When I say Orson Welles you undoubtedly think of Citizen Kane, maybe not even knowing that he has quite an extensive resume. He didn’t only direct the film that “changed everything”, he continued making films until his dying day, leaving his final “masterpiece” unfinished.
Today, that film, titled The Other Side of the Wind is still incomplete, but negotiations are being made to acquire rights from the last remaining holders to get the movie out into the public eye. Welles described the film to lead actor John Huston like this:
"It's about a bastard director… full of himself, who catches people and creates and destroys them. It's about us, John."
A vertiable spider web of players, The Other Side of the Wind has many people’s hands on it each with a different idea of what to do with it, says the The Guardian. Actor/director Peter Bogdanovich, who appeared in Welles’ film, was given extensive editing notes from the ailing visionary while the film was being produced in 1972 and hopes to finish the film. However, a couple of Welles’ previous collaborators, Francoise Widhoff and Andres Vicente Gomez, both feel like the film should only be seen in its unedited, “raw” form, with Gomez stating that finishing the film would be an “act of betrayal.”
Whatever happens to the film, we can expect to see new material from a long dead director and that to me is fascinating. Well keep a close eye on this and keep you informed of when this footage will be made publicly available, news we’ll hopefully know within the next few weeks.
