Surrounded by fans and skeptics, grizzled director J.J. "Jake" Hannaford (a revelatory John Huston) returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his comeback: a career summation that can only be the work of cinema's most adventurous filmmaker, Orson Welles.In 1970, legendary director Orson Welles began filming what would ultimately be his final cinematic opus with a cast of luminaries that included John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Welles's partner during his later years, Oja Kodar. Beset by financial issues, the production ultimately stretched to 1976 and soon gained industry-wide notoriety, never to be completed or released. More than a thousand reels of film languished in a Paris vault until March 2017, when producers Frank Marshall (who served as a production manager on Wind during in its initial shooting) and Filip Jan Rymsza spearheaded efforts to have Welles's vision completed more than 30 years after his death. Featuring a new score by Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand and assembled by a technical team including Oscar- winning editor Bob Murawski, The Other Side of the Wind tells the story of famed filmmaker J.J. "Jake" Hannaford, who returns to Hollywood after years in self-exile in Europe with plans to complete work on his own innovative comeback movie. A satire of the classic studio system as well as the new establishment who were shaking things up at the time, Welles's final film is both a fascinating time capsule of a now-distant era in moviemaking as well as the long-awaited "new" work from an indisputable master of his craft.Directed by Orson Welles
Release Date - November 2, 2018 on Netflix
There's also a documentary about its making,
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead.
Gonna try my damndest to get a ticket to the NYFF screening.
I don't know if anyone will even read this, but I have a ticket I'm selling for the NYFF screening. Sept 29th. Message me if interested
eward, BigSock. BigSock, eward.
I already have a ticket! Excellent heads up though.
so trying your damndest actually paid off. kudos, sir.
Oooh yeah. Also got a ticket to Alex Ross Perry's Her Smell, my excitement is extreme.
Haha, I actually also had Her Smell tickets to sell. It's looking like I unfortunately cannot make it that weekend
Some Her Smell to sell? :) Any other tickets?
I only have Other Side of the Wind on the 29th, Her Smell on the 29th, and Her Smell on the 30th to sell.
The making-of doc will have a simultaneous netflix release
(https://i.imgur.com/1nnRv0B.jpg)
Other Side of the Wind is screening in 35mm at NYFF!!!
And I have tickets to sell! Lol, last chance, guys. Message if interested
EDIT: Whoops! Forgot this thread existed....anyhow
VAGUE SORTA SPOILERS JUST SAYIN
At long last, after years of hearing/reading/dreaming about this film, never believing it would actually see the light of day, yesterday afternoon I had the good fortune to finally, finally see it, on the 33rd anniversary of Welles' passing, at the Francesca Beale Theater at Lincoln Center, on a brand new 35mm print that had only been screened once before. (God Bless The NYFF). And though it could never truly live up to the hype that had been steadily building in my mind over the years, especially since having read the excellent Josh Karp book about its making, I was very pleased to find myself mostly thoroughly engaged throughout its entire 2 hour runtime. It's remarkably coherent, when one considers it was edited down intermittently from 100 hours of footage over 40-odd years fraught with litigation and one outlandish setback after another. Extremely frenetic, jumping around from color to black and white, 16mm to 35mm, at a pretty consistent breakneck pace across 3 or 4 major set-pieces and a movie-within-the-movie, it's much more in line tonally/aesthetically with something like "F For Fake" as opposed to Welles' better-known works. Though this merely represents a painstaking attempt at approximating Welles' original vision, assembled with the guidance of copious volumes of written material and half-edited scenes, this stands as not only a wild and fascinating self-portrait by one of our greatest film artists (starring another one of our greatest film artists), but also a loving and triumphant tribute to a giant of our times from a younger generation of admirers/colleagues; and, in the case of Bogdanovich, a close personal friend (Welles himself had asked Bogdanovich, in the months leading up to his death in 1985, to see to it personally that the film got finished, were anything to happen to him. And lo and behold, after all this time, he delivered. Hard not to well-up at that.)
