18 — Friday, February 5, 1999 - North Shore News

TV jobs paid for film

From page 13

theatrical genius in The Other
Side Of The Wind, which is
finally being completed by
others since Orson is ne
longer with us, Shooting
began on August 23, 1970 in
L.A. and continued intermit-
tenth through the spring of
1975, mostly in LA. and
Caretree, Arizona.

Welles began the produc-
tion with his own money and
continued with a succession of
backers, including Les Films
de L’Astrophore, an organiza-
tion of the former Iranian
government,

The only public screening
of any footage, two brief clips,
has been at the 1975
American Film Institute Lite
Achievement Award tribute to
Welles.

The cast of the picture
includes John Huston, Peter
Bogdanovich, Oja Kodar, Lilli
Palmer, Susan Strasberg,
Robert Random, Edmund
O’Brien, Cameron Mitchell,
Mercedes McCambridge, Paul
Mazursky, my good friend,
director, Curtis Harrington,
myself, Dennis Hopper,
Henry Jagloni and Claude
Chabral.

The story centres on a lav-
ish birthday party given for
aging film director fake
Hannaiord (played by
Huston), upon his return to
Hollywood from retirement to
direct one last film, a “hip”
low-budget picture full of
arcane symbulism, nudity and
radical-chic violence. His pic-
ture, titled The Other Side Of
The Wind, is only partially
completed.

While the party progresses,
an associate screens footage
for a studio chief who can’t
make sense of it all.
Hannaford, a legendary
macho figure whose sexual
and political attitudes have
become archaic is both
amused and repeiled by the
jealousy and adulation he pro-
vokes at the party.

The hostess, Lilli Palmer,
has invited many imporzant
young filmmakers, critics,
press people and camera crews
from all over the world.
(While the film-within-the film
footage from Hannaford’s pie-
ture was shot in 35mm Welles
shor the party footage in
16mm to give it the sem-
blance of cinema-verité materi-
al shot by the crews present at
the party and visible in the
film).

Among the younger crowd
are members of the
“Hannaford Matia” who recall
bygone glory days while
putting down the new genera-
tion. Hannatord’s ambivalent
‘relationship with a successful
young rival director, played by
Bogdanovish, is unravelled
during the evening, as is the
old man’s fixation with the
young lead actor of his unfin-
ished film, Robert Random.

The silent, scantily dressed
actress in the film, Oja Kodar,
embodies Hannaford’s fan-
tasizs about women, while his
deeper sexual attitudes are sar-
castically analyzed by a female
critic, Susan Strasberg, who
argues with the Bogdanovich .
character and the author of an
adulatory book on Hannaford,

_ As drink, jealousy and pas-
sion show their effects, the
Partygoers see the final act in
the Hannaford legend unfold
bétore them and fearn that
there is more to the man than
mects the eye.

Prior to landing the role of
a “left-wing radical” in the
picture, I had become a seri-
ous astrologer as weil as a

motion picture actor (under
the stage name Ford Dunhill}
had been tearured in pictures
such as Up Periscape and This
Earth ls Ming. (had been
writing screenplays and had
written, directed and appeared
in several experimental films. 1
was under contract, for a time,
ro 20th Century Fos, and also
appeared in Whe Has Seen The
Wind, Youngblood Hawk, Virn
Las Veaas, Games and others
(including Russ Mever’s outra-
geous, atthe time, Veven).

In September, 1970,
Onon Welles was, onee again,
the subject of heated contra-
versv as The New York Times
published accusations and
counter-accusations benween
Peter Bogdanovich, Orson’s
“official” biographer and
mouthpiece, and the

Australian journalist and critic,
Charles Higham, author of
The Filins OF Orson Welles, a
labour of fove, of which, nev-
ertheless, Welles, and theretore
Rogdanovich, disapproved.

Meanwhile, Orson, “seem
ingly” oblivious tei all, was
in L.A. busily shooting the
first picture he had made in
America since laush Of Evilin
1957.

Sul the “had boy” of
Hollywood, Welles was shoot
ing secretly, non-union, with
his own funds initially (doing
an occasional guest stint on
TW's Dean Martin Show and
Laugh-litto help pay the
bills), with a crew of tour and
occasional help from their
wives and trusted friends.

See Welles pote 2

Broker index number cx 23-2de

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION #| 92

I've been a RoadStar for quite some time now.

Any chance of getting some additional discounts?

INFORMATION TO BE SUPPLIED |

.... The- province's best drivers. are being rewarded with

---even higher-discounts on-optional coverages. .----

-- -RoadStar Gold-customers will receive the basic 40%, -

“or check otit wwwiicbe.conv today."

Pa[RoadStar|

Photo Robert Aiken

ORSON Welles (\eft, back) directs the crew through a shot on the streets of Los

Angeles in the fall of 1970.

---plus-a-further 20% on_all-optional coverages. -
---including extended: third-party, collision and: --
---comprehensive. RoadStar Gold savings take effect. --
---jn-yourl6th year of claims-free driving.

---To-learn more; ‘call or visit’ your Autoplan

~~ professional. Or’contact ICBC at 1-800-663-ICBC"""" ~~