{"id":4394,"date":"2012-03-05T15:12:36","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T20:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4394"},"modified":"2012-03-23T12:33:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T16:33:53","slug":"dvd-it%e2%80%99s-all-true-based-on-an-unfinished-film-by-orson-welles-1993","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4394","title":{"rendered":"DVD: It\u2019s All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (1993)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>I<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label: Paramount\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: November 30, 2004<\/p>\n

Genre: Documentary \/ Film History<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Documentary on and reconstruction of the surviving segment “Four Men on a Raft” from Orson Welles’ aborted 1942 Brazil docu-anthology “It’s All True.”.<\/p>\n

Special Features: (none)<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Preamble<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps the chief reason fans of Orson Welles continue to hope (and why not?) missing footage from The Magnificent Ambersons<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>] may yet turn up is the discovery of surviving material from It\u2019s All True<\/strong>, the aborted documentary project begun as a goodwill gesture to South America which, even in Welles\u2019 own eyes, marked the ruining of his reputation as a reliable filmmaker within the studio system.<\/p>\n

After Citizen Kane<\/strong> (1941) had been completed, Welles moved on to not one but two<\/em> productions: Ambersons<\/strong> and Journey Into Fear<\/strong> \u2013 writing, producing, and directing the former, and acting and producing the latter simultaneously. Once the last of the two, Ambersons<\/strong>, had been edited into a rough cut, Welles caved to pressure from RKO\u2019s executives and agreed to fly to South America to produce and direct what was eventually planned as a three-part promo film \/ documentary thing.<\/p>\n

Journey<\/strong> director Norman Foster started helming \u201cMy Friend Bonito,\u201d based on a story by famous documentarian Robert Flaherty (Man of Aran<\/a><\/strong>, Louisiana Story<\/a><\/strong>), and Welles decided to shoot two tales: \u201cThe Story of Samba,\u201d capturing the roots of Brazil\u2019s native dance, journeying with the voodoo priests from the mountains to the massive street carnival in Rio; and \u201cFour Men on a Raft,\u201d re-enacting the long and dangerous sea trek of four poor fishermen as they sailed from their small seaside village to Brazil\u2019s leader to plead their case for pension benefits so widows and their families didn\u2019t starve in the event of a fisherman\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

As Welles\u2019 two segments were being filmed in Technicolor, production stopped after the fishermen\u2019s leader and folk hero Jacare drowned during a freak wave assault. Welles pleaded with RKO to continue funding the $300,000 production, but their compromise of $30,000 to finish the \u201cRaft\u201d segment – enough to cover black & white film and a skeleton crew – seemed like a clever executive set-up for instant failure rather than some pitiful act of corporate generosity.<\/p>\n

During principle photography, Welles had to rely on cables to supervise the editing of Ambersons<\/strong> after a disastrous preview in California, and a change in executives at the studio yielded a new regime bent on curtailing the career of cinema\u2019s newest wonder boy; with a pittance to finish a segment which studio had no interest in releasing whatsoever, Welles\u2019 hope of coming back to America with a film to prove his worth as a filmmaker was, in fact, futile.<\/p>\n

It was a small miracle that he managed to deliver edited footage for the \u201cRaft\u201d segment at all, but by the time he was back at RKO, the new regime had generously bad-mouthed Welles as a wasteful, indulgent prima donna, terminated his contract, and booted his Mercury Theatre company off the lot.<\/p>\n

Years afterward, Welles took acting roles to buy back the footage, but he never managed to fulfill the dream of completing the project, and what followed was a lifelong pattern of acting to earn money to fund idiosyncratic, sometimes visionary works with heavy production problems, many of which were never completed.<\/p>\n

For decades, historians believed the footage from the Brazil project was lost forever \u2013 mythic rumours include RKO dumping the footage into the ocean \u2013 so it was a complete shock when a Paramount executive investigating the contents of a vault in 1985 found a set of cans labeled \u201cBonito\u201d and \u201cBrazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Wilson, who was part of the original production team from the aborted project, eventually managed to sell a docu \/ restoration project to several production arms, and although he died in 1992, his vision was completed and released in 1993.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBased on an Unfinished Film\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

With reportedly 300 cans of footage lying in the Paramount vault, newbie director Bill Krohn, documentarian Myron Meisel (I\u2019m a Stranger Here Myself<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>]), director Richard Wilson (The Big Boodle<\/strong>, Al Capone<\/strong>, Invitation to a Gunfighter<\/strong>), and editor Ed Marx (Jeepers Creepers II<\/a><\/strong>, Frozen <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>]) had a unique set of problems: how to tackle footage of the aborted \u201cBonito\u201d and \u201cSamba\u201d segments, and the edited B&W \u201cRaft\u201d sequence which lacked narration, intertitles, and sound.<\/p>\n

In the case of \u201cBonito,\u201d the footage appears to have been already edited into several brief sequences, and what survives is excerpted in Unfinished<\/strong> with music and basic sound effects. Flaherty\u2019s story is essentially a snapshot tale of a Mexican village where baby livestock are blessed en mass by the local church. Central to the story is a Mexican boy (Jesus Vasquez) who brings along his little bull, and it was filmed by longtime Flaherty\u2019s cinematographer on Tabu<\/strong> (1931), Floyd Crosby. Because Welles had to hurry to Brazil and shoot the carnival, the filming of \u201cBonito\u201d was frozen, and what remains is a sampling of the incomplete segment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to tell whether the Technicolor material from \u201cSamba\u201d and \u201cRaft\u201d were ever edited into a narrative because the doc uses them as lead-ins and bookend material to the presentation of the B&W \u201cRaft\u201d segment, but the filmmakers did interview some of the participants and descendants of the aborted shorts (both fishermen, actors, and musicians) who provide some background on what Welles was trying to accomplish after he had figured out a framework for the film, particularly the conceptual \u201cSamba.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intercut are archival interviews of Welles who is quite lucid on his brief tenure at RKO, and once he hits the topic of Ambersons <\/strong>he\u2019s easily filled with sadness. From these clips alone cineastes will have to weigh whether Welles is the oft-cited genius, soon to be perpetually pilloried by Hollywood\u2019s establishment for being too independent, talented, and ahead of his time; or an arrogant profligate who should\u2019ve learned how to work the system for his own benefit instead of going beyond its tolerance levels.<\/p>\n

