Orson Welles in 1940. Image by Earl Theisen Collection/Getty Images

By PJ Grisar August 30, 2018

The cinematic powers that be have blessed us: Behold the first trailer for a new Orson Welles film.

You read that right. Though the auteur behind “Citizen Kane” has been dead for over three decades, a troupe of strivers, among them the film’s co-star Peter Bogdanovich — himself a celebrated director — have managed to cobble together a final cut of the movie he shot between 1970 and 1977. Titled “The Other Side of the Wind,” the picture is set to premier at Venice in the coming days and will debut on Netflix on November 2.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Judging by the trailer, the film looks a lot like a meta-meditation on, well, film. “Is that what this movie’s about?” one actor, cloaked in shadow wonders. Another replies: “Well, we don’t actually know.”

We do know John Huston stars as self-destructive director Jake Hannaford, trying to mount a comeback with a film titled — you guessed it! — “The Other Side of the Wind.” Where the film inside-the-film starts and the world outside ends can’t be determined from the minute-and-a half-long trailer, but we can already tell that the movie has style to spare. Close-ups of disembodied mouths and eyes, falling bridges, swiveling gas masks and reckless behavior like drunk driving and rifle-shooting come at the viewer at a whiplash tempo in both color and black and white. Of course, there are plenty of glamorous shots of Welles’ co-writer and then-lover Oja Kodar, too.

If the trailer’s any indication, things won’t end well for our hero, who appears to be as mercurial an artistic force as Welles himself. As Susan Strasberg’s character observes: “What he creates he has to wreck, it’s a compulsion.”

Whatever the film’s outcome, the trailer ends with a knowing wink, as a character plops film canisters down on a counter, saying: “Well, here it is if anyone wants to see it.”

Netflix: Of course we do.

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture intern. He can be reached at [email protected]

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount