movie out of that book."

well, harvey, don't know what to tell ya. the people just don't say too much about anything anymore

bye now!

[Harvey Chartrand]

I was conned by a fake news item about a Confidence Man!
I wonder if Orson was in on the joke.

[MartynH]

Well I really feel it's time to put the cards on the table. These films are never going to come out are they? The only one that has is Quixote and that was not so good. To be honest this is 75% of the reason why I view the Wellesnet site. I have kept up hope all these years but is there anybody that can be postive about these projects now?

[Roger Ryan]

Part of the Munich Filmmuseum's arrangement with Oja Kodar is to present retrospectives of the unfinished Welles material at regular periodic intervals, of which the Harvard presentation was the latest (I believe the screenings are required to take place at least once every three years - Stefan Droessler has actually organized more screenings than that during the past five or six years). So, in effect, the retrospectives are the way to view this "lost" Welles work.

I share your disappointment that TOSOTW seems incapable of moving forward, but there have been some notable Welles projects that have come to fruition over the last few years. Certainly, the three-disc TOUCH OF EVIL set goes a long way in correcting past injustices. I also consider the Criterion release of MR. ARKADIN to be a major breakthrough (especially the "Comprehensive Version" of the film first presented by Mr. Droessler at various retrospectives which paved the way for its official release). Also, much of the footage from Welles' unfinished work has been released as part of the "One Man Band" documentary available on Criterion's F FOR FAKE DVD.

Personally, I would like to own the Munich Filmmuseum's edit of THE DREAMERS which is quite lovely and still think the TOSOTW project could be tackled (but would probably require abandoning the incessant "quick cut" approach and minimize the "film-within-the-film" footage in order to find the actual story being told). THE DEEP never struck me as all that good. With a lot of work on the audio it could be finished, but even with the best of intentions, the final result would probably still be more disappointing than any other Welles product (apart from Franco's DON QUIXOTE, of course - nothing is more disasterous than that!).

But that is no reason to give up hope. I still think that someday the original European cut of OTHELLO will be widely available (perhaps with FILMING OTHELLO as a bonus feature) as well as a decent looking print of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. The same could be true of THE IMMORTAL STORY.

We're lucky to have what we have. At one point, KANE was in danger of being destroyed before release. Had that happened, I doubt we would have had nearly as many Welles' films to view, appreciate and discuss.

[Glenn Anders]

Roger: I subscribe to your observations.

In fact, your note that "the retrospectives are the way to view this "lost" Welles work" suddenly makes clear a puzzlement I have had in viewing some of Stefan Droessler's generous private showings of Welles' material. Droessler is an archivist, and his first duty is to preserve what exists. He fulfills his responsibility with care and sensitivity, always thinking of how how to keep the various footage as Welles might have wanted them.

We can only hope that another miracle or two like the rescue of CITIZEN KANE or TOUCH OF EVIL remain to be performed.

Glenn

[Wellesnet]

In 1986, the year after Welles's death, Jonathon Rosenbaum published this article for Sight and Sound magazine. He has republished it in two parts recently at his own website, with some updates:

Part1:
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1986/0 ... part-1-tk/

Part 2:
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1986/0 ... ry-part-2/

[Wellesnet]

http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2015/11/unk ... amers.html

From blogger Joe Bendel of JBSpins:

When in Split, Croatia, drop by the Joker Center shopping mall to see Oja Kodar’s sculpture of her longtime life-partner, Orson Welles. In a cinematic sense, Welles also put his collaborator and muse on pedestal in The Dreamers, his oblique and of course unfinished adaptation of two Isak Dinesen short stories, which screened last night at MoMA as part of the 2015 To Save and Project International Festival of Preservation’s Unseen Welles sidebar.

Among the program of maddeningly incomplete Wellesiana, The Dreamers best stands alone as a discrete film in its present state. That said, Welles’ original trailer for F for Fake further advances the docu-hybrid’s meta jokes, while the extended teaser for The Deep ought to make Welles fans drool for the work-print screening on Sunday. Unfortunately, the work-print screening of The Other Side of the Wind scenes edited by Welles are distractingly rough and the events they depict—a film shoot jeopardized by the abrupt departure of its star—are spookily prescient of the fate that would befall the still unfinished film.

While still somewhat fragmentary, The Dreamers manages to end on a note that roughly approximates closure. It is a deceptively simple, almost confessional film, focusing first on Welles playing a 19th Century trader obsessed with the immortal Italian diva Pellegrina Leoni, whom Kodar then portrays in more recent times. In their interpretation, she becomes sort of a Flying Dutchman Norma Desmond. Although Welles and Kodar pitched the film to number of big name stars, he clearly takes pleasure from Kodar’s close-ups.

The Dreamers is a talky film, but it is also eerily intimate. Frankly, the Borgesian nature of the title story makes it a hugely ambitious work to tackle, but even after all his set-backs, Orson Welles was still all about thinking big. While it lacks the power and dazzle of The Merchant of Venice, The Dreamers is still worth seeing, especially to get a glimpse of the exotic couple’s Los Angeles home. Any scrap of Welles is recommended in principle, but The Deep looks like a can’t-miss when the Unseen Welles sidebar continues this weekend at MoMA.

[A Sled in Flames]

I was also at the screening. The clips from "The Dreamers" were certainly one of the high points of the night. Welles is wonderful in a role similar to the ones he mastered throughout his film career, starting with Kane-- the old man, marching on in the face of regrets. Though what exists is admittedly all exposition, it is beautifully done!

Welles's character, explaining his relationship with the immortal opera singer, is a fantastic creation of Welles the actor. He knows that his beloved will never fully reciprocate, yet he pines after her even after she has already ascended into legend.

I really wish that the movie has been filmed. I'd have loved to see Welles's take on romantic obsession, perhaps his Vertigo to speak, probably not.

That being said, what's filmed is sadly nothing more then proof of concept. It's very evident that it was shot in an (admittedly large) house. The cinematography is pretty basic, consisting of close-ups and not representative of Welles's usual creativity. Almost like a home movie of sorts but still worth watch...

[Wellesnet]

Gold Ninja Video is releasing THE OTHER SIDE OF GARY GRAVER a Blu-ray of rare works by Orson Welles’ loyal cinematographer. It includes Graver’s first directorial effort, The Embracers; And When She Was Bad; and footage from Welles’ Filming The Trial
https://www.wellesnet.com/other-side-gary-graver/