Orson Welles

[Stefan Andersson]

Rushes from Orson Welles´ Merchant of Venice, restored in 2025 by the Cinemathèque Francaise:
https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/ ... bzZmGDU0dg

Film materials deposited by Oja Kodar. Text says that Kodar has confided part of her film archive to the CF.
Perhaps more unfinished work has been moved from the Munich Film Museum to the CF?

https://www.wellesnet.com/phpbb2/viewto ... 374#p30374

[hearthesilence]

I hope they do the nearly-completed The Deep and make that available.

[albucat]

Thanks for the head's up. And yes, the big questions are what else do they have, and will any of it also see its way online?

[beamish14]

I hope they do the nearly-completed The Deep and make that available.

I don’t know if The Deep can ever become widely available due to the rights situation with its source novel and Dead Calm (1989). Stefan Drossler of the Munich Filmmuseum has screened a program of Welles rarities that includes chunks of it, though. We have probably reached a point where we can properly color grade it

[Lowry_Sam]

I don’t know if The Deep can ever become widely available due to the rights situation with its source novel and Dead Calm (1989). Stefan Drossler of the Munich Filmmuseum has screened a program of Welles rarities that includes chunks of it, though. We have probably reached a point where we can properly color grade it

From what I remember from the screening I saw at the PFA (my memory is a bit foggy because there were a bunch of unfinished Welles projects presented as part of a Welles retrospective, some of which were only clips), part of what exists was in color and part in b&w. Would they leave it that way or release it all in b&w? (Hopefully they won't be using AI to Ted Turner it). The only thing I can remember from the screening was that it was not as good as Plein soleil and so I assumed it would probably never see the light of day. given the missing sound and b&w/color issues.

[beamish14]

I don’t know if The Deep can ever become widely available due to the rights situation with its source novel and Dead Calm (1989). Stefan Drossler of the Munich Filmmuseum has screened a program of Welles rarities that includes chunks of it, though. We have probably reached a point where we can properly color grade it

From what I remember from the screening I saw at the PFA (my memory is a bit foggy because there were a bunch of unfinished Welles projects presented as part of a Welles retrospective, some of which were only clips), part of what exists was in color and part in b&w. Would they leave it that way or release it all in b&w? (Hopefully they won't be using AI to Ted Turner it). The only thing I can remember from the screening was that it was not as good as Plein soleil and so I assumed it would probably never see the light of day. given the missing sound and b&w/color issues.

Welles loved monochrome, of course, but I assume it really was intended to be all in color, as he really wanted it to be a very commercial work. The OCN doesn’t exist, sadly

[hearthesilence]

Lawrence French writes about it here but basically two workprints exist: one in color, one in black & white. It's supposed to be in color, BUT there are indeed black & white segments which French describes in detail. I think that's what Lowry_Sam caught (and what I fucking missed thanks to the MTA - I still hold that grudge).

[JamesF]

News to me, so apologies if it's repeating anything here, but apparently the Cinematheque Francaise are restoring The Stranger from the "négatifs originaux", in collaboration with the Library of Congress and Transperfect Media (the latter of whom also restored F For Fake with the Cinetheque a few years ago).

[Roger Ryan]

News to me, so apologies if it's repeating anything here, but apparently the Cinematheque Francaise are restoring The Stranger from the "négatifs originaux", in collaboration with the Library of Congress and Transperfect Media (the latter of whom also restored F For Fake with the Cinetheque a few years ago).

I hadn't heard anything about this previously either... and that clip embedded on the Cinematheque Francaise site looks better than any version of this longtime public domain film I've seen.

[beamish14]

News to me, so apologies if it's repeating anything here, but apparently the Cinematheque Francaise are restoring The Stranger from the "négatifs originaux", in collaboration with the Library of Congress and Transperfect Media (the latter of whom also restored F For Fake with the Cinetheque a few years ago).

I hadn't heard anything about this previously either... and that clip embedded on the Cinematheque Francaise site looks better than any version of this longtime public domain film I've seen.

