Orson Welles

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND: Welles’ brilliance from beyond the grave

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John Huston in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind, finally completed and released thirty years after Welles’ death, centers on the fictional cinema auteur Jake Hannaford (John Huston).  Not unlike Welles himself, Hannaford is widely recognized as brilliant and self-indulgent, as both a genius and impossible to work with, having a lifetime of relationship carnage strewn behind him.  For the zillionth time, Hannaford is broke and needs to find money to finish his latest movie.  He holds a screening party in hopes of snaring financial support from his now more successful protégé Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich).

The backdrop is the sort of 1970s Hollywood hedonism where the party includes naked models, midgets (“The midgets broke into the wine cellar and got their tiny hands on the fireworks”) and female manikins for target practice. And, oh, they invited the mid-70s version of Dennis Hopper.

Peter Bogdanovich and John Huston in Orson Wells’ THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Hannaford is surrounded by his own posse of collaborators and hangers-on, and a cynical bunch they are.  That rampant and matter-of-fact cynicism is very witty, and things are funniest when things go badly – the money pitch is prematurely exposed and the screening of an art film has to be re-located to a drive-in!

John Huston’s performance is wonderful, especially when Hannaford is not suffering fools gladly.  Hannaford’s team of scoundrels is played by Mercedes McCambridge, Tonio Selwirt as the Baron, Gregory Sierra, Paul Stewart and Edmond O’Brien, with Lili Palmer as an ex and Susan Strasberg as a provocateur of the press.  In fact, virtually every actor delivers an excellent performance, except for Cameron Mitchell with his odd, apparently Southern, accent.

I was surprised by brilliance of Norman Foster’s performance as Hannaford’s gofer Billy, loyal, weary and crapped-upon; Foster is known for 57 screen credits as a director, but he also acted, supporting Walter Huston in one of the first talkies in 1929.

Norman Foster in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

And then there’s the surreal film-within-the-film – the unfinished Hannaford movie that is being screened at the party.  The star of that film is Welles’ real-life girlfriend, the Croatian actress Oja Kodar, who co-wrote The Other Side of the Wind.  Kodar’s character strides around empty vistas naked and dominates the pretty boy leading man (Robert Random).  This film is pure eye candy, with the most vivid colors and the most dramatic camera angles.  Kodar’s almost silent performance is exceptional – she has the gaze of a predator, always direct and in command. She looks great naked, and her sex scene in a moving car is exceptionally erotic.

Some critical comment suggests that the film-within-the-film is Welles’ satire on European art films. But, to my eyes, it’s consistent with a good art film of the 1970s, too.  Either way, you can’t stop watching it.

Oja Kodar in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

The Other Side of the Wind has been famous for decades as a Lost Film (and now as a recovered film).  But it’s best viewed without that baggage – by just absorbing what’s up on the screen.

Not everyone will like The Other Side of the Wind, especially those who like their movies to be linear.   Is The Other Side of the Wind a mess, as some have described it?   I don’t think so because the party scenes are SUPPOSED to be frenetic – Welles dips deeply into chaos and ambivalence and obscurity with intentionality.

The Other Side of the Wind is Welles’ unsparing glimpse into his own personality – a personality that self-sabotages his art and cruelly mistreats those closest and most necessary to him.  The question he seems to ask himself is whether the self-created tumult is a REQUISITE for his art or an IMPEDIMENT?

The Other Side of the Wind is available for streaming on Netflix. It is accompanied by two documentaries on Orson Welles and his final movie: They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead and A Final Cut for Orson: Forty Years in the Making, also both available to stream on Netflix.

In each of four decades Orson Welles produced unforgettable works of art. Citizen Kane is an undisputed masterpiece, and I consider A Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight to be great movies. The Other Side of the Wind is in that class. Thirty-three years after it’s creator’s death, it’s one of the best movies of 2018.

or decades

Two documentary companions to THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

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John Huston, Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich in THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD

The release of The Other Side of the Wind is accompanied by two documentaries on Orson Welles and his final movie: They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead and A Final Cut for Orson: Forty Years in the Making. And they’re both available to stream on Netflix.

They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is a feature-length documentary. We hear from the two guys involved with The Other Side of the Wind during its forty-year journey. Producer Frank Marshall was one of the four-person crew during the four years of shooting, along with Orson Welles, co-writer and star Oja Kodar and cinematographer Gary Graver.  Director Peter Bogdanovich began acting in one role and shifted to another during the shoot – and then played a pivotal off-camera role in the film’s completion.

Here’s what They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead helps you understand about The Other Side of the Wind:

  • How essential director of photography Gary Graver was to the project, one of the few non-porn flicks in his filmography.
  • Why impressionist Rich Little oddly shows up in the party in The Other Side of the Wind and what was his original role in the film;
  • How Welles treated his confidant Bogdanovich in real life, which gives a major insight into The Other Side of the Wind.
  • What The Other Side of the Wind insiders think is the intended meaning of the movie.
  • Just how charismatic and witty Welles was in real life – even more quick and refreshing than on his talk show appearances.

You can stream They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead on Netflix.

A Final Cut for Orson: Forty Years in the Making is a 38-minute “Making Of’ doc about the restoration and completion of The Other Side of the Wind. It’s a procedural that offers insight into all aspects of the final cut, including the editing and the music. A highlight is actor Danny Huston describing the looping of his father’s voice.  The story of rescuing the actual cans of film is a helluva detective story in itself.

Netflix offers A Final Cut for Orson: Forty Years in the Making, but makes it unnecessarily tough to find. Instead of using the Netflix SEARCH feature, go right to The Other Side of the Wind and scroll down and click on MORE TRAILERS.

Frank Marshall, Oja Kodar and Orson Welles in A FINAL CUT FOR ORSON: FORTY YEARS IN THE MAKING

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT: Orson Welles’ Shakespearean masterpiece

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Orson Welles and Keith Baxter in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Orson Welles and Keith Baxter in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

The great auteur Orson Welles loved Shakespeare and made three Shakespearean movies, of which Chimes at Midnight is the masterpiece.  Welles’ genius was in braiding together parts of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, some Richard III, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor into a cohesive story of what he called “betrayal of friendship”.  You can watch Chimes at Midnight Wednesday on Turner Classic Movies.

Welles himself vividly plays the recurring Shakespearean character of Sir John Falstaff.
Falstaff is a rogue knight, a shameless braggart and robustly debauched.

The young Prince Hal (Keith Baxter), the future King Henry V, is sowing his wild oats, and he is in the market for a dissolute companion. To the disgust of Hal’s severe father, King Henry IV (John Gielgud), Hal and Falstaff are carousing buddies, their fast friendship forged in taverns with plentiful spirits and women of easy virtue. (Falstaff’s wench is played by Jeanne Moreau.)

Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

There’s plenty of palace intrigue interwoven with the comic pranks and partying by the rascal Hal and his favorite scoundrel Falstaff. Falstaff even does mocking impressions of Henry IV.

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Chimes at Midnight features an amazing 12-minute battle scene beginning at the 55 minute mark. Somehow Welles was able to afford 150 extras and was able to use them and his camera to create a battle scene as effective as the ones in Braveheart and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. Welles doesn’t pull any punches in depicting the brutality of medieval warfare. The initial horse charge is followed by the chaos of hacking and clubbing. The combatants become a roiling cauldron of lethal mayhem. In all the fog of war, it’s still easy to follow Falstaff in his size XXXL armor. Welles’ Falstaff believes that honor is merely ornamental and not worth sacrificing one’s life for. No hero, Falstaff.

CHIMES
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Finally, Henry IV dies and Prince Hal will ascend the throne. Falstaff thinks he’s won the lottery, but a king can’t afford sloppy bad habits. Hal rejects vanity, of which Falstaff is the signal emblem. Hal rebuffs Falstaff with Presume not that I am the thing I was and banishes him. Falstaff is stunned – but then proud of his mentee. Defeated in the end, Welles’ eyes show us his pride and simultaneous disappointment. This high point of Chimes at Midnight is also probably Welles’ best moment as an actor.

The broad, raucous comedy in Chimes at Midnight shows us what it must have like to see Shakespeare’s words performed in the rowdy Globe Theater. Shot in Spain with authentic medieval settings, Chimes at Midnight looks very good for a low, low-budget film. It is narrated by Ralph Richardson.

CHIMES
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

This is a brilliant film, and it’s high on my list of Best Shakespeare Movies.

Chimes at Midnight was extremely hard to find until very recently, except for a bootleg on YouTube and a 2015 DVD released in the UK.  It’s still not available to rent on DVD.  Fortunately, Chimes at Midnight has become available to stream on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and FilmStruck.  And, of course, it plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies where it will be featured on January 17.

CHIMES
Orson Welles in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

Best Shakespeare Movies

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After suggesting Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet for Valentine’s Day and commenting on the current release Coriolanus, I decided to make a list of Best Shakespeare Movies.  You may be surprised at who makes my list – and who doesn’t.

Filmmakers have advantages not available to Shakespeare.  They can depict realistic combat in the battle scenes.  They can add sex and nudity to romance.  And they can enhance  Macbeth‘s witches and visions with trippy special effects.

The actor and director Kenneth Branagh is the best modern interpreter of Shakespeare (and shows up on this list three times).   Branagh gives us a Henry V that is not just a Dead White Guy, but a young and impulsive king, fueled more by personal ambition and testosterone than national interest.  Here is Branagh’s charismatic St. Crispin’s Day speech from his Henry V.