Discovering Lost Reels (photo Carl Casinghino)
An important theme in the study of motion pictures, from the long gestation that led to the first projected movies to today’s dazzling array of effects and sensory enveloping platforms, is the preservation and restoration of lost classics of the cinema. In earlier posts, such as Treasure Troves from a few months ago, new discoveries by film preservationists and scholars were highlighted in these pages. Now it appears that, in addition to Too Much Johnson, another of Orson Welles’s lost or unreleased works may see the light of day: The Other Side of the Wind. The complex tale of its fate is discussed in a new article in the New York Times, involving family members of the shah of Iran, 1083 hidden reels of film in storage, an artist drawing on decades of life for inspiration, a director stealing movie prints and escaping in an unmarked van, and much more. Producer Frank Marshall (a cofounder of Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg) and director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, What’s Up Doc and a great supporting role on The Sopranos) are working on completing the unfinished edit of the movie. Among the movies highlighted for study with Moving Images are Touch of Evil and Citizen Kane; whether The Other Side of the Wind will be or not, in whole or part, remains to be seen, while the full cut of The Magnificent Ambersons can remain the lost treasure that will always be lost…
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