The new film by Orson Welles

POSTED ON OCTOBER 18, 2018

OWelles was a joker and a magician. The proof? 30 years after his death, he releases his new film!

”The Other Side of the Wind,” like its director, is a marvel of irony, of hilarious farce, of non-stop solicitation of eyes and ears. It's a deep dive into a universe where everyone has the right to enter, to participate. At the heart of a ballet, among a fog of men, the filmmaker, still wanting to be demiurge, of course, is as derisory as Falstaff, having fun sending all those who come close in the opposite direction. The heroine has a determination that is usually assigned to heroes, while the young man is an uncertain blond, looking like an innocent little victim. The old tyrannical genius tries to hide the fact that he no longer has any power or inspiration, and gets lost in what is sometimes deliberately dubious.

“The Other Side of the Wind” is a witty take on the demise of the big American studios of old and unproductive cinema, but also about the beginning of New Hollywood, with its still-uncertain values. In the middle, the filmmaker casts an eternal, timeless notion: love à la Welles. Of course, it will be unexpected and grandiose, a sex scene in a car, for example, we have never seen or heard before. Life explodes under the sounds of pelting rain, the soft clanking of pearls of the heavy necklace on the heroine's naked body, the crackling of her slicker raincoat, and especially the panting. The glances of the heated characters reveal they cannot believe they are on the side of Welles, the other side of the wind.

Virginie Apiou