This is a fantastic development. I’ve always hoped for a true 4K of it, and maybe Criterion would be willing to license it.

Still crossing my fingers for more It’s All True this year

[hearthesilence]

That restoration of F for Fake is the same exact one I've mentioned in the past, the one shown at MoMA's To Save and Project. This bodes well for The Stranger, but I hope they release it as a UHD or at least a Blu-ray - they've yet to do the same with the new F for Fake restoration.

[colinr0380]

This was interesting: the Oddity Archive guy has mentioned in a recent video getting hold of a Cartrivision tape of Orson Welles doings readings of literature, which may be the only format that the material exists in.

[Stefan Andersson]

News to me, so apologies if it's repeating anything here, but apparently the Cinematheque Francaise are restoring The Stranger from the "négatifs originaux", in collaboration with the Library of Congress and Transperfect Media (the latter of whom also restored F For Fake with the Cinetheque a few years ago).

I hadn't heard anything about this previously either... and that clip embedded on the Cinematheque Francaise site looks better than any version of this longtime public domain film I've seen.

This is a fantastic development. I’ve always hoped for a true 4K of it, and maybe Criterion would be willing to license it.

The Stranger, 4K, screening in the Cannes Classics 2026 program:
https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/pres ... sics-2026/

[Stefan Andersson]

News from Joseph McBride re: an updated third edition of his 1972 Orson Welles book, " incorporating recent developments in /.../ Welles scholarship and my revised thinking on some of his films, /.../ including an ambitious monograph-sized study of The Other Side of the Wind."
https://wellesnet.com/persistence-of-vision/

[Stefan]

What would we do without Joseph McBride? His work has been tremendous.

[Walter Kurtz]

McBride... “What has happened over the last few decades to the art form I loved—in this country it’s been turned largely into moronic fodder for the adolescent male audience...we just know that film as we knew it is over."

Moronic fodder. I like that.

[Stefan]

@Walter Kurtz
McBride ... YES!. It's interesting that there has never been a similar statement by the pope of remaining critical cinema thinking, David Thomson.

[hearthesilence]

I think this has been a pretty popular stance among quite a few critics (Jonathan Rosenbaum especially) and I think it's what Scorsese was insinuating when he explained why he's never been able to watch Marvel movies beyond what few he has seen. I love how Kevin Smith, a middle-aged man who still dresses like he's in fucking middle school, then accused Scorsese of being "a man of a certain age and stuck in his ways."

[senseabove]

the pope of remaining critical cinema thinking, David Thomson.

[many, many citations needed]

[lazarus]

Speaking of The Other Side of the Wind, still waiting for Criterion (or whoever) to release it on physical media. Certainly Netflix stands to make more money this way? No one is subscribing or renewing with their service just to watch an "unfinished" film from the early 70s.

Unless it goes back to more legal disputes between Oja Kodar and the family or other investors, but since they managed to get the editing done not sure why there's wrangling over a disc release.

[beamish14]

Speaking of The Other Side of the Wind, still waiting for Criterion (or whoever) to release it on physical media. Certainly Netflix stands to make more money this way? No one is subscribing or renewing with their service just to watch an "unfinished" film from the early 70s.

Unless it goes back to more legal disputes between Oja Kodar and the family or other investors, but since they managed to get the editing done not sure why there's wrangling over a disc release.

It could possibly be issues with the Kickstarter that predated Netflix’s involvement.

There is just SO much material-the short rough cut that Welles made and Gary Graver took to studios after Welles’ death, the Hopper/Welles documentary, Netflix’s TWO documentaries on the film, etc.

[Maltic]

McBride... “What has happened over the last few decades to the art form I loved—in this country it’s been turned largely into moronic fodder for the adolescent male audience...we just know that film as we knew it is over."

Moronic fodder. I like that.

It might be that the moronic millennial /gen x adolescent male audience, i.e. the Kevin Smith demographic, is the only one that cares at least a bit about movies these days, so we get Project Hail Mary in the somewhat smarter end of the spectrum, and Marvel in the other....