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Journalist Josh Karp shines a spotlight on the making of The Other Side of the Wind-the final unfinished film from the auteur of Citizen Kane in Orson Welles's Last Movie, the basis of Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville's Netflix Original Documentary, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead.
In the summer of 1970, legendary but self-destructive director Orson Welles returned to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe and decided it was time to make a comeback movie. Coincidentally, it was the story of a legendary self-destructive director who returns to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe. Welles swore it wasn't autobiographical.
The Other Side of the Wind was supposed to take place during a single day, and Welles planned to shoot it in eight weeks. It took six years during his lifetime-only to be finally completed more than thirty years after his death by The Last Picture Show director Peter Bogdanovich, who narrates the film, and released by Netflix.
Orson Welles's Last Movie is a fast-paced, behind-the-scenes account of the bizarre, hilarious, and remarkable making of what has been called "the greatest home movie that no one has ever seen." Funded by the shah of Iran's brother-in-law, and based on a script that Welles rewrote every night for years, the film was a final attempt to one-up his own best work. It's a production best encompassed by its star-the celebrated director of The Maltese Falcon, John Huston-who described the making of the film as "an adventure shared by desperate men that finally came to nothing."
In the summer of 1970, legendary but self-destructive director Orson Welles returned to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe and decided it was time to make a comeback movie. Coincidentally, it was the story of a legendary self-destructive director who returns to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe. Welles swore it wasn't autobiographical.
The Other Side of the Wind was supposed to take place during a single day, and Welles planned to shoot it in eight weeks. It took six years during his lifetime-only to be finally completed more than thirty years after his death by The Last Picture Show director Peter Bogdanovich, who narrates the film, and released by Netflix.
Orson Welles's Last Movie is a fast-paced, behind-the-scenes account of the bizarre, hilarious, and remarkable making of what has been called "the greatest home movie that no one has ever seen." Funded by the shah of Iran's brother-in-law, and based on a script that Welles rewrote every night for years, the film was a final attempt to one-up his own best work. It's a production best encompassed by its star-the celebrated director of The Maltese Falcon, John Huston-who described the making of the film as "an adventure shared by desperate men that finally came to nothing."
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Reviews
"If you're writing a biography of a movie, especially one by Orson Welles, it's not such a great idea to compete with your subject, unless you're sure you can pull it off. Happily, Karp does. This is the most entertaining film book I've read in years--informative, funny, and least expected, freshly researched. Orson would have loved it."
Peter Biskind, My Lunches With Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles
"Everything Welles ever did was a kind of adventure: The Other Side of the Wind--a film made up as it went along--was perhaps the greatest, maddest adventure of all. Josh Karp's absolutely riveting book recreates the whole tragic, comic enterprise, creating an unforgettable portrait of a middle-aged Welles thrashing around as only a frustrated genius could thrash around, in quest of an ever-elusiv
Simon Callow, author of Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu and Orson Welles: Hello Americans
"Like the best Hollywood stories, Josh Karp's entertaining book veers between slapstick and tragedy, and is filled with larger-than-life characters who are charmed and doomed by their own hopefulness and cynicism, charisma and buffoonery. With wit and insight, Karp has made a valuable contribution to the enduring legend of Orson Welles, and proved once again that in the movie business, improbabili
Julie Salamon, author of The Devil's Candy and Wendy and the Lost Boys