May 6th, 2015 will mark the 100th birthday of the late Orson Welles. To commemorate the birth of the great filmmaker, we’ll be looking back at many of his greatest cinematic accomplishments — movies like Citizen Kane, The Lady From Shanghai, The Trial, and Chimes At Midnight. First though, let’s pull a real Orson Welles move and start at the end, with his last great movie project, the ill-fated The Other Side of the Wind.
The movie was going to be Welles’s grand statement on filmmaking. It tells the story of an aging movie director, Jake Hannaford (played by a wily John Huston) who is trying to stage a comeback in a Hollywood that has basically left him behind. The film was autobiographical, of course — though Welles, being Welles, dismissed any overly autobiographical readings of the film. He labored mightily on the project for years — fighting money troubles and the indifference of the establishment. In the end, the film was left unedited. To this day, it remains virtually unseen, even by most movie fanatics.
A new book looks at this fascinating period in the life of the great director. In Orson Welles’s Last Movie: The Making of The Other Side of the Wind author Josh Karp has assembled the most detailed account yet of the creation of the doomed project.
Writing a book on Welles must be a beautifully daunting task. Beautiful in the sense that Welles makes for excellent company. The Welles that Karp puts on the page is magnificent — he is by turns funny, touching, and brilliant. He’s a flawed man to be sure, but his flaws are as much a part of his legend as anything else about him. It is easy to see why this great filmmaker inspired the devotion of so many people.
On The Other Side of the Wind, Welles pushed the discomfort as far as it could go. By 1970, when he began the film, his own position in Hollywood could be described as a strange mixture of reverence and dismissal. Everyone thought he was a genius (though some felt he was an overrated genius), and most of them just wanted him to go away. It didn’t matter that he was still a restless creative talent who was still making interesting films (like 1968’s The Immortal Story or 1965’s Chimes at Midnight). In Hollywood, he was a quirky has-been. With The Other Side of the Wind, Welles aimed for a comeback — a chance to prove that he was as important a filmmaker as ever. The film would be a meta-commentary on his career, on the current state of filmmaking, on the way old men destroy themselves. He shot on a shoestring, with friends and associates — most of whom would eventually drift away from the project. With the film, Welles was exploring his own obsessions with film, with the collapse of old men, with the inevitability of failure. People would accuse of him of being unable to finish the film because it had come to resemble his life too closely. He had pushed things too far — stylistically and thematically.
Karp’s book is an absorbing look at a cinematic giant entering his twilight. Welles was a man about whom there was no shortage of opinions, and Karp does a good job of gathering firsthand testimony from many of the people who worked with him on The Other Side of the Wind. The most intriguing, and in many ways tragic, figure in the book is Welles’s cinematographer Gary Graver. Although he was a dedicated cinephile who longed to make great films, Graver’s career never took off and he wound up working in the dregs, cranking out cheapie softcore pornos like Veronica 2030 until the end of his life. Yet in the early ‘70s, Graver was the man most responsible for keeping Orson Welles in the business of making movies. He stood by Welles for years, often without pay, often to the expense of his own family and career, enraptured by the experience and dedicated to the cause that was Orson Welles.
Karp brings the story up to date as much as he can — detailing the decades-long attempts by Welles collaborators like Graver and Peter Bogdanovich to see the film released. He also puts the blame for the film’s long exile in the wilderness squarely at the feet of Welles’s girlfriend and artistic partner Oja Kodar, who, in his telling, has thwarted several efforts to get the film finished because she wanted a larger cut of the pie. (It should be noted that Kodar is not included among the book’s interview subjects.)
The latest news on The Other Side of the Wind, however, is that it is finally finally supposed to be edited and released this year in honor of Welles’s 100th birthday.
We’ll see. Every dedicated Welles geek has heard this kind of thing before.
As much as I am dying to see the movie, I must admit that I don’t look forward to the response it will get. An Orson Welles movie that has gone unfinished for the better part of forty years? It’ll be called a masterpiece by some and a piece of trash by the rest. In truth, it will never fully be Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind because he never finished editing the thing—and he would have been the first to say that the editing process was where his movies were really born.
Let’s let Karp have the last word on the film as it is:
[T]he film is a fragment, composed of brilliance and madness; finely honed and wildly disorganized; meticulously edited but ultimately unfinished. The movie is a shot at perfection in a world where the director can no longer control his muse and is left to stumble about in a maze composed of his own art and creativity. It’s a world that shows Welles at his best and worst, bringing together his polar opposites—but unable or unwilling to recognize that his art and life have become one and the same.
