The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

2 November 2018

I've been a fan of Orson Welles' films, so I was curious about Netflix's "The Other Side of the Wind" (2018), a 48 year old film in the making. This film stars ghosts of their own like John Huston (who starred in the film and passed away in 1987), and Oja Kodar (who was Orson Welles' companion later in his life). Welles filmed this over 15 years with different hardships eventually leading the project to be shelved following his death in 1985.

Personally I thought it was a fascinating end to Welles' career, but I'm biased since I've found his later films interesting as well as his early ones.- if this film interests you at all I'd suggest seeing F For Fake (1973, 8/10) first: the style is similar and it's less layered over Welles' personal life so it's a much better introduction to his later style. Especially if you only saw his early stuff like Citizen Kane (1941, 8/10) or The Magnificent Amersons (1942, 9/10)

I think one of the most interesting things about this film is that although the celluloid is withered with age the film still comes off as fresh (with the film preserving a documentary feel to it). The cinematography is off-putting initially but it integrates into the story well; there's a lot going on that enriches the plot and leads to a really dense work in a 2 hour timeframe. It's definitely worth a watch if you like his style of films, though note there's nudity and some language that may not work for all audiences. Also bravo to Netflix for helping to get this out into the wild - must have been an undertaking. 9/10