If you became a major fan of Welles' work, you know all about the aborted projects. Don Quixote, The Deep (later made by a different director as Dead Calm), and The Other Side of the Wind. Well, Don Quixote started and stopped so many times until Francisco Reiguera and Akim Tamiroff passed away, The Deep allegedly was completely done except for the filming of an explosion, and The Other Side of The Wind allegedly had footage financed by the Shah of Iran and that footage was caught up in the political turmoil in '79. I've read all about these sorts of things over 20 years ago. Now we have Welles' Eyes Wide Shut. A movie like Kubrick's last movie, released after the director's death with some aspects of it incomplete. Maybe the film would have ended up differently than what the compilers of this footage came up with or what a studio may've settled on without the director's input, maybe not. I know neither movie is considered Welles' or Kubrick's best work.
The movie centers around a director who is a Nicholas Ray type. More of a product of the 1950s. Someone who partied as hard as the stars half his age while he was middle aged. I'm sure his alpha male abusive antics are a major turn off to anyone watching this who didn't make that connection.
I already knew how the film was supposed to look so it didn't bother me how cut up it looks. It is supposed to look like that because the story is supposed to unfold through the cameras of filmmakers filming the director for their own documentaries. Seems like alot of filmmakers. This was always Welles' vision for the film. Initially, I thought this movie was going to be all documentary style footage of the director on set shooting a film starring a leading man he was deeply jealous of and eventually would murder but it isn't like that. That would be suspenseful but frankly this is better.
The film centers around the director's 70th birthday party. It is explained in a new audio introduction to be Hannaford's last day of his life before driving off to his death in an auto accident. The jumping from conversation snippets, different characters speaking, black and white to color film, is all part of the vision. All the jumping around can be dizzying like the first time I saw Mr Arkardin. It moves quickly in that sense.
The movie bounces from the documentary footage of the party to screening footage of the film Hannaford is working on at the time. That too must be planned but it is also difficult to keep up with. The film Hannaford is working on comes across as an unfinished stag film. The footage he shot and the director's actions throughout and the obsessive sexual imagery in his film footage makes me wonder if he was impotent and that was an underlying factor behind everything he does at his party. There is no dialogue in the film footage. Alot of sex scenes are implied and an often nude and nameless actress played by Oja Kudor and equally nude as often John Dale played by Robert Random. The film footage made me think of Highway: An American Pastoral starring Jim Morrison sans the sex scenes.
I am glad I watched this. It is about what I expected. It is better than half the Welles' films I've seen. At least it is different in that it is the only one with an R rating, It took over 30 years after Welles' death for it to see the light of day and unlike in his life, the people releasing this film wanted to follow his vision.
The movie centers around a director who is a Nicholas Ray type. More of a product of the 1950s. Someone who partied as hard as the stars half his age while he was middle aged. I'm sure his alpha male abusive antics are a major turn off to anyone watching this who didn't make that connection.
I already knew how the film was supposed to look so it didn't bother me how cut up it looks. It is supposed to look like that because the story is supposed to unfold through the cameras of filmmakers filming the director for their own documentaries. Seems like alot of filmmakers. This was always Welles' vision for the film. Initially, I thought this movie was going to be all documentary style footage of the director on set shooting a film starring a leading man he was deeply jealous of and eventually would murder but it isn't like that. That would be suspenseful but frankly this is better.
The film centers around the director's 70th birthday party. It is explained in a new audio introduction to be Hannaford's last day of his life before driving off to his death in an auto accident. The jumping from conversation snippets, different characters speaking, black and white to color film, is all part of the vision. All the jumping around can be dizzying like the first time I saw Mr Arkardin. It moves quickly in that sense.
The movie bounces from the documentary footage of the party to screening footage of the film Hannaford is working on at the time. That too must be planned but it is also difficult to keep up with. The film Hannaford is working on comes across as an unfinished stag film. The footage he shot and the director's actions throughout and the obsessive sexual imagery in his film footage makes me wonder if he was impotent and that was an underlying factor behind everything he does at his party. There is no dialogue in the film footage. Alot of sex scenes are implied and an often nude and nameless actress played by Oja Kudor and equally nude as often John Dale played by Robert Random. The film footage made me think of Highway: An American Pastoral starring Jim Morrison sans the sex scenes.
I am glad I watched this. It is about what I expected. It is better than half the Welles' films I've seen. At least it is different in that it is the only one with an R rating, It took over 30 years after Welles' death for it to see the light of day and unlike in his life, the people releasing this film wanted to follow his vision.