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Orson Welles's Last Movie Comment Sweepstakes: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A purchase does not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes open to legal residents of 50 United States, D.C., and Canada (excluding Quebec), who are 18 years or older as of the date of entry. To enter, complete the “Post a Comment” entry at https://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2015/04/orson-welles-at-100-orson-welles-last-movie-the-making-of-the-other-side-of-the-wind-josh-karp-jake-hinkson beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) April 16, 2015. Sweepstakes ends 2:59 p.m. ET April 23, 2015. Void outside the United States and Canada and where prohibited by law.
Jake Hinkson is the author of several books, including the novel The Big Ugly, the newly-released short story collection The Deepening Shade, and the essay collection The Blind Alley: Exploring Film Noir's Forgotten Corners.
Read all of Jake Hinkson's posts for Criminal Element.
Orson Welles is such an iconic figure. Iève read books on his earlier life and films, and would like to read about his final film.
One of the great filmmakers. Would love to see even part of The Other Side of the Wind. So glad I discovered your website!
Sounds like a very interesting book. Orson Welles was one of a kind.
Welles was an awesome talent!
Interested to read about this movie.
has to be a winner with Orson Welles as the subject. thanks
Orson Welles is one of the 20th century’s most fascinating people, and there have been an endless number of terrific books about him. For Welles fans this is a must read.
Big fan of Orson Wells and would love to read this book.
My brother James needs to read this, (after me)
I would love to read this book.
One of my favorite directors. Would love this.
i would love to read this book. I bet its very intresting
I’m a big fan of Orson Welles, he really had a unique vision. I hope this movie is released, I would watch it as I have watched all of Welles’ films over the decades!
Awesome!
looks interesting
all in
awesome
I’m such a fan of Mr. Welles-thanks for the opportunity to win this book!
war of the worlds rocks
This sounds like a great read. Thanks.
“War of the Worlds” and “Rosebud” ! Yes!
sounds great sign me up
Orson Welles was very interesting. Looks like a good book!
Orson Welles is an icon!!
Love Orson Welles’ movies. I’m sure the book is terrific.
Would love to win!
I’ve always been fascinated with Welles. Sometimes being the young genius is a curse as you get older.
I remember his famous broadcast about aliens.
I have never heard of the author before but, I like to read authors I dont
know about.
Sounds intriguing 🙂 I’d love to hek it out 🙂
Rosebud
Thanks for sponsoring.
Orson Wells was one of a kind.
I want this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to admit I’ve never read much on Mr. Welles, but I do like the story I’ve heard about when War of the Worlds came out. It would be a nice to receive the book and start learning.
I am a big fan of his films. This looks to be a very interesting read.
I would love to read this, while I’m waiting for Simon Callow to finish his multi-volume biography of the actor/director. As far as Hollywood was concerned, Welles, alas, was his own worst enemy…
The book sounds fascinating.
Wells was one of 3 greatest filmakers of all time and kids today don’t even know who he was!
Wish he made some mystery films
Wow, just reading the article about the book was enthralling. I loved the last quote by Karp. It was intense, and complex, and thought-provoking…..just like Orson Welles. I think this will be an amazing book to read.
I would love to read this book about orson Welles
looks interesting
Looks pretty interesting!
I’ve always loved Orson Welles. I’d love to read this.
I love books and read in my spare time
This sounds like a solid read. I’m a Welles fan from wayback.
would love to read this, takes you back in time
Thanks for this giveaway
I would love to see this movie!
A book about a complicated genius, would love to read this. We may never get to see the last film he directed.
Yes, this would be the one that I really, really need!!
Sounds interesting.
Yes, please enter me in this sweepstakes.
Thanks!
Sounds great. Would love to win.
would love to win. using correct name this time.
Sounds so intriguing!!! Can’t wait to read!!! Thanks for the opportunity to win & good luck to all who enter!!!:)
Would love a chance to win this book on Orson Welles, one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.
Count me in, please!
Great Giveaway!
I would like to read the work of Josh Karp.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch
This sounds like an interesting book. Thank you for the giveaway!
I would love to read this book. It looks like an insteresting one.
I would love to win this. My son wants to make a movie, and this will give him a little insight as to what that entails. 🙂
Want!
Sounds like a great book.
I love insider info like this! Count me in.
I love Orson Welles and would love to read this. Thank you for giving all of us the chance.
thanks for the chance
I would like this
Orson Welles is a true legend.
Bshaw75015@aol.com
Good deal, count me in!
Thanks for the great giveaway!
I enjoy books about Hollywood history, particularly about the nuts and bolts of making film and how they are changed, altered, shelved ordestroyed by the studios ofthe directors themselves. Welles was quite an interesting character who unfortunately became better known for “We sell no wine before its time” rather than his film history during his latter days.
I would love to read this
I won the book, and I have to say it’s fascinating. Karp makes it possible for the reader to follow an almost impossible tangle of personalities and their involvement in this project. Funny and sad…