Skip to main content

50 years in the making, Orson Welles’ last film makes it to the screen

orson welles

VENICE, ITALY: It is the stuff of movie industry legend: the director of the best film ever made leaves behind an unfinished movie destined never to be seen – until now.

Orson Welles shot “The Other Side of the Wind” in the early 1970s but gave up on it, leaving behind 100 hours of footage when he died in 1985.

Five decades on from its conception, after years of financial and legal wrangling, the film has been completed, a gift to movie buffs who will probably spend the next 50 years decoding it.

“The Other Side of the Wind”, which The Hollywood Reporter called “the Holy Grail for zealous film buffs, the long-awaited bookend for ‘Citizen Kane’,” is art imitating life imitating art: itself the story of an unfinished film left behind by a great director and reconstructed after his death.

John Huston – a famous director in real life – plays Jake Hannaford who, hours before his death in a car crash, shows his unfinished movie to guests at his 70th birthday party.

That film-within-a-film is self-consciously arty, with plenty of female nudity, reminiscent of late 1960s movies such as Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow Up” or some of Jean-Luc Godard’s films of the time.

“The old guy’s trying to get ‘with it’,” says one viewer. “Is that what this movie is about?”

The party is populated by a host of filmmakers, journalists and hangers-on, all commenting on the art of movie-making and many shooting their own footage as the story unfolds – film clips that make up much of the movie we are watching, in a pioneering version of the “found footage” technique often used in modern horror films.

“People talk about these reality shows and found footage movies but I think it’s very interesting that Orson Welles was there first,” Bob Murawski, the film editor who had the task of reconstructing “The Other Side of the Wind”, told reporters.

“The conceit of the movie is that it’s shot by many documentary filmmakers, camera people, all shooting with different film stock and cameras. I think it’s why it seems so contemporary because years later people picked up on that technique and that’s the style that Orson invented in the 70s.”

The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called “The Other Side of the Wind” a “hurricane of anger and wit”.

“Perhaps leaving it unfinished was Welles’s ultimate, secret tribute to the central truth of ‘The Other Side of the Wind’: how the agony and the ecstasy of creative art lies in the process not the product, and how the finished work will never measure up to the ideal version in your head.”

“The Other Side of the Wind” had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 29 to Sept 8.

The post 50 years in the making, Orson Welles’ last film makes it to the screen appeared first on ARYNEWS.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

K-Electric fined Rs2 mn over weak power supply system

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs2 million on the K-Electric. According to a statement issued by the power regulatory authority, the K-Electric was penalized over non-compliance of performance standards, particularly its failure to restore power supply within the prescribed time frame and to ensure the safety of public in Karachi. Quoting media reports, it said large swathes of Karachi remained without electricity due to the tripping of almost 700 feeders during rainy weather in June last year, which resulted in long power blackouts ranging from 24 hours to 48 hours in almost 50% areas of Karachi. Further, there were also reports of fatal injuries to some people owing to electrocution. The Nepra took notice of the situation in Karachi and directed the K-Electric to immediately provide a detailed report on the tripping of feeders and electrocution incidents along with preventive and corrective steps taken by K-Elec...

10 creepy celebrity wax statues

Waxworks of celebrities, sports persons and politicians such as Tom Cruise, Barack Obama and Christiano Ronaldo are admired by people all over the world. The craft requires taking careful and accurate measurements to create these wax statues, which are then polished and perfected to make for an exact replica. Madame Tussaud’s is one of the most famous museums in the world that displays wax statues, however, not all wax museums in the world craft flawless statues. Compiled from Cosmopolitan India , here is a list of the creepiest celebrity wax statues. Barack Obama PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN David and Victoria Beckham PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Jennifer Aniston PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Beyonce’s wax statue sparks outrage Jennifer Lopez PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Justin Bieber PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Justin Timberlake PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Aamir Khan PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Katrina Kaif PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN London’s Tussauds gets to work on Trump wax figure Selena Gomez PHOTO: C...

Qatar to hike minimum wage ‘by end of year’

DOHA: Qatar could increase the minimum wage for migrant workers by the end of 2018, unions predicted on Monday, as the 2022 World Cup host seeks to push through labour reforms. It would be the first change to the monthly wage since its introduction by the gas-rich Gulf state last November. “By the end of the year we expect a new minimum wage to be set, that’s good news,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Burrow did not name a figure but said the new wage would be calculated by assessing a “basket of goods”. She was speaking after meeting Qatar’s labour minister, Issa al-Jufali al-Nuaimi, and other government officials in Doha over the past two days. The minimum wage was set at 750 riyals a month ($206, 170 euro) on its introduction. In addition to the salary, labourers receive free accommodation, food and healthcare plans, covered by employers. The 750-riyal figure has been criticised as too low. “We believe it is not good e...