People are tripping over each other to write positive reviews of this movie, but one wonders how they would react if they didn't know the backstory. It's like someone going on about how good a bottle of wine is once they find out how much it cost.
I'm a film buff, and I was really excited to see this legendary movie, but I'm honest enough to admit that I had to struggle to get through and in the end, I was mostly glad it was over.
The movie is structured as a film within a film. It's ostensibly a documentary about a party for a washed up film director, screening an incomplete rough cut of his latest movie, "The Other Side of the Wind". We're told at the beginning that he dies right after the party, so we know throughout the film that we're watching the last night of his life. The director is clearly based on Wells himself, with a healthy dose of Ernest Hemingway added. He's played by John Huston, who is literally incapable of being bad, even in this.
The intentional "joke" of the movie is that film they screen is terrible: a pretentious art film that consists mostly of a woman (Wells' lover at the time) walking around naked. This was Wells' commentary on movies of the time, and it's not entirely unlike the comedy Hail Caesar! in that respect.
There's not really a plot per se, but there are interactions and revelations about the troubles that the director is having with film. Wells' bitterness with the way he felt Hollywood had betrayed him is on full display here.
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is also a pretentious art film, that might have looked bold if it had come out when Wells had intended, but now just comes across as incredibly dated. Is this what Wells had in mind? Who knows. It's a little like listening to Frank Zappa music; you're never entirely sure when he's laughing *with* his audience and when he's laughing *at* his audience.
The party scenes get repetitive very quickly, and I found it pretty hard to pay attention. On the other hand, since you know how it's going to end, paying attention wasn't all that important.
To me, the movie within the movie looked a lot like an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, which is interesting, because shortly after the principle filming of this, Wells went off to Paris to take part in Jodorowsky's failed attempt to make Dune, in which he was to play Baron Harkonnen (if you've never seen the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune", stop what you're doing and watch it now). If this movie had actually gotten made, I wonder how Jodorowsky would have felt about Wells making fun of his style of film making.
In the end, the only real reasons to watch this film are John Huston and so that you're prepped to watch "They'll Love me when I'm Dead", the documentary *about* this movie, which is excellent.
I'm a film buff, and I was really excited to see this legendary movie, but I'm honest enough to admit that I had to struggle to get through and in the end, I was mostly glad it was over.
The movie is structured as a film within a film. It's ostensibly a documentary about a party for a washed up film director, screening an incomplete rough cut of his latest movie, "The Other Side of the Wind". We're told at the beginning that he dies right after the party, so we know throughout the film that we're watching the last night of his life. The director is clearly based on Wells himself, with a healthy dose of Ernest Hemingway added. He's played by John Huston, who is literally incapable of being bad, even in this.
The intentional "joke" of the movie is that film they screen is terrible: a pretentious art film that consists mostly of a woman (Wells' lover at the time) walking around naked. This was Wells' commentary on movies of the time, and it's not entirely unlike the comedy Hail Caesar! in that respect.
There's not really a plot per se, but there are interactions and revelations about the troubles that the director is having with film. Wells' bitterness with the way he felt Hollywood had betrayed him is on full display here.
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is also a pretentious art film, that might have looked bold if it had come out when Wells had intended, but now just comes across as incredibly dated. Is this what Wells had in mind? Who knows. It's a little like listening to Frank Zappa music; you're never entirely sure when he's laughing *with* his audience and when he's laughing *at* his audience.
The party scenes get repetitive very quickly, and I found it pretty hard to pay attention. On the other hand, since you know how it's going to end, paying attention wasn't all that important.
To me, the movie within the movie looked a lot like an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, which is interesting, because shortly after the principle filming of this, Wells went off to Paris to take part in Jodorowsky's failed attempt to make Dune, in which he was to play Baron Harkonnen (if you've never seen the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune", stop what you're doing and watch it now). If this movie had actually gotten made, I wonder how Jodorowsky would have felt about Wells making fun of his style of film making.
In the end, the only real reasons to watch this film are John Huston and so that you're prepped to watch "They'll Love me when I'm Dead", the documentary *about* this movie, which is excellent.