Orson Welles

[TM2YC]

Awesome news... Criterion is releasing The Magnificent Ambersons on Blu-Ray on 11/20! [Previously the only HD version was on digital release - i.e. iTunes.]...

Per their website:
SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Two audio commentaries, featuring film scholars Robert Carringer and James Naremore and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
• New interviews with scholars Simon Callow and Joseph McBride
• New video essay on the film’s cinematographers by scholar François Thomas
• New video essay on the film’s score by scholar Christopher Husted
• Welles on The Dick Cavett Show in 1970
• Segment from Pampered Youth, a 1925 silent adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons
• Audio from a 1979 AFI symposium on Welles
• Two Mercury Theatre radio plays: Seventeen (1938), an adaptation of another Booth Tarkington novel by Welles, and The Magnificent Ambersons (1939)
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Molly Haskell and (Blu-ray only) essays by authors and critics Luc Sante, Geoffrey O’Brien, Farran Smith Nehme, and Jonathan Lethem, and excerpts from an unfinished 1982 memoir by Welles

[Thanks to thedigitalbits.com for the heads up]

This should look amazing in 1080p. It looked great on DVD and on the big screen. IIRC this only leaves 'Mr. Arkadin' in Welles' filmography to not have a full HD release (even that has a couple of shonky blu-rays of the short cut I believe). What a change from 5-10-years ago, when hardly any of his films could be found in a quality that rose above VHS .

Though he's probably asleep right now, I hope this inspires TM2YC to re-construct the original film with some sort of awesome video montage and various text/audio!

Absolutely. I've always got that project percolating in the back of my mind.

By the way, Netflix (in the UK at least) has added a couple of Welles titles recently. I assume in the build up to them unavailing his new/last movie.

 

[Plissken1138]

The Other Side of the Wind trailer landed.

 

[TM2YC]

^ That looks freakin' amazing! Just over a month to wait.

Only the "in select theaters" bit at the end bummed be out a little because that probably means "in as few theaters as we can possibly get away with and certainly nowhere outside of the US (ideally just Los Angeles)" .

A new poster too:

For Red Letter Media fans, this will also be Cameron Mitchell's "final" film. I wonder where it will sit on the graph:

 

[Zamros]

aaaaAAAAAaaahhhh! Theeee.... Wellesss movies. have always been celebrated for their excellence. There is a new movie with Cameron Mitchell, inspired by that same Welles excellence, it's fermented in his bowels and like the best Welles movies it's vintage dated...

 

[Canon Editor]

I am at the Venice Film Festival, where Orson Welles’ last film has been presented internationally.  Editor Bob Murawski (Army of Darkness, Spider-Man Trilogy, The Hurt Locker) has received an award for editing, and it is all deserved.  The amount of subtext, themes, richness of dialogues, truth and footage (!) in the film is astounding.  There is so much in this film that can not be understated.  It is definitely Orson Welles’ testament; his “8 and a half”, his “La Nuit américaine”.  So much about this film talks about cinema in a way no other film does.  The film was shot between 1970 and 1976 in small chuncks because Welles had difficulty finding funds to complete it, and he shot it with varying types of cameras.  Black and white and colour; 16:9 and 4:3 formats, three different narrative levels all find their way in this truthful film by the genius that was Orson Welles.  The difficulty in editing must have been incalculable for.  I must also say the pleasure that it has been to know that Peter Bogdanovich (who Orson Welles asked to complete the film if something happened to him), the producers and Murawski followed Orson’s screenplay and extensive notes as closely as possible.  There is also footage that I THINK might have been B-roll footage, but I’m not sure at all.  I loved it, and can’t wait to see it again… one time is simply not enough.

 

[TM2YC]

^ Great review. You lucky person.

I might have a Welles marathon leading up to the release . I already re-watched his first three films quite recently and will be re-watching his 4th fairly soon, so I'll skip over those. The planned itinerary (most I've seen before but some not):

1943 - Journey into Fear: Restored Version (DVD and Laserdisc sourced Fanedit) (I've never actually watched it all because I was waiting for an HD release of the semi-Welles Mercury project)
1944 - Jane Eyre: Twilight Time blu-ray (Another quasi Welles project with various Mercury people involved. Not got round to the blu-ray yet)
1948 - Macbeth: Carlotta Films French blu-ray (original 119min uncut version)
1949 - The Third Man: 2004 StudioCanal 4K scanned blu-ray
1951 - Othello: Criterion 4K scanned blu-ray (original 93min uncut version)
1955 - Mr. Arkadin: Criterion DVD (106min "comprehensive version")
1958 - Touch of Evil: Masters of Cinema blu-ray (111min "Reconstructed Version" in the "open-matte" 1.37:1 presentation)
1962 - The Trial: StudioCanal blu-ray
1965 - Chimes at Midnight: Criterion blu-ray
1968 - The Immortal Story: Criterion 4K scanned blu-ray (the shorter 58min English language version)
1974 - F for Fake: Criterion blu-ray

If I find time, I'd like to watch these too:

1949 - Prince of Foxes (I've always meant to watch this great looking film, with Welles as Cesare Borgia. No cuckoo clocks)
1955 - Around the World with Orson Welles: BFI blu-ray (Welles made travelogue show, that I didn't get around to watching)
1979 - Filming Othello: Criterion blu-ray (not seen this essay/doc yet)

---

Journey into Fear: Restored Version (1943)
'Journey into Fear' is credited as "A Mercury Production" and has Orson Welles co-writing, planning, Producing and co-Directing (all uncredited). Welles also co-stars as a Stalin-esque secret police chief and his longtime collaborator Joseph Cotten takes the lead role, alongside Welles regulars like Agnes Moorehead and Everett Sloane. So while it's not actually a Welles film, it's got his fingerprints all over. However, it's not terribly good, whether the fault is with Director Norman Foster, the studio for interfering with the cutting, or Orson for having too many other projects on the boil taking his focus away, who can say.

The plot follows an American (Cotten) trying not to be assassinated by a group of Nazi's in Soviet-era Turkey. It does have it's memorable moments; Jack Moss is very imposing as a rotund mute assassin with his face hidden below the brim of his hat; a nebbish husband who deliberately embarrasses his domineering wife by vocally pretending to be a Radical-Socialist is a hoot and the rain-drenched finale, on the ledge of a building looks almost "Tears in the Rain".

The quality of the fanedit version I watched (which assembles all available footage into one cut), ranges from barely acceptable, to poor. It is compiled from old OOP DVDs and Laserdisc elements after all.

 

[TM2YC]

Jane Eyre (1944)
If you dug Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rebecca', then you'll love this too because it's also full of Gothic romance, a doom laden manor house, a tempestuous lord and the new arriving girl who confronts this mysterious man and his tortured world. The high-contrast photography and impressionist lighting looks stunning in every shot. Robert Stevenson Directs with Orson working as uncredited associate producer and bringing along Mercury favourite Agnes Moorehead. Welles' ability to switch his vocal performance from booming anger, to a gentle whisper makes him perfect for Mr. Rochester. Surely a definitive rendering of the book and looks very nice on the Twilight Time blu-ray.

 

[TM2YC]

I've given Welles' three Shakespeare films an almost back-to-back re-watch. He plays the title role in all, quite differently; The crazed and paranoid Macbeth, the tempestuous Othello and the lovable soak Falstaff:

Macbeth (1948)
The weakest of three but still an accessible and pleasing adaptation (I think Roman Polanski's 1971 version captures the play better). The castle set looks very sparse and stagey, you never believe you are actually in windswept Scotland. The costumes are also somewhat unconvincing. The French Carlotta blu-ray is a massive upgrade in image quality but has some weird criss-cross image artifacts on some shots. One piece of bravura film-making stands out; a single-take, 7-minute scene where the constantly shifting camera and the four actors perform a kind of dance, to re-frame themselves with each move, like cutting, without cutting. The witches sculpting a disgusting looking effigy of Macbeth out of clay, mud, or god knows what, looked like something out of 'Eraserhead':

Othello (1952)
Perhaps the best of the three (just pipping CaM). The 2017 Criterion blu-ray of the 93-minute European version looks and sounds stunning. Thankfully Welles' daughter finally removed her long-standing legal objections to anybody being allowed to see it. Welles gets every penny out of the lavish looking architecture of the opening Venice locations, before most of the rest of the film shift to huge fortifications, and imposing stone interiors in Morocco. All the different locations being knitted together and the frame being populated with a few well placed extras gives the film a large expensive feel. I've noticed that 'Game of Thrones' often shoots in the same way. I suspect Orson was inspired by Paul Robeson for his performance, making his voice even deeper and more booming than it usually is. The funeral opening was clearly influential on Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal'. The final scene as Othello stares up at his accusers is so powerful:

Chimes at Midnight (aka Falstaff) (1965)
A cunning weaving together of the texts from 5 different Shakespeare plays to refocus the narrative on the drunken rogue Sir John Falstaff (and his fatherly relationship with Prince Hal). Welles shoots the two worlds Hal steps between differently. His father the King (played by John Gielgud) occupies a cold, cavernous, cathedral-like stone throne room (the actors breath can be seen), shown in sedate expansive shots. The tumble-down Boar's Head Tavern where Hal cavorts with Falstaff is shot in a free, fast-panning, quick-cutting style.  'Chimes at Midnight' really needs to be seen in the recent Criterion blu-ray restoration because it looks fantastic, where as earlier presentations looked truly dreadful. Orson's deliberately mumbling, slurred delivery of Falstaff's drink-addled musings are occasionally hard to understand (especially when it's Shakespeare poetry) but the excellent Criterion subtitles sort that problem out. The sense of violent chaos conveyed in the hellish confusion of the big battle scene has been stated as an influence on films like 'Braveheart', 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Gladiator' and Kenneth Branagh's own 'Henry V'. The moment at the end when Hal rejects Falstaff is heartbreaking, as Welles face trembles.

 

[Zamros]

Welles' take is currently the definitive film take on Othello, for me. The Olivier take makes me cringe and the Lawrence Fishburne version is sadly too poorly directed to be a good version.

I haven't seen Orson Welles' Macbeth, but I'm not sure it will top the weirdness of the Fassbender version. I was also shown this really crappy Australian adaptation which sets it in modern-day Melbourne... Regretably, I haven't seen the Polanski version, either.

 

[TM2YC]

Welles' take is currently the definitive film take on Othello, for me. The Olivier take makes me cringe and the Lawrence Fishburne version is sadly too poorly directed to be a good version.

I haven't dared watch the Olivier version, seeing clips was enough, yikes! I haven't seen the Fishburne version since school, astonishing that he was the first black actor to play the role in a major release film, as late as 1995.

I haven't seen Orson Welles' Macbeth, but I'm not sure it will top the weirdness of the Fassbender version.

I need to see that version some time.

---

Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Often seen as the least of Orson Welles' films and that's probably true, however IIRC he was shut out of the editing process at some stage, so it is impossible to say what his full intentions were. I watched the Criterion "comprehensive version" (an official fanedit basically) which cuts to together 5 different versions of the film, in order to approximate what Welles had intended and to present the longest possible cut. The plot has a reputation for being confusing but in the Criterion version it's perfectly clear, even if the story does ramble around a bit. The mysterious Gregory Arkadin (played by Welles), a rich and powerful Russian, claims to have amnesia, so recruits the shady Guy Van Stratten to research his past. Things only get really interesting in the 2nd half when it becomes clear that Arkadin isn't trying to discover his past but to erase it, by murdering everyone Guy finds.

The main problem with the movie is that Robert Arden (as Guy) isn't the greatest actor, his character is unlikable (on purpose) and he is in every scene. Great actor playing scumbag, fine. Average actor playing endearing hero, fine. It strikes out on both counts. Even for a Welles film, 'Mr. Arkadin' has a lot of fourth-wall breaking, upwards camera shots and dutch-angles. It gets a bit distracting at times. Only a couple of sequences stood out as clever; as a drunk girl is staring up at Arkadin, the room is swinging back and forth somehow (Not sure how it was done, maybe Welles and the camera were on a swing? or a clever trick with a moving mirror?); and the freakshow shots when Guy visits a flea circus. 'Mr. Arkadin' is definitely flawed but it has enough memorable material to be worth the watch.

Also, random youtube video I hadn't seen before of Orson delivering an anecdote about him and Winston Churchill. Worth hearing the full story for the punch line:

 

[TM2YC]

Touch of Evil (1958)
The next film after the flawed 'Mr. Arkadin' is one of Welles' best, 1958's 'Touch of Evil'. I've seen it on DVD, in 35mm and in multiple versions on blu-ray but this time watching the 4:3 "Reconstructed" version I'm starting to think it might actually be the best one, surpassing even 'Citizen kane'. Orson totally disappears into the role of Captain Hank Quinlan, a once great cop, now corrupt on every level, mind and body. Charlton Heston is well cast as the opposing force, Mexican cop Mike Vargas, tall, defiant and unbending in his pursuit of the law, a complete mirror of Quinlan. Janet Leigh plays Mrs Vargas, in the first film where she is attacked at a remote Motel run by an socially awkward manager . Welles stuffs the cast with cameos from his Hollywood pals and Mercury players like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Marlene Dietrich, Ray Collins and Joseph Cotten.

The film-making brilliance famously begins with a 3+ minute tracking shot gliding around the border town, taking in the sights and sounds but always following a ticking time bomb and our characters. Other touches like acid burning up a poster (which on later viewings you realise is of a showgirl who died in an earlier scene), a character's dead bloody finger pointing down in judgement on his killer, the camera zooming back as a furious Vargas lifts a man off the ground by his neck, the unsettling direction of the strangling scene, Quinlan framed against a wall of Matador photos and a Bull's head, foreshadowing his fate. Henry Mancini's latin-jazz score is a delight (it is where I get the music for my fanedit titlecard from). The constantly inventive camerawork, ominous Noir lighting and editing is all masterful... at least it is in the 1998 "Reconstructed" version made by Walter Murch, following precise directions from a 58-page memo Welles wrote to the studio.

 

[Last Impressions]

TM2YC - Have you seen the new November Criterion announcements? They should make you very happy.

 

[Zamros]

TM2YC - Have you seen the new November Criterion announcements? They should make you very happy.

Woo! The Princess Bride!

Reveal message

(Magnificent Ambersons is cool, too)

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Reveal message

And here’s the real ad. 

 

[TM2YC]

TM2YC - Have you seen the new November Criterion announcements? They should make you very happy.

Woo! The Princess Bride!

I have and I'm also excited for the weirdly awesome David Byrne movie.

---

The promised Netflix Welles doc now has a trailer too:

^ Warning, contains the spoiler for 'Citizen Kane' .

 

[Canon Editor]

Lovely documentary.  I saw it some days after I saw “The Other Side of the Wind”.  Profoundly interesting, ironic, witty, funny and overall remarkable.

 

[TM2YC]

The Trial (1962)
Filmed between 'Touch of Evil' and 'Chimes at Midnight', 'The Trial' is Welles' adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel about 'Josef K', an innocent man accused of an unknown crime. The difference with the film is that Orson directed star Anthony Perkins to "Play him as if he's guilty". Perkins asked "Guilty of what?" and Orson replied "Everything!". Peter Bogdanovich has said that he didn't really get 'The Trial' until he watched it with Orson who was laughing and he realised it was intended as a black Comedy. The cold high-contrast photography and stark brutalist architecture of an Iron Curtain country (the then Communist state of Yugoslavia) certainly makes it appear to be a serious film at first glance. The moments of Comedy are offbeat, a nervous K accidentally saying "Pornograph record", a misunderstanding by K's boss has him denouncing K as a sex pervert, the repetition of the word "Ovular", K remarking that the dusty old law books are "Dirty" and we see the book has a nudie picture inside and a bizarre gang of school girls chasing a frightened K like a pack of hounds.

The law court sequences were filmed in the then abandoned and delapidated Gare d'Orsay Station in Paris (now a beautiful Art Musuem, which is well worth a visit). These scenes look visually similar to the atmosphere of the Bradbury Building scenes in 'Blade Runner'. That's not the only BR link, the law offices in BR are also set in a train station and the 2017 sequel features a title character called "Agent 'Joe' K". Watching K wonder from scene to scene and meeting one insane character after another with no real narrative direction doesn't make the film engaging on a story level but it does look constantly dazzling and inventive. If Welles had turned the Comedy dial up a bit higher I think he'd have had something quite like Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil'.

(The StudioCanal blu-ray transfer looks good but not spectacular.)

 

[TM2YC]

A new message update from the Producer of 'Otherside of the Wind':

Dear Contributors,
Greetings from Lyon, France, where THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND just had its French premiere.
It’s been a busy past few months, as we finished the film and prepared for the premieres in Venice, Telluride and New York.
I’m incredibly proud of how the film turned out. Its critical reception has been very strong and it’s left festival-going audiences transfixed. I keep hearing the same feedback – that the film is an experience. It’s unlike any other film. It’s dark and dense, and at times confounding, so I’m in awe of anyone who can articulate their thoughts and feelings after a single viewing.
Martin Scorsese joined us for a discussion during the New York Film Festival. He said "I was totally surprised by what I saw. It was, in turn, exhilarating and so distressing. To see (Orson), somebody you love, someone that means so much to you go through that agony, that pain." The distress, he clarified, was the empathy he felt for Welles – for the pain he must have endured in not being able to complete the film himself. "He was pushing the boundaries of image and sound. Trying to create something new, a new form of communication."
The end result is not only a product of Orson’s genius, but a testament to everyone's passion and dedication. It wouldn’t be the film that it is without editor Bob Murawski, who won the “Passion for Film” prize in Venice, and his team led by assistant editors Dov Samuel and Ray Boniker and additional editor Paul Hart, post supervisor Ruth Hasty, composer Michel Legrand, sound marvels Scott Millan and Daniel Saxlid, music editor Ellen Segal, negative cutter Mo Henry, colorist Mike Sowa, everyone at Technicolor, especially our ambassador Mark Smirnoff, Netflix… and all of YOU. We should all be very proud. We made film history.
Additionally, Frank Marshall and I produced a behind-the-scenes featurette directed by Ryan Suffern titled A FINAL CUT FOR ORSON: 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING. It premiered in Telluride and will be on Netflix on November 2nd, alongside the film and documentary. It shows just how much hard work went into finishing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND and I encourage all of you to seek it out.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND will have theatrical runs in New York, Los Angeles and a few other cities, which we hope will include Chicago, Austin, Portland and the San Francisco Bay area. I hope all of you will get a chance to see it on the big screen.
Some of you joined us at the World and New York premieres, and the t-shirts, film cans, rush prints, cigars and robes have been mailed and there are more perks to come.
A link to the digital download will be emailed on or before November 2nd and the official posters will follow soon after.
As for the coffee book, I acquired the famed José María Castellví photo collection. We’re in discussion with a few publishers and remain hopeful that it will result in something worthy of your coffee tables. I will keep you updated.
Lastly, the DVD/Blu-rays. We still don't have a delivery date, but I can share this much – in addition to THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND and the documentary, THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD, it will include the behind-the-scenes featurette, A FINAL CUT FOR ORSON: 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING, and a few other, never-before-seen curios.
Sincerely,
Filip

The key take away is that there will be a surprise third behind-the-scenes featurette, in addition to the already announced film and feature documentary. Lots to watch on Netflix on Friday!

 

[Canon Editor]

Yep!  Can’t recommend both the film (duh) and “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” enough.  I didn’t manage to catch “A Final Cut for Orson” in Venice though so I’m glad it’s coming to Netflix too.  Looking forward to the DVD/Blu-ray release!

 

[TM2YC]

I'm a bit surprised that Netflix hasn't been adding more Welles titles in anticipation of the new release (some of his films are public domain after all) but I did notice that their HD stream of 'The Stranger' looks very good. Much better quality than my Kino Lorber blu-ray. Not quite as sharp but far less damaged, a better grade and smoother audio. It's best I've seen the film look so far.