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Josh Karp

Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Making of The Other Side of the Wind Paperback – August 2, 2016

by Josh Karp (Author)

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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.”

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin
Publication date

August 2, 2016
Dimensions

5.84 x 0.94 x 8.93 inches
ISBN-10

1250092345
ISBN-13

978-1250092342
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A dynamic account of the film’s making and eventual undoing."―The New Yorker

"Supremely entertaining ...[and]... an early contender for this year's best book about Hollywood."―Hollywood Reporter

"Fascinating...an in-depth account. [A] wonderful book." ―The Wall Street Journal

"Meticulously researched."―Washington Post

"Excellent...this tale of the ultimate movie gone wrong could make for a pretty wonderful movie." -Entertainment Weekly

"Karp applies enthusiastic scholarship, with vivid narrative writing and just the right touch of can-you-believe-this-stuff? marvel." - New York Times Book Review

"Propulsive..." - New York Magazine

"A unique and compelling book."―Winnipeg Free Press

About the Author

Josh Karp is a journalist and writer who teaches at Northwestern University. His first book, A Futile and Stupid Gesture, won best biography of 2006 at both the Independent Publisher Book Awards and the Midwest Book Awards. It was adapted into the 2018 Netflix film of the same name, starring Will Forte. Karp is also the author of Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing and Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Making of The Other Side of the Wind. His writing has appeared in Salon, The Atlantic, and Newsweek, among others.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition (August 2, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250092345
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250092342
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.84 x 0.94 x 8.93 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,884,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #388 in Documentary Movies
- #756 in Individual Directors
- #1,207 in Video Reference (Books)

Customer Reviews:
62 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Greg Hatfield

It's All True. This Book is Terrific!

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2015

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It's all true. Orson Welles's Last Movie is terrific. For fans of Welles (and they are multiplying every year, especially in this centennial of Welles' birth), the book is a remarkable look at how Orson tried to put together a movie that would make him relevant to the new form of film making of the late 60's and early 70's. He did it by being Orson Welles, who was always an innovator of film shots, set-ups and characters.

Karp has tied all the history of this unreleased film together, showing Welles' process and progress along the way. He sorts through the tangled web of Welles' finances, which is not easy (Welles had been financing his own films through his acting work for decades), and introduces us to the Shah of Iran's brother-in-law, various lawyers, Canadian arts reps and a delightful reappearance from Suzanne Cloutier, who played Desdemona in Welles' great film of Othello (nearly four years in the making and which was mainly finished by Welles through funding from his acting work).

Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Other Side of the Wind is very enjoyable, witty and revealing, all at once. There are plans afoot to bring it to the screen later this year; it appears all the tangled web of ownership has been resolved and piecing together the remaining elements of the film is taking place. I've seen some of the footage of the movie (Welles showed several clips at the AFI Tribute in 1975, hoping for end money which never came) and the scenes are wonderful. It will add more to the legend of Welles and this book will hold a permanent place on any Welles fan's bookshelf.

23 people found this helpful

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Joel Canfield

If You Love Welles, You MUST Read this Book...

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2015

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This movie has been as much of a source of fascination to me as the lost Jerrry Lewis trainwreck, "Day the Clown Cried." Only, in this case, I think the film we've been deprived of is close to genius, even if it's been left unfinished. To me, the greatest part of the book are the sections where Karp is describing the actual making of the movie; you get caught up in Welles' creative process just as much as those working on the set (often under horrible stress and for little or no money) did. I will agree with another review that said the (very short) framing device of Welles narrating this tale from beyond the grave is incredibly weak and unnecessary, but it's gone in a flash and doesn't linger over the rest of the book. You may get lost as I did in the final third of the book, in which the various schemes and dreams to get the film financed, finished and released (as recently by Showtime back in 2010) get so complicated your eyes glaze over, but the fact remains that Welles simply did everything in his power NOT to complete this film - and I suspect that his mistress, who took over the rights upon his death, was given explicit orders to also continue to throw up roadblocks. Fascinating, complex portrayal of the ultimate flawed genius, as well as compelling looks at Peter Bogdanovich, John Huston, Rich Little (yes, Rich Little - his introduction to Huston is priceless), and the unsung long-suffering "hero" of this book, Gary Graver.

19 people found this helpful

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Mad-Dog from Tulsa

Deep Focus ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2019

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What a absolutely fantastic story ... now, if only this film would be widely released, hopefully in my Life time ... Orson was a gift to the film world ... a pain in the ass to some, but his work holds up pretty well after all these years. He did remarkably, considering ALL the crap that was tossed at him to screw up his films ... it's a shame he was black-balled the way he was ... but he left a body of work that is still remarkable, if ... somewhat incomplete. Read the book.

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Matthew Kresal

A Film's Biography

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2015

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Orson Welles has the reputation of being one of the greatest filmmakers of the twentieth centuries. Citizen Kane is held up as a masterpiece, others such as Mr. Arkadin are looked at as films that might have been under different circumstances and that's not to mention a number of uncompleted projects that have seen the light of day. Yet there is one Welles film that has never seen the light of day, at least not where the public has ever been able to see it. That film would be The Other Side Of The Wind, the subject of Josh Karp's new book Orson Welles's Last Movie.

