Orson Welles's Lost (and Last) Film "Other Side of the Wind" Projected to Finally Be Released in 2008

When the American Film Institute revised their Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time in June of this year--they again proclaimed Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane" as the greatest film ever made. According to some who've seen rough cuts of Welles's final unreleased feature film, "Other Side of the Wind", however, the AFI may want to leave some room if they want to honor another one of his greatest films ever on the next Top 100. Chances are, "Other Side of the Wind" would get a much better response as a Welles masterpiece than "Kane" has. "Wind" has much more modern touches (explicit sex scenes included) and an even more complex story and editing structure than any of Welles's previous films thanks to being filmed in the 1970's when the Hays Code no longer was relevant. It's also a tad biographical (or even more so) than "Kane" has been purported to be from a perspective of Welles's career downward spiral. Many of the key characters in "Wind" are said to be thinly veiled portraits of people in Welles's real life. The main character (Jake Hannaford) is an aging director as Welles was (played by John Huston) who's making a shockingly daring film to appease to commercial audiences. It turns out to be his last film, ironically, when he's killed in a car crash.

The history of "Other Side of the Wind" is fascinating on its own. It seems most of Welles's unfinished projects have as much rich history behind them than the actual films. "Kane" (and even the celebrated, cerebral, but little-known "F for Fake") have had documentaries made about them that have realities told that are almost hard to believe. But Welles's "Wind" has been tied up in legal entanglements going back to the mid 1970's with a long history of interesting tales associated with getting it released. That's a possible testament to many of Welles's media properties being too hot to handle for many financial backers Welles hooked up with to get funding for his fledgling projects. Now, a gratifying feeling of a lost Welles project finally having its dark clouds parted may be happening soon according to Peter Bogdanovich who said as much at a film festival in spring of 2007.

Filming on "Other Side of the Wind" started in 1970 after several years of work on the script--according to those associated with the project. This was during a financially down time in Welles's career that forced him to do ridiculous projects you wouldn't ordinarily see him in just to have money to live on or use toward funding his movies. Eventually, his career lows forced him to go live in the home of his director friend, the above-mentioned Peter Bogdanovich (who also lived with Cybil Shepherd who tells Orson Welles stories to this day). Before that, though, Welles invested most of his energies filming "Wind"--and it ultimately took him six years to get it close to completion. It's a wonder the entire cast stayed with him to film through those six years. John Huston was actually brought in four years into filming--while the rest of the time was editing work or other outside shooting. By the time Welles was honored in a long-overdue AFI Lifetime Achievement Award special in 1975...he screened some fully-edited clips from "Wind" to all of the Hollywood heavyweights (no pun intended) in attendance. He also screened clips to close friends at various parties over the next few years. Most associated with Welles say that only 40 to 50 minutes of footage were more or less completed by him with his trademark editing stamp.

Mehdi Boushari as a financial backer for "Wind"... and his connection to the Shah of Iran...

Welles frequently had to persuade outside millionaires to fund his projects starting when Hollywood shunned him after "Citizen Kane" ran William Randolph Hearst through the mud. Welles felt the brunt of having to be independent when he returned to America in the late 60's to make films after a long time living in Spain and other countries abroad while doing myriad projects there. He also found a lot of misfortune when it came to finding the right financial backers. Many of them would pull out at the last minute or demand changes to the film against his wishes. When seeking out financing for "Other Side of the Wind"--Welles went to a very wealthy man in the 1970's: Mehdia Bousheri who was a brother-in-law to the Shah of Iran of all things. Bousheri had faith in Welles and put up one million of his own dollars toward the budget on the film. As with prior investors, though, strange entanglements happened again. All of the original negatives Welles shot for "Wind" were stored in France by Boushari. But when the Shah was overthrown in 1979--the negatives were caught up in legal red tape associated with the political uprisings going on in Iran. This meant Welles couldn't get access to the negatives in his lifetime. He did manage to smuggle out a print of the negatives when visiting France in the 80's--but couldn't complete the film with the material he had.

Before Bousheri died in recent years--he always maintained copyright ownership of the film. And so began the long, protracted power struggle in who the owner of the film actually was, who would financially benefit and who would potentially complete it in the years following Welles's death in 1985. Boushari initially thought the original negatives in his possession was a goldmine. After all, it was Orson Welles's last completed film that might even rival his celebrated "Citizen Kane." Welles's longtime female live-in companion/fellow collaborator, Oja Kodar, though, reminded Bousheri that an Orson Welles film didn't automatically equate to making millions. Welles had set the definition for what a true independent filmmaker is to this day when he came back to America in the 60's to make his own movies. With limited budgets, and doing ever-frequent cerebral adaptations of famous novels or original ideas--he became synonymous with art house material that only a select few pay money to see. Today, though, "The Other Side of the Wind" very well could become a mainstream hit considering the cutting-edge material fits right in with the times.

