After Orson Welles died in late 1985, I was asked to do the video for a memorial service at the Director’s Guild of America in Los Angeles. Among the tasks was to edit a viewable segment of Welles’ unfinished epic, The Other Side of the Wind. Even with the help of Gary Graver, the late cinematographer who shot part of the film, the task was nearly impossible. The formats were mixed, with some shots in black and white and others in color. Many clips were damaged. The sound was all over the place. Even the edited part was hard to decipher. Orson was operating in another world when he worked on this film. We did it, though, and the segment was largely disappointing, at least to me. Since it seems everyone in Hollywood had at least a small part — sometimes years apart — in the lumbering film made over many years, the word “continuity” goes out the window. How do you fix edits between an actor in a single scene who looks very different because some shots were made ten years apart? Now comes news that a company has purchased the rights to finish the film by Welles 100th birthday next year. I hope The Other Side of the Wind is finished, but I’m skeptical it will happen. If this one is pulled off, it will be one of the great miracles of the cinema.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:23:45 +0000
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