The Other Side of the Wind – 1976 Welles

It is a hazy work- uneven with some strong highpoints- famously the “greatest unreleased” or “unfinished film” with tremendous production, post-production issues
Largely it’s a departure from Welles black and white, gorgeously (and creatively) framed mise-en-scene films with deep focus— this is a film made in the editing room with a crazy low ASL- Average Shot length
Parts shot at the Zabriskie Point house used in the 1970 Antonioni film and much of the film within the film here (also named the other side of the wind) is a spoof and satire of Antonioni and Bertolucci. The ironic thing is- these scenes (including the transcendent scene– the sex in the car sequence) are dazzling- and the greatest thing about this work from Welles

It’ll require multiple viewings
It’s a messy work– spots of beauty, definitely ambitious aesthetic choices being made (mainly in the editing, the car sex sequence and the beauty of the film within the film). It won’t make my top 10 (I’m calling it a 1976 film -the year the filming was complete). It’s in the archives out but if you haven’t seen ambersons in awhile, the trial, othello, chimes at midnight and others those are all more worthy of exploration
Welles so clearly a martyr- iconoclastic—there’s jealousy here in this work thematically and that’s a great pairing with his previous films
Shot some in 16mm and some in 35mm. This is being done all over the place now for formal effect (like Grand Budapest from Wes Anderson, to lesser effect Chazelle’s First Man– but not as often in 1976. Of course Wizard of Oz had the b/w and color switch in 1939
Very meta- autobiographical—throws “you’re good at imitations” at Bogdanovich’s character—it’s angry. Self-effacing one minute and bellowing arrogance the next.
The editing is kind of like its own lady from shanghai hall of mirrors kaleidoscope
Welles is a perfectionist- different ways from say Kubrick and Hitchcock- but one in the same- we’ll never know what this would’ve looked like with him editing it of course though he did leave direction
Introduces 20 characters in the first 5 minutes- it’s daunting for a first viewing to keep up
Olivier Stone in the editing room! JFK and Natural Born Killers here
It feels kinetic, but rushed, first drafty, brazen and sloppy all at once
The film within the film is so attractive- the blue night in the parking lot, the architecture as character (Antonioni)

—there’s paparazzi all over the place that remind me of La Dolce Vita and characters just popping up talking to the camera like 8 ½
Hemingway in the text several times
The movie plays a bit like the trip scenes in Easy Rider or Midnight Cowboy a bit- both miraculously wonderful editing
The car sex scene is standout sequence- headlights, rain, jump cuts, silent sequence, neon color and edited rhythmically to the sex

Shots through the bed frame of skin, the architectural structure like that from Antonioni’s l’eclisse
Long period (when we get away from the film within the film) with no redeeming qualities—
Bertolucci name in text, Preminger, Antonioni with a jocular making fun of the name