The Other Side of the Wind — Orson Welles (2018)
Like most great Tinseltown fables, the film begins with the final act, a legendary Hollywood persona has died, we then rewind and have to piece together what caused their tragic end (think Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard to name drop a few).
In this case Jake Hannaford, a legendary Old Hollywood director played by John Huston, is killed in a car crash on his 70th birthday, just before he was able to complete his great comeback film; an obvious allusion to Orson Welles’ own turbulent career which by the 70s when this was filmed, had already faded from most people’s memory.
Most of the action takes place the night before his death in a lavish Hollywood mansion birthday party being thrown for him while he tries to screen the latest cut of his film for the guests. The party is filmed in a faux documentary style where journalists follow the director and people close to him and expose the director’s difficult relationships with cast and crew. The film has a very 60/70s experimental and art-house flavour to it, particularly the film within a film sequence, which is filled with psychadelic and sexual montages, but also throughout the documentary itself, where different film stocks and formats are used from shot to shot.
If you are a film historian or a huge Welles fan (which is where I fit), then please watch this film in cinemas during its limited release. Otherwise for everyone else I have to say this is definitely not a film to be recommended for those looking to kick back and have something easy to watch. The Other Side of the Wind is a piece of film history serving as an epitaph for Welles and Old Hollywood, who by the 70s were being replaced by a new generation of directors (Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas et al.) who redefined films to what we known them today.
Film buff rating: [B+]
Where to watch: (Silverscreen) — Catch it in cinemas around London this week
Casual viewer rating: [C]
Where to watch: (TV stream) — Netflix
