Orson Welles's Last Movie, by Josh Karp

Orson Welles's Last Movie:  The Making of the Other Side of the Wind (St. Martins, 2015) is a fascinating chronicle of the attempt by Welles to make a film, working on it from 1970 to his death in 1985.  Although Karp mildly disputes those who felt Welles had "a fear of completion" he definitely had a fear of something, as well as a difficult time handling money:  he turned down several offers of completion money because he was worried about losing control and failed to accurately account for more than a million dollars he did receive.  Karp intelligently contrasts Welles with John Huston, who plays a lead role in the uncompleted film and who was willing throughout his career to make one or two commercial films in order to make films he truly cared about.  Welles made Citizen Kane without interference, but when The Magnificent Ambersons was cut without his permission he seldom again trusted a studio or producer, at least until A Touch of Evil, which was then also cut  against his wishes.

It is not clear to me how Welles was able to draw so many people into his orbit, often getting them to work without pay or sometimes even without sleep.  But, then, I never met Welles. As Karp says, "What you did receive was the opportunity to be in the presence of genius; and to work in the glow of that ;genius."  Karp quotes factotum Eric Sherman:  "The concepts Orson had for shots were utterly astounding  and his ability to conceptualize them was total." 

This books has many layers over many years.  Fascinating subtexts include a confirmation of what I have often thought about Welles sycophant Peter Bogdanovich, who made the lovely The Last Picture Show (1971) but faltered considerably after that film:  his obsession with Cybill Shepherd destroyed his marriage to designer Polly Platt, who had brought what Karp correctly calls "her impeccable visual instincts"  to his first film. 

Karp follows in detail what happened to Welles's film after his death, as too many people wanted too much money (including banks in Iran, who had loaned money when the Shah was still in power) to allow the film to be released, in any form.  Karp (who has seen much of the available footage) describes the film as "a fragment, composed of brilliance and madness; finely honed and wildly disorganized; meticulously edited but ultimately unfinished."  Making it kept Welles alive, but finishing it would mean the end of Welles as an artist. One is not convinced that The Other Side of the Wind is a masterpiece still waiting to be seen.