Long Live Orson.
This movie is bonkerz and I'm head over heels for its multiformat chaos... Students shooting in Super 8 <3 Feels like a spiritual sequel to F for Fake, and much of the dialogue orbits credibility, status, fraudulent intentions, mimicry as expression. So, so dense, and its reconstruction takes it past PoMo technique.
Love that scene in the overloaded car. That's what indie filmmaking feels like, it's what all filmmaking feels like, I hope.
I was blown away by this. Not at all what I was expecting. Does it make me a bad cinephile if I've never really seen much Welles before? Only Kane, because of course, and that was back in my teens and I didn't really appreciate it. This makes me want to seek out more of what I've missed.
But this was incredible. There's obviously a lot of meta stuff going on here, and it captures so well an era that we film-lovers feel like we know so well. Shooting began in 1970 - the year after Easy Rider came out - and of course Dennis Hopper makes a cameo. This is the film that I want The Last Movie to be (I still haven't watched my BluRay yet).
Critical readings aside, because that's generally not my strength, I simply adored this film. Frenetic, funny, and, as eward mentioned, absolutely coherent. Even the film-within-a-film is remarkable with its vivid colors and purely visual storytelling. I'm in love. This is one of my favorites of the year, for sure. Right now, it's right up there with Leave No Trace for joint first. I hope this gets some broader recognition. If nothing else it deserves a major award for the editing.
A stunning piece of cinema. I can't wait to rewatch.
As someone who isn't too familiar with the history of this film, do you think it'd be wise to watch They'll Love Me When I'm Dead first, or after the feature?
I watched "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" first and found it to greatly enhance the experience of "The Other Side Of The Wind". There's a lot of interesting backstory and behind the scenes info in the doc that will help you to appreciate the unique atmosphere and Orson Welles' unconventional approach to making this film. However, if you prefer going into a movie with fresh eyes you might want to skip it since it does overfamiliarize you with a lot of the shots and plot points.
I really loved it, too. It's one of those movies where even when it seems like things are going over your head, you don't feel lost as long as you're along for the ride. It doesn't expect you to fully comprehend everything that's going on as much as experience it, I wonder if anyone else found similarities to 'Inherent Vice' in this way? One of the most masterfully edited pieces of work I've seen, you can never predict which shot it will cut to to but it always feels like the perfect choice.
Quote from: Reelist on January 12, 2019, 01:48:52 PM
I watched "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" first and found it to greatly enhance the experience of "The Other Side Of The Wind". There's a lot of interesting backstory and behind the scenes info in the doc that will help you to appreciate the unique atmosphere and Orson Welles' unconventional approach to making this film. However, if you prefer going into a movie with fresh eyes you might want to skip it since it does overfamiliarize you with a lot of the shots and plot points.
I really loved it, too. It's one of those movies where even when it seems like things are going over your head, you don't feel lost as long as you're along for the ride. It doesn't expect you to fully comprehend everything that's going on as much as experience it, I wonder if anyone else found similarities to 'Inherent Vice' in this way? One of the most masterfully edited pieces of work I've seen, you can never predict which shot it will cut to to but it always feels like the perfect choice.
Thanks for the info. I'm tempted to do the opposite: Watch The Other Side first, and then They'll Love Me second. I'm kind of privy to the idea of going into the feature film blind, and then getting some perspective with the doc afterwards. And then, if I enjoyed the feature, I'll go back with new perspective for a re-watch. This way, I can also give my thoughts about my different experience. Hopefully I won't be missing too much on the very first watch this way, though.
IV is one of my favourite films (and possibly my favourite book). I'm interested to see if there are similarities indeed. And yeah ... I love a beautifully edited film. Can't wait to watch these tonight.
FWIW, I knew almost zero before watching TOSOTW and I haven't seen the doc yet. I will. Then I'll watch TOSOTW again.