As for the edited B&W segment \u201cRaft,\u201d it\u2019s a unique experiment in which Welles applied not only his own visual style to a docu-drama tale \u2013 low angles, massive two- and three-face close-ups, brilliant establishing shots with huge cloudy skies reminiscent of the ceilings of interior sets in Kane<\/strong> and Ambersons<\/strong> \u2013 but it also seems to show influences from Flaherty, particularly Man of Aran<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not coincidental that \u201cRaft\u201d also focuses on the hard lives of fishermen struggling against the elements to survive. In Welles\u2019 variation, he applies the local colour \u2013 the sewing of nets, building of boats, fishing montages \u2013 at the beginning to show daily routines, and he mirrors Flaherty\u2019s focus on the physical struggle of men when they\u2019re on the sea or maneuvering around the rocky coastal outcroppings.<\/p>\n

The second half of \u201cRaft\u201d shows the men venturing out to sea where they follow the coastline, heading to Brazil\u2019s capital, but stopping off in towns to gather local and spiritual support before their meeting with the country\u2019s leader. These scenes are as remarkable as the fishing montages because they were filmed in striking towns and villages with partially ruined churches, cathedrals perched at the top of a sloping town, and the rich textures of the roughly-hewn bricks and shingles which make up the tightly compacted alleys.<\/p>\n

The short ends when the four men are greeted in the harbor by boats and cheering locals, and a plane that performs fly-bys prior the raft being winched up onto a doc. The last material is two text captions by Welles meant to close the short \u2013 the only instance the director\u2019s thoughts appear onscreen.<\/p>\n

Although limited by less film stock and a new cinematographer (Hungarian-born George Fanto, who would also film Welles\u2019 The Miracle of St. Anne<\/strong> and Othello<\/strong>), the two men filmed a visually rich short that\u2019s arguably on par with Flaherty\u2019s own work; although based on a Time magazine article, it\u2019s perhaps looser in story and structure, but like Flaherty\u2019s Moana<\/strong> (1926), Welles spent time with the locals, absorbing aspects of their culture before crafting his narrative.<\/p>\n

The finale of \u201cRaft\u201d, however, is only coherent if one knows the backstory; without the explanation in the doc\u2019s first third, the fishermen\u2019s trek to Brazil\u2019s capital can only be explained via some narration or intertitles \u2013 of which, in the current edit, there are none. The pacing also seems to slow down around the midpoint, as the short\u2019s dramatic beats feel off-centre without any verbal signposts to indicate the reason the men leave their village.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the largely orchestral score by Jorge Arriagada (Mysteries of Lisbon<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>]) provides momentum, but it\u2019s perhaps too clean and contemporary; there\u2019s never any doubt the themes and orchestrations are being filtered through 1993 sensibilities.<\/p>\n

Unfinished<\/strong> closes with a quick wrap-up that includes additional Technicolor carnival footage featuring locals in their brilliantly coloured costumed during the day, and a final (and rather vague) audio quote by Welles before the end credits.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a miracle that any footage managed to survive, and co-producer \/ co-writer Wilson deserves immense credit for persevering and wandering through complex rights issues to get at least one of the shorts restored to a viewable state. Unfinished<\/strong>, however, was released on VHS in 1998 and on DVD in a bare bones edition way back in 2004, and what\u2019s necessary at this stage is an HD remaster which features not only Williams\u2019 doc, but special features that include new interviews, related ephemera chronicling the doc\u2019s making, and more importantly, a gallery of rare footage. The carnival material \u2013 both day and nighttime footage \u2013 looks sumptuous, and the \u201cBonito\u201d segment ought to be archived with any surviving intertitles or scene sketches to reconstruct the short\u2019s original storyline.<\/p>\n

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Postscript<\/strong><\/p>\n

One would\u2019ve hoped Unfinished<\/strong> ignited a new attention towards Welles\u2019 canon and in particular the numerous incomplete films that remain unseen, but with family members and other parties still fighting over rights and (likely) remuneration, there\u2019s a vast trove of work that has yet to enjoy any substantive reconstruction or preservation. Former Welles associates will continue to expire, footage will age and potentially disintegrate, and the fan base will likely dwindle, making it harder for the dedicated historians and associates to plead their case to financiers in order to bring his unseen works (namely The Other Side of the Wind<\/strong>, The Deep<\/strong>, and Don Quixote<\/strong>) into commercial distribution. Nearly 30 years after his death in 1984, Welles\u2019 affairs remain a grotesque mess.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Links & KQEK.com’s Media Store:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a> —– Amazon.com<\/a> —– Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0I<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ I . Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: n\/a Label: Paramount\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: November 30, 2004 Genre: Documentary \/ Film History Synopsis: Documentary on and reconstruction of the surviving segment “Four Men on a Raft” from Orson Welles’ aborted 1942 Brazil docu-anthology “It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1138,435,245],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-18S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4394"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4514,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394\/revisions\/4514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}