By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Another piece of Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind?
This clip has been on YouTube for a few months, but a nice surprise on Christmas eve. Improv by Paul Mazursky, Dennis Hopper and a classically annoying Henry Jaglom. An alternate take’s below. Wellesnet gives context of The Other Side of the Wind, including a LOOK piece penned by Welles that could have been penned today: “If there’s gold in this new age, the new director will find it only when he loves the movies even more than he loves himself. A quarter of a century ago, on my own, and free of the crippling restraints of the Hollywood factory system, I managed to make a couple of pictures; the second of these (The Magnificent Ambersons) was seized and sorely mangled by the studio machine. What is surprising is that I lasted as long as I did. In those days, the men behind the desks had no reason to doubt that their authority was fully sanctioned by the public taste The movie industry was making a successful product for a middle-aged, middle-class, middle-brow market. Today, the bosses, such as they are, cannot pretend they know anything about then market except that it is very young. Solution: very young filmmakers in total control of their own work. Like a nervous old lady. Hollywood is suddenly afraid of the traffic. She needs youthful hands to guide her. This trust is rather touching, slightly ridiculous, and very hopeful for the future of American films.” [The last news I’ve read about the status of The Other Side Of The Wind here.]