"Wind" is said to be the first mockumentary....with plenty of sex...

A metanarrative concept permeates the plot of "Wind" according to descriptions of its structure. The film is actually told in flashback as Jack Hannaford (Huston) is killed in that car wreck. We later see him in the flashback being feted at a 70^th birthday celebration where he screens clips from his latest film (which is also called "Other Side of the Wind"). His film is blatantly commercial and loaded with explicit sex scenes so he can have one final box-office hit to his film roster. During this birthday celebration, other directors can be seen filming footage of the party through their own camera lens. Really, this formed something even more complex than the standard mockumentaries created later by Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest. It showed multiple points of view through various fictional directors. Much of the footage you see was deliberately filmed in a rough way to give the impression of seeing Hannaford's party through different directorial perspectives...that were actually created by Welles. Cerebral much, you say? Yes, but Welles increased his complex sense of film structure as he got older. It's basically a veiled "Citizen Kane" through a much wider and complex prism.

Ironically, the film gives some predictions of Welles's own demise. He was exactly 70 when he died in 1985--and after giving numerous parties screening scenes from "Other Side of the Wind." And the sex scenes are only in the film within the film. Oja Kodar (Welles said she was his "erotic expert") does most of those explicit scenes...one being in the front seat of a car. Scenes of that and the trailer have been available on Youtube for a while--and still are as of this writing. All of that material was probably taken from the copies of the original negatives that Welles brought back with him from France.

And then people say that various characters in the movie depict some of the enemies in Orson Welles's life. Welles had a major bone to pick with famed movie critic Pauline Kael when she wrote an entire book blasting his "Citizen Kane" and giving more credit to screenwriter Herman Mankiewitz in the creative aspects of the film. That book by Kael was written in the early 70's--and those who've seen the rough cuts of "Wind" say an unlikable critic in the film named Juliette Riche (played by Susan Strasberg) is based on Kael.

Showtime (the network) almost airs "Wind"--and a deal is finally reached in 2007 with Peter Bogdanovich at the helm...

Surprisingly, Beatrice Welles (Orson's daughter and owner of her father's estate) froze up a deal for Showtime to air the existing print of "Wind" back in the late 90's. She's been quite well-known for being openly critical of the final edited visions of Orson's incomplete works. She openly complained when Universal re-released the newly-edited (based on Welles's own memo) print of "Touch of Evil" in 1998 and had it pulled from some theatres later. And her protection of "Other Side of the Wind" killed that deal with Showtime when Oja Kodar and Mehdi Bousheri had essentially agreed to Showtime airing it.

Since Bousheri's death, the original negatives of "Wind" have finally been brought to America under the ownership of Kodar and Beatrice Welles. Through the early 2000's, the film's original cinematographer, Gary Graver, Kodar and longtime friend Peter Bogdanovich tried to complete the film based on the original negatives that had fortunately been preserved in that vault in Paris. The only problem was getting the editing done on it, which would be a Herculean task considering its complexity and getting Welles's unique editing technique just right. With Graver's death in 2006--it brought the film to yet another stumbling block.

In April of 2007, Peter Bogdanovich revealed at a film festival in Florida that a deal had once and for all been made between Beatrice Welles and Oja Kodar to finally get the film released domestically. Bogdanovich said that there was agreement he would be the editor on the final cut of the film (having worked with Welles frequently and understanding his technique)--while also placing his own documentary around it. In essence, the final cut may end up being a documentary...about multiple documentaries documenting a fictional film.

Well, so much for making the film less complex than it already was. But with a projected release date in late 2008, this could be one of the most exciting film releases of all time. Everybody who's already seen the existing footage say its Welles's true masterwork outside of his shorter "F for Fake." Perhaps if it resonates with today's audiences--it'll finally put the needlessly-much-argued-about "Citizen Kane" to rest for a while and let people enjoy Welles's cinematic brilliance on a different level from his later years.

On the other hand, Bogdanovich hasn't given 100% assurance at the release date. When it comes to unreleased Orson Welles projects (and there are literally thousands of them not seen to this day)--getting one finally realized is almost always on the long track rather than a short one.