Since at least 2009, and probably longer than that, Peter Bogdanovich has been trying to restore and release "The Other Side of the Wind," the final film from his friend and filmmaking legend Orson Welles. But of course, as is usually the case with anything Welles related, the project got tied up in rights issues. But in 2011 things seemed like they might be clearing up. Laywer Kenneth Sidle said that the battle over the film between Welles' lover Oja Kodar and Jacqueline Boushehri, widow of a relative of the Shah of Iran and one of the film's producers (seriously), would be clearing up, allowing Bogdanovich to finally get into the editing bay with Welles' notes and complete a cut. But alas, there has been radio silence since.
So, this may be the closest we'll ever to get to see the movie. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky has pointed folks in the direction of Henry Jaglom's (he also helped on the film) YouTube channel where, for now (until legal types come swooping in we imagine), 30 minutes of clips and footage are now playing. The film tells the story of an aged Hollywood director (played by John Huston) attempting to revive his career by making a trippy movie filled with sex and violence. Production on the picture went in fits and starts over five years, but Welles rounded up a great group of collaborators — Bogdanovich, Jaglom, Susan Strasberg, Dennis Hopper, Paul Mazursky and Claude Chabrol — to take roles in the picture that he never completed.
And there's still no word on if or when that will happen, but for now, these 30 minutes will have to suffice. Watch below.
is it just me or this is awful?! there's next to no editing!