The Other Side of the Wind
Director: Orson Welles
Year Released: 2018
Rating: 1.5
Long-lost Welles effort from the early-to-mid 1970's (!) gets resurrected and 'reassembled' with the help of Peter Bogdanovich (who plays an assistant) and other notable directors and fans: here, a brash and unorthodox filmmaker named Hannaford (John Huston ... as himself?) tries to finish his project, but runs into money problems (a common problem in Welles' career) and actor issues and simply cannot stop drinking (Chivas Regal by the glass). With Welles having left this shabby planet in 1985, it's difficult to assign a grade to it in his absence since there's no way of telling whether or not he would have approved of the final edit, but what is left is a choppy 'satire' of the movie-making business, with oodles of cuts and exaggerated performances (why is Bogdanovich always trying to do accents ... badly?) - I think it's also supposed to be a slap at 'art house cinema' (produced by the likes of Antonioni and Bertolucci) but it's barely coherent itself. What is nice is seeing some long-gone stars like Mercedes McCambridge and Edmond O'Brien and Dennis Hopper just one more time ... and no Orson picture, no matter how 'unfinished,' is without its sumptuous imagery or energy. Question: what has a wider variety of facial expressions, Oja Kodar or a Moai statue?
