It was nearly a year ago that we got the last substantial update about Orson Welles‘ long-overdue final feature, The Other Side of the Wind. After an initial fundraising campaign intended to help those involved with the production complete the un-edited film in time for Welles’ 100th birthday in May 2015 didn’t meet its goal, there was word that Netflix was discussing “the completion of the feature film for theatrical and streaming release and creation of a full-length documentary.” We finally have new development on the project, thanks to a Hollywood legend, and one of the stars of the film.
Last night, Peter Bogdanovich took part in a Q&A at the Metrograph in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, following a 35mm screening of his 1981 film They All Laughed. When asked about the status of The Other Side of the Wind, Bogdanovich revealed that, following many years of negotiation with...
Last night, Peter Bogdanovich took part in a Q&A at the Metrograph in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, following a 35mm screening of his 1981 film They All Laughed. When asked about the status of The Other Side of the Wind, Bogdanovich revealed that, following many years of negotiation with...
- 1/16/2017
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Orson Welles’ life and career could easily fill a miniseries, but Chuck Workman, a past master of storytelling through montage (which earned him an Oscar for his 1986 short Precious Images), has compressed Welles’ saga into a lively, colorful, fast-moving feature. Think of it as a précis for that multi-episode exploration that someone else should tackle down the road. I fancy myself to be reasonably knowledgeable about Welles, but I was glued to the screen just the same. There is virtually no aspect of the great man’s life Workman doesn’t touch upon. We see glimpses of his youthful artwork, his first attempt to make a film (The Hearts of Age), his theater work in Dublin...
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- 12/12/2014
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Okay, so it might not be "The Other Side Of The Wind" —Orson Welles' unfinished movie that has been in various states of restoration for years— but "Too Much Johnson" is still a project from the famed filmmaker that's been in the shadows for a long, long, long time. But now you can download it right to your desktop. Legally! But first, some backstory... Last summer, Welles' first feature film "Too Much Johnson" (his first short was 1934's "The Hearts of Age," made while still in high school and co-directed by William Vance) was discovered in a shipping warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. It was dusted off rather quickly, and last fall was unspooled at the 32nd Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, before making its way stateside for a screening at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. And thanks to the efforts of the National Film Preservation Foundation...
- 8/21/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
The rediscovered 1938 film, which has launched the Academy's Essential Orson Welles series, anticipates his later Diy spirit
Last summer, much excitement greeted the news that a work print of Orson Welles's long-lost Too Much Johnson, which pre-dates his first feature, Citizen Kane, had been discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. Produced in 1938 as part of a mixed-media staging of actor/playwright William Gillette's 1894 comedy, it consists of three filmed interstitial segments designed to provide backstory and context for the play, which unfortunately flopped in tryouts at Connecticut's Stony Creek theatre and never opened on Broadway.
Restored under the auspices of George Eastman House and the National Film Preservation Foundation, the footage (about 66 minutes) had been screened for the public only three times before its presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on 3 May as part of a double bill with Welles's earliest known film, the...
Last summer, much excitement greeted the news that a work print of Orson Welles's long-lost Too Much Johnson, which pre-dates his first feature, Citizen Kane, had been discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. Produced in 1938 as part of a mixed-media staging of actor/playwright William Gillette's 1894 comedy, it consists of three filmed interstitial segments designed to provide backstory and context for the play, which unfortunately flopped in tryouts at Connecticut's Stony Creek theatre and never opened on Broadway.
Restored under the auspices of George Eastman House and the National Film Preservation Foundation, the footage (about 66 minutes) had been screened for the public only three times before its presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on 3 May as part of a double bill with Welles's earliest known film, the...
- 5/5/2014
- by Jordan Riefe
- The Guardian - Film News
Too Much Johnson – which was intended for inclusion in a theatre show – forms an 'intellectual bridge' between the director's theatrical and cinematic careers, says its restorer
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It's hugely exciting discovery – and a bizarre, unexpected one too. An early Orson Welles film, previously thought lost, has been found in a warehouse in northern Italy. Too Much Johnson, the second film Welles ever created, is a silent movie, a slapstick comedy that has never been shown and was thought to have been destroyed in a fire.
