The Other Side Of The Wind (2018)

 

The Other Side of the Wind is an American-French experimental film directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Orson Welles, released in 2018 after more than forty years in development. The film stars John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Oja Kodar. Shooting began in 1970 for what Welles intended to be his Hollywood comeback, and resumed on-and-off until 1976. Welles continued to intermittently work on the project into the 1980s, but it became embroiled in legal, financial, and political complications which prevented it from being completed.

The story utilized a film-within-a-film narrative which follows the last day in the life of an aging Hollywood film director (Huston) as he hosts a screening party for his unfinished latest project. The film was shot in an unconventional mockumentary style featuring a rapid cutting approach with both color and black-and-white footage. It was intended as a satire of both the passing of Classic Hollywood and of the avant-garde filmmakers of Europe and New Hollywood in the 1970s. The unreleased results would be called "the Holy Grail of cinema".^[4] It holds the record for the longest production time in history — 48 years.

Despite Welles' death in 1985, filming was completed and several attempts were made at reconstructing the unfinished film. In 2014, the rights were acquired by Royal Road and the project was overseen by Bogdanovich and producer Frank Marshall.

The Other Side of the Wind had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2018, and was released on November 2, 2018, by Netflix to critical praise, accompanied by a documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead.

Cast

• John Huston as J.J. "Jake" Hannaford, modelled on Ernest Hemingway. Welles denied speculation that the character was also based on himself or Huston, although he noted that there were elements of early Hollywood directors with macho reputations, such as Rex Ingram,^[5] John Ford, Raoul Walsh and William A. Wellman.
• Oja Kodar as The Actress or The Red, Red Indian, nicknamed Pocahontas by Hannaford.^[6] The unnamed, enigmatic actress features prominently in the film-within-a-film. She also attends Hannaford's party, bridging the two parts of the film. Her role is entirely silent.
• Peter Bogdanovich as Brooks Otterlake, a protégé of Hannaford's who is now a commercially successful director in his own right, and who has a talent for mimicking celebrities. The character has many parallels with Bogdanovich himself, who took over the role after the departure of comedian Rich Little. Little remained credited as a party extra.
• Susan Strasberg as Juliette Rich, a savage film critic. The character was a thinly veiled spoof of Pauline Kael, with whom Welles was in a public feud over her controversial allegation in the essay "Raising Kane" that he did not write Citizen Kane. The role had originally been written with Jeanne Moreau in mind, and was initially played by Bogdanovich's then-wife Polly Platt, who also served as the film's production designer, before eventually being taken over by Strasberg, who reshot the scenes previously filmed with Platt.^[7]:165
• Norman Foster as Billy Boyle, an aging former child actor from Hannaford's early films, and a member of his entourage, portrayed as a stooge. He is a recovering alcoholic, and a compulsive eater of candy, with parallels to Mickey Rooney.
• Bob Random as Oscar "John" Dale, the pretty, androgynous leading man of Hannaford's new film, who walked out mid-filming, leaving the picture unfinished. Like "The Actress", Dale's performance is entirely silent.
• Lilli Palmer as Zarah Valeska, an enigmatic, retired leading lady from the 1930s who owns the ranch which hosts Hannaford's party. The character was based on Welles' old friend Marlene Dietrich, whom he very much wanted to play the role; however, Dietrich was unavailable for filming.^{[7]:165[8]:195} Although she appears alongside Strasberg and members of the "Hannaford Mafia" in several scenes, all of Palmer's footage was shot in Europe.
• Edmond O'Brien as Pat Mullins, an aging actor with far right political leanings who is one of Hannaford's cronies.
• Mercedes McCambridge as Maggie Noonan, Hannaford's devoted editor.
• Cameron Mitchell as Matt "Zimmie" Zimmer, a Texas-born make-up artist of Jewish heritage and one of Hannaford's artistic collaborators. Although he is fired by Costello en route to the ranch, Hannaford later notes that he has frequently fired and rehired Zimmer during past productions. During the party, Zimmer situates an array of John Dale-inspired dummies for Hannaford to shoot at.
• Paul Stewart as Matt Costello, Hannaford's personal assistant and another member of the "Hannaford Mafia". He is reputed to have a long-standing association with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
• Gregory Sierra as Jack Simon, a macho screenwriter with parallels to John Milius, who questions Hannaford's sexual orientation in front of Otterlake.
• Tonio Selwart as The Baron, a parody of Welles' former business partner John Houseman (or his friend producer Alessando Tasca di Cutò), whom he had acrimoniously separated from in the 1940s, and who published several memoirs throughout the 1970s which were scathing of Welles, but who is presented here as doting and devoted. He doubles as Hannaford's primary screenwriter.^[7]:165
• Dan Tobin as Dr. Bradley Pease Burroughs, Professor of English Literature at Clivedale Academy, a boys' boarding school in Franahan, Ohio, which had been implicated in a pederasty scandal involving another teacher. His former star pupil is John Dale. When Pease Burroughs is brought out to Hannaford's party to discuss Dale he is noticeably ill-at-ease in the unfamiliar atmosphere of Hollywood.
• John Carroll as Lou Martin, an actor who is another member of the "Hannaford Mafia".
• Stafford Repp as Al Denny, an actor who is another member of the "Hannaford Mafia".
• Geoffrey Land as Max David, a young studio boss and former child actor, spoofing Robert Evans.^[7]:165
• Joseph McBride as Mr. Pister, an amalgamation of various cinephiles and socially awkward film critics whom Welles had met over the years.^{[7]:164, 177, 200}
• Pat McMahon as Marvin P. Fassbender, a bumptious film journalist.
• Cathy Lucas as Mavis Henscher, a spoof of Bogdanovich's then-girlfriend, actress Cybill Shepherd (who was present for at least some of the filming, and whose brother, Bill Shepherd, was part of the production crew filming in Arizona). A young actress, Henscher has difficulty balancing her acting career with the correspondence course her home state makes her take while working.^[7]:165
• Howard Grossman as Charles Higgam, Hannaford's biographer, a parody of Charles Higham, who had written an influential and unflattering 1970 biography of Welles which had wounded him with its Freudian accusation that he had a "fear of completion" on films. A 1970 Higham article publicizing the biography had directly led to one major investor pulling out from The Other Side of the Wind, who was put off by the "fear of completion" charge. The role was originally played by Bogdanovich, but then re-shot with Grossman when Bogdanovich switched to playing Otterlake. Although Higgam was a more prominent character in the earlier scripts, his role is sharply reduced in the final film.^[7]:165
• Robert Aiken as the driver in Hannaford's film-within-a-film, who is the jealous boyfriend of the unnamed actress played by Kodar.
• Gene Clark as the projectionist at Hannaford's party.
• Peter Jason as Grover.
• Larry Jackson as Roger, an avant-garde young filmmaker.
• Cassie Yates as Martine, an avant-garde young filmmaker.
• Benny Rubin as Abe Vogel, based on veteran Hollywood agent Abe Lastfogel.^[7]:165
• Henry Jaglom as himself.
• Paul Mazursky as himself.
• Dennis Hopper as himself.
• Curtis Harrington as himself.
• Claude Chabrol as himself.
• Stéphane Audran as herself.
• George Jessel as himself.
• Angelo Rossitto as himself.
• Richard Wilson as himself.
• Rich Little as a party guest.
• Cameron Crowe as a party guest.
• Les Moonves as a party guest.
• Orson Welles as the voice of a journalist (uncredited).
• Documentary filmmakers were played by Gary Graver, Frank Marshall, Mike Ferris, Eric Sherman, Felipe Herba, Paul Hunt, Bill Weaver and Mark Turnbull.