Orson Welles

[nowhereisaplace]

Wow, I actually just watched that Kino Blu last night and was struck how I had never seen the opening logo before and wondered, too, about the last shot! That is a shame it's lost int he restoration.

[Stefan Andersson]

Esteve Riambau on reconstructing Don Quixote:
https://wellesnet.com/esteve-riambau-don-quixote/

[reaky]

I haven’t seen this, but do Franco’s additions include a nude cabaret scene, crotch-zooms and plenty of out-of-focus content?

“… Don Quijote de Orson Welles, director Jess Franco’s controversial attempt to assemble the movie. Drawing on fragments of Welles’ unfinished film, footage from the Italian travelogue In the Land of Don Quixote, and newly shot material, the resulting disjointed feature was widely criticized...”

[Roger Ryan]

I haven’t seen this, but do Franco’s additions include a nude cabaret scene, crotch-zooms and plenty of out-of-focus content?

“… Don Quijote de Orson Welles, director Jess Franco’s controversial attempt to assemble the movie. Drawing on fragments of Welles’ unfinished film, footage from the Italian travelogue In the Land of Don Quixote, and newly shot material, the resulting disjointed feature was widely criticized...”

That might have made the travesty worth watching... well, not the out-of-focus content. The newly shot material mostly (exclusively?) consisted of b-roll shots of windmills. I recall one wide composite shot where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are seen riding past one or more windmills in a poorly superimposed image - Quixote and Panza are from Welles' footage, the windmill is newly shot. Franco only had a fraction of Welles' footage to work with and that footage didn't actually feature any windmills. I'm not sure if Welles even filmed any windmills* during the 15 years or so of shooting although there is a lot of footage I've not seen.

*"'Don Quixote' without a windmill?" you may ask; Welles' version of the story placed Quixote and Panza in contemporary Spain so Quixote attacks a movie screen instead of a windmill (in an impressive scene edited by Welles but not included in Franco's version).

[JamesF]

Part of the presentation in Bologna included a very fun workprint clip where Welles dubbed the voices of both Don Quixote and Sancho.

A new 4K master of The One Man Band from INA also screened, but I didn’t see it.

[beamish14]

Part of the presentation in Bologna included a very fun workprint clip where Welles dubbed the voices of both Don Quixote and Sancho.

A new 4K master of The One Man Band from INA also screened, but I didn’t see it.

The interview mentions Jonathon Braun (his first name is misspelled) as supposedly helping Welles create a workprint in the early 80’s. I don’t know where they got that information from, as I don’t think Welles was courting distributors/investors for Don Quixote in the 80’s.

On a separate topic, I wonder how much pre-production material exists from The Cradle Will Rock. Are there screen tests of Rupert Everett and Amy Irving? Photos of the sets under partial construction?

[albucat]

Maybe if this improbably manages to get completed, someone can convince Netflix to let The Other Side of the Wind onto disc.

[beamish14]

Maybe if this improbably manages to get completed, someone can convince Netflix to let The Other Side of the Wind onto disc.

Oh, I have confidence that we’ll be seeing Don Quixote and It’s All True reconstructions in the next few years.