"We may never fully understand the mystery of why it was abandoned. What matters now is that it is safe, and that it will be seen," says Dr Paolo Cherchi Usai, senior curator of motion pictures at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, which restored the footage.
The film, says Cherchi Usai, is the "intellectual bridge" between Welles's theatrical and cinematic careers.
Reading this on mobile? Click to view
It's hugely exciting discovery – and a bizarre, unexpected one too. An early Orson Welles film, previously thought lost, has been found in a warehouse in northern Italy. Too Much Johnson, the second film Welles ever created, is a silent movie, a slapstick comedy that has never been shown and was thought to have been destroyed in a fire.
"We may never fully understand the mystery of why it was abandoned. What matters now is that it is safe, and that it will be seen," says Dr Paolo Cherchi Usai, senior curator of motion pictures at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, which restored the footage.
The film, says Cherchi Usai, is the "intellectual bridge" between Welles's theatrical and cinematic careers.
- 8/8/2013
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Oh Orson Welles, how we love thee. Let us count the ways... From Rosebud to last month's "My Lunches with Orson," Welles continues to capture the minds of generations of filmmakers and film enthusiasts. Every so often, little bits of Welles' work and legacy seem to crop up out of the woodworks, and if you couldn't tell, we relish each revelation and rediscovery, from an unmade complete screenplay to a casino instructional video to a "Dark Tower" boardgame ad. Now, another piece of Welles has been uncovered in northern Italy, and it's about time. Considered to have been long lost (thought most likely to have been destroyed in a 1971 fire that burnt down Welles' Spanish villa), Welles' first professional film "Too Much Johnson" (his first amateur one was the 1934 short "The Hearts of Age" that he made still in high school) has been recovered from a shipping warehouse in Pordenone,...
- 8/8/2013
- by Diana Drumm
- The Playlist
Good things come in small packages (or so my wife assures me), and that can certainly be the case when it comes to films. Part of the genius of short films is that when they’re good they are just as entertaining and rewarding as something twenty times the length, and when they’re bad, well, at least they’re over quickly. In all walks of life there’s a satisfying beauty to brevity, and in filmmaking it’s nearly always the case that less is best – as anyone who has sat through Judd Apatow’s self-indulgent snore-fest Funny People can attest (surely Irritating People would have been a better title?).
But I digress – I’m here to praise, not malign, and so below I’ve compiled a little list of what I consider to be among the five best short films of all time. Of course, like a lot...
But I digress – I’m here to praise, not malign, and so below I’ve compiled a little list of what I consider to be among the five best short films of all time. Of course, like a lot...
- 9/16/2011
- by Jez Gee
- Obsessed with Film
I was saddened to learn this morning that Betty Garrett, the great star of stage, screen, and TV, passed away yesterday at the age of 94 after suffering an aortic aneurysm.
Garrett was one of those rare people — like, say, Jack Valenti — who happened to be a witness to and/or participant in a remarkably high number of historic events of the 20th century. She was a member of Orson Welles’s famed Mercury Theatre company, and was with him on the night that he shook up America with his infamous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” (1938); she was Frank Sinatra’s leading lady in two of the earliest great M-g-m musical-comedies, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1949) and “On the Town” (1949); her career was greatly hurt by the Hollywood Red Scare after her husband, the Oscar nominated actor Larry Parks, refused to name names before the House Committee...
Garrett was one of those rare people — like, say, Jack Valenti — who happened to be a witness to and/or participant in a remarkably high number of historic events of the 20th century. She was a member of Orson Welles’s famed Mercury Theatre company, and was with him on the night that he shook up America with his infamous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” (1938); she was Frank Sinatra’s leading lady in two of the earliest great M-g-m musical-comedies, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1949) and “On the Town” (1949); her career was greatly hurt by the Hollywood Red Scare after her husband, the Oscar nominated actor Larry Parks, refused to name names before the House Committee...
- 2/13/2011
- by Scott Feinberg
- Scott Feinberg
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