What Welles was meaning on a grander scale, though, is a mystery. It's a mirror of Welles, who - as the film points out - had been in exile for twenty years before starting making The Other Side of the Wind at the height of New Hollywood.Īs for what the title, which the film purports to take from the movie-within-a-movie, it's obviously fitting of the avant-garde style of filmmaking. Early on we see a studio executive leave a screening of existing footage frustrated both by the incoherence of what was being shown and Jake's absence – what was once an enigmatic auteur had become a grating artist studios were no longer interested in dealing with. The film was intended to be Hannaford's comeback, but progress had completely stalled and Jake was swiftly running out of possible funding sources.
The fake movie is a key pillar in Orson Welles' commentary on contemporary Hollywood. Dale refuses a rife, and Hannaford drives off alone to what will be his death, as the leading woman from the movie-in-a-movie remains the last one at the drive-in watching his footage - the one person who it spoke to. Jake drives off in his sports car, swinging by the ranch to find a just-arrived Jack Dale. Soon after, an emotional Hannaford lashes out at a nosy reporter, an encounter which cements that he is unlikely to return to the height of his powers in the industry. At the drive-in, Otterlake reveals he won't be providing funding for the film to be finished, effectively ending he and Jake's relationship. That's all framework for The Other Side of the Wind's ending. A recurring motif is the absence of The Other Side of the Wind leading man Jack Dale (Bob Random), who only shows up at the end of the party. Industry pals of his such as Billy Boyle (Norman Foster), an ex-child star, and Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich), a former under-study of Hannaford's turned successful director who provides the opening narration, defend the aloof director while presenting context and back-story for his storied past through their conversations. Hannaford gets increasingly drunk while doing his best to avoid giving any of the swirling documentarians and reporters straight answers. A through-line among all the different faces and conversations comes in the form of a labored screening of Hannaford's footage that's interrupted twice by power outages before they move the party to a local drive-in theater.
0 kommentar(er)
