Thanks for the link. I've bought most of the Orson Welles books that I've found in stores, but again, big difference between what exists and what I actually find. The film books and classes at our university completely skip the film too. Never thought to look by title... curious. Any others?Martha wrote:No reading material apart from this whole book, you mean?
Lucky you. Like I said, we're burning those DVDs the VHS tape we rented from an independent video store that is under new ownership. It's got Japanese characters all over the screen constantly, but hey, it's in widescreen. Otherwise, once that tape is gone... it's gone. No idea where it came from either, other than conjecture.Martha wrote:I saw a 16mm print in college but don't remember it clearly enough to comment in an informed way...
I've checked around, and those imports are considerably cut from the original version and I've also heard it may also be impaired by PAL speedup through the transfer. Unless something else comes around, this bootleg looks like the only choice.I can't vouch for the quality, but here's a Spanish dvd.
If you don't succeed at first, suck again until you do succeed? That seems to be what you're saying (about the restored Othello.....or Touch of Evil??) Which reminds me, I think it's time to pull out my Criterion LD of Othello before too long, now THAT'S how that film should have appeared on dvd!Narshty wrote:Uh-oh. We know what happened the last time something like that was attempted.Andre Jurieu wrote:On the last forum someone mentioned that the film is being restored at present and the sound is being improved considerably in order for the dialogue to sync up correctly.
Do you have any idea where we could track down the rest of that information or more details?On the last forum someone mentioned that the film is being restored at present and the sound is being improved considerably in order for the dialogue to sync up correctly.
It's not as bad as people keep saying. The copy I saw was kind of what you would expect from a Spaghetti Western that was originally shot in English but then post-dubbed. Maybe I've grown an immunity to ADR over the last few years, but I can definitely imagine worse.Apparently, though I haven't watched it for myself, there are various problems with the final product of the film since Welles had to complete it over a number of years and constantly track down funding.
Thanks, I appreciate the warning because I almost bought it thinking that. Do you know anything about the book "Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture"?The Rutgers Films in Print series of books isn't the greatest either. Most of the books are just scripts with only a few essays included towards the very end. Just a heads up in case you expect the entire book to be analysis.
If you're referring to Othello, the only thing we should worry about is whether or not Beatrice Welles is involved on Chimes. Additionally, someone needs to get around to asking Criterion if they still hold the rights to their print of Othello. We may yet see the original version re-released if Beatrice's only copyright claim is to the cut she issued.Uh-oh. We know what happened the last time something like that was attempted.
Wow, well I can definitely say the copy I saw was infinitely superior to that. The copy you had on hand must have come from a shoddy distribution label with poor material and/or transfer equipment. I understood everything (short of some "old English") and found it very enjoyable.When people are using words and phrasing you’re not as familiar with, muffling the sounds makes figuring out what they're saying nearly impossible, where a more familiar use of English would have made the task bit easier. At least it gives you some templates or frames of reference.
It looked pretty bargain basement; it's cover was just a large screen shot of Orson from the movie with black at the bottom with the title, ect.Wow, well I can definitely say the copy I saw was infinitely superior to that. The copy you had on hand must have come from a shoddy distribution label with poor material and/or transfer equipment. I understood everything (short of some "old English") and found it very enjoyable.
Not really. Maybe try to Google it. I was kind of hoping the person who posted it before would re-port the info. You could try and find it in the text version of the old forum.DrewReiber wrote: Do you have any idea where we could track down the rest of that information or more details?
Sorry, can't help you out on that one either, since I haven't read the book.DrewReiber wrote:Do you know anything about the book "Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture"?
IMMORTAL STORY is a nice unassuming Welles story with reflexive echoes of LADY FROM SHANGHAI in the shots. It's based on an Isak Dinesen short story. Like a lot of Welles' independent work, it's saddled with some less-than-perfect audio sync-up, but its story manages to be both literary and cinematic in a drawing room kind of way. I like films that play with the lines between fantasy/reality, fact/fiction, and their conversion through context. IMMORTAL STORY is one of those films. I wouldn't be surprised if this eventually saw the light of DVD day, perhaps with some other footage of Welles' aborted Dinesen project, THE DREAMERS, as extras.DrewReiber wrote:Managed to score a copy of The Immortal Story, but it's gonna be a while before it ships to me. Anyone seen this film yet?
How Orson got out of jail
Geoffrey Macnab
The Guardian
Bursting out of hiding ... Orson Welles in Chimes at Midnight
"He had a great pleasure in playing tricks. He was a presti . . . prestigi . . . pretigidigi . . ." Teresa Cavina, deputy director of the Locarno festival, struggles for the right word to describe Orson Welles, whose career is celebrated in a huge retrospective at Locarno, Switzerland, over the next fortnight. When Welles died 20 years ago, he left his estate in a fearsome tangle. Family members, producers and distributors have all been bickering over the rights to his films, many of them incomplete, ever since. Locarno's achievement is to have persuaded the various warring parties to call a temporary truce - at least for the duration of the festival.
Audiences here in this rain-sodden mountain resort will have a rare chance to see Welles's masterful Shakespeare adaptation, Chimes at Midnight. The film, starring Welles as Falstaff, has been out of circulation for several years as the families of the producers, Harry Saltzman and Emiliano Piedra, try to work out who owns it.
"At the end of the day, the families both thought Chimes at Midnight was a film in prison. The only place in which it could come out of prison, just for one screening, was Locarno. They agreed that Locarno was a place for film lovers, not a place for a trial," Cavina says.
Chimes at Midnight is not the only fought-over title in the "Magnificent Welles" bill. Locarno is also holding a series of workshops featuring the unfinished works. There will be reconstructions of some of the films cut without the director's approval: Locarno will screen a 111-minute version of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), including photographs of the cut scenes. There is a new version of Mr Arkadin and there will also be rare footage of The Deep (1967-1969).
"He was tying and untying chains," Cavina says as she contemplates Welles's extraordinarily complicated business and private life. "He wasn't a crook and nobody perceived him as a crook. But he was a . . . prestidigitator."