Karp's book is a treasure trove of knowledge as it pieces together the more than forty-five year history of the film. The book, in proper Welles style, opens up not at the beginning of the lengthy shoot for Other Side Of The Wind but with Welles 1985 death which serves as a Kane like prologue for the entire book. From there, the book starts by tracing the film's roots back to the earliest days of Welles' career and an encounter with Ernest Hemingway, Karp then gives a brief summing up of the ups and downs of that career up to the point in the late 1960s when the film began to take shape.

The majority of the book takes the reader on a journey through the last fifteen years of Welles life and the incredible cast of real life characters involved in the making of the film. There's Welles himself of course who comes across as a larger than life figure who seems to go back and forth between creative genius, capable of inspiring great loyalty while also being an incredibly flawed human being capable of petty jealously and anger. There's Welles mistress the actress Oja Kador, Welles protege the actor/director Peter Bogdanovich, actor John Huston (who didn't start shooting scenes until four years into filming), the brother-in-law of the Shah of Iran who helped to finance the film and crew members such as Gary Graver, a B-movie maker who becomes the cinematographer on Other Side Of The Wind and spends decades dedicated to the film and Welles.

This section of the book is also full of incredible moments and details. There's Welles using a table and a bread truck to get a forced perspective shot, how critics attacking the reputation of Citizen Kane put a brief stop to filming, how one of the film's actresses was a waitress in a diner who was cast after serving Welles dinner and how both his continuing push for artistic freedom helped to guarantee that editing wouldn't be completed by the time of his death. It makes for an intriguing read as it portrays the ups and downs of film-making and how outside forces including the Iranian Revolution and the fall of Bogdanovich's career during the mid-late 1970s effected the film.

The last section of the book covers the thirty years that have passed since Welles death. It's a story just as compelling as the making of the film itself and involves Kador, Welles daughter Beatrice and the Showtime channel amongst others in an ongoing thirty year effort to finally get the film completed and released. In it, Karp reveals a mess of rights issues, conflicting agendas and how attempts to protect Welles legacy have helped to keep the film unreleased and how filmmakers ranging from Huston to Clint Eastwood have tried their hand at piecing together the eleven hours worth of filmed material into a final product. The book doesn't cover the recently launched campaign on Indiegogo but I imagine that a second edition might very well do so and maybe write the last chapter on The Other Side Of The Wind.

Karp's greatest achievement though might be that he's able to present a coherent story pieced together from decades of speculation and controversy alongside newly conducted interviews and research. While I'm sure that many Welles' aficionados are well aware of some of the stories related here, I must confess that (as someone whose come to the saga around the film only in the last couple of years) I'm grateful that he's pieced it all together into a narrative within a single volume The effort is arguably akin to the attempts to put the film together at last, with art imitating life and vice versa.

Even better, Karp keeps the book compelling throughout. The book easily could have been a dull analysis of “what went wrong” or just simply been a string of anecdotes about the film strung together. Instead, Karp's narrative follows the tangled web of filmmakers and financiers throughout the last fifteen years of Welles life struggling to get the film made followed by three decades of further efforts. Karp's flowing prose style and compelling narrative means that the book is never dry, never dull and goes along at a great pace.

If you're a film buff or a Welles aficionado, I heartily recommend the book. It's a fascinating read and a tale of creative persistence in the face of financial issues, egos and conflicting agendas. More than that it presents a compelling, immensely readable biography of a film few have ever seen and a portrait of a filmmaker misunderstood in life and loved in death. As Karp shows, it's a tale only Orson Welles could have created.

7 people found this helpful

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Drew Youngblood

I stumbled across this wonderful book and was blown away by this amazing backstory ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2015

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I stumbled across this wonderful book and was blown away by this amazing backstory to Orson Welles' unfinished film. This is great storytelling that brings to life these interesting times while immersing us in Welles' often surreal/always fascinating world.

3 people found this helpful

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2-Tonix

Does not refer to Orsom from Ork

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2017

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But does show what a genius (or nut-case) Welles could be.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Norbert Warner

ME AND ORSON WELLES

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2015

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There has been about 5 movies made from various parts of the life of Orson Welles, many, many books, I have over 30 myself. I really enjoyed this one and I feel sure it will be a movie some day. The very first Welles movie I saw was Black Magic, ok he did not direct it, but know what I know now his influence was all over it. One night in 1951 I saw him on the stage in Othello. Now I have always been a movie fan and the theatre has left me cold. But that night was an evening of magic, it also spoiled me for any future theatre visits, oh I still go down to London, but nothing will ever surpass that night.
I feel this book really captures the spirit of Orson Welles, I enjoy reading about the making of a movie, every movie has a story it seems, and this one with Orson involved is right up my alley. Some think his life is sad, he had a start where everything he did was pure genius, then disaster after disaster! But were they? Take a look at what he actually achieved, any other film maker would be proud of this work. So I did not find this book tragic, but rather enjoyable. Perhaps it may help us to eventually see the movie itself? I hope so.

6 people found this helpful

Client d'Amazon

Livraison telle que convenu

Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2019

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Interesting to read.

Kindle Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2015

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Fun book about a tragic man.

One person found this helpful

Creative

Obsessives Only!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2015

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For die-hard fans only. (And even then only at a push). Of limited interest to most people and not very well written.

One person found this helpful

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