Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 353 Chapter 304 The Odd Man Orson Welles

   "Hello, Kiki! How are you?" Peter Bogdanovich greeted a puppy.

  Ronald accepts Bogdanovich's offer to meet Orson Welles, the strange Hollywood man.

   "Don't mess with her, Kiki will bite." Sitting on a chair in the corner of my kitchen restaurant was a fat, bearded old man.

"Orson, this is my friend Ronald Lee. He's also a film director. His 'Fast-Paced Richmond High School' took 40 million at the box office. He likes your movie very much. Heard I want it. Have lunch with you and come see you together."

   "Ah, I've seen that movie, it's a standard B-rated exploitative movie."

   "Hello, Mr. Wells, nice to meet you. Didn't expect you to see my movie." Ronald said to Orson Welles.

   "I have a very mixed taste in watching movies. As long as my legs and feet are convenient, I will watch it."

  Although Orson Welles is very old, and he hasn't made a movie for a long time, the genius of the year is still there, and a few words can dominate the conversation.

"I don't have enough money right now, Orson. When my 'They All Laugh' re-release makes enough money to reboot your movie 'The Other Side of the Wind.'" Bogdanovich said Wells said.

   "It turns out that Orson Welles still wants to make a movie." Ronald couldn't help but respect, and at the age of nearly seventy, he is still running around for his own movie and attracting investment.

   "You don't make movies anymore. In the 1970s, you made a lot of good movies." Orson Welles began to praise Bogdanovich in his speech.

"Many directors of our generation have had their work difficult, and Matty Scorsese's recent films have failed at the box office..." Bogdanovich once published an interview with Orson Welles, the two It's an old friend, and we start chatting.

"They watch too many movies. Creators shouldn't watch too many movies. Spielberg, Scorsese, too many movies. And that Brian De Palma. He Always imitating Hitchcock, in fact he is better than Hitchcock, there is absolutely no need to imitate him."

   Ronald was a little confused. As a director, shouldn't he watch more classic movies to absorb nutrients? Why Orson Welles Says You Shouldn't Watch Too Many Movies?

   If this is said by an ordinary director, Wells is a genius who made the masterpiece "Citizen Kane" at the age of 23, and is a figure admired by many directors. He might mean something.

"Why don't you talk, young man," Orson Welles asked him, noticing that Ronald didn't say a word, just listening to him and Bogdanovich bragging. .

   "I thought you guys had a very interesting chat, so I didn't interrupt."

  Orson Welles winked at Ronald, "I often go to my kitchen to eat, their seafood salad is good, would you like some?"

   "Sir, our seafood salad is no longer available."

"Why is it still on the menu if it's gone? It shouldn't be on the menu if it's gone. I can't order it if I want, isn't it a disappointment?" Wells complained that he couldn't get his favorite seafood, " Then have some chicken salad."

   "I don't like capers in your chicken salad," Bogdanovich said. "Can you pick out the capers."

   "Didn't you see how many guests there are now? And let the back kitchen pick capers for you when you are so busy?" Orson Welles was surprised, "Whatever you want."

   "Is there a crab salad? Give me some if you have one." Ronald decided to follow Wells' suggestion and order another dish. In such a busy kitchen, Bogdanovich also made such a request. It would be bad for the chef to add some ingredients in it.

   "Smart choice." Orson Welles praised, "You seem to be very silent. Listening is a very important director's ability, but I can't."

   "He's a big fan of yours and loves your movies. Don't freak him out, Orson." Bogdanovich smugly introduced Wells to Ronald as his fan.

   "Oh, you are so young, have you seen my movies?"

   "Yes, I spent two years in the film department at New York University. One of the courses is classic movie appreciation. Sometimes CBS Evening Theater will show your movies, Mr. Wells."

   "Orson is a genius, and his 'Citizen Kane' is a classic that has been passed down through the ages. I think that movie should be ranked first in Hollywood film history."

   "Giggle..." Orson Welles heard the compliments on his movie, and although it had been many years, he still laughed happily.

   "Which Orson movie do you like? Ronald" Bogdanovich turned around and asked Ronald.

   "I actually prefer 'Touch of Evil'."

   "Oh, the long shot of that movie is very good. Now film students should study hard." Bogdanovich began to talk about his own opinions again.

   "What about you? Which part do you like in Gone with the Wind?" Orson Welles seemed to be more interested in Ronald and began to ask him.

   "I like the beginning, but it's that long shot that confuses me. I don't know how it came out. I've always wanted to ask you in person, Mr. Wells."

"That long shot was shot by Orson over a night, and the last shot was taken before dawn, can't you see it? It's actually the movement of the camera and the coordination of the actors. Keep the car and the bomb on the in the middle of the picture."

   "I'm talking about that long shot in the hotel, Mr. Bogdanovich." Ronald interjected abruptly.

   "Hahahaha... Few people see it as a long take. Universal's producer cut a knife in the middle of a roll of film, and it looked like it was shot in two parts. It's actually a complete shot."

Orson Welles is very happy, after the publication of Bogdanovich's biography, many people regard him as a master, but most of them have not seen their own movies, holding Bogdanovich Qi's evaluation to tout it, it is very boring at first glance.

  Like Ronald, who has seen his movies and shot them himself, he can also point out some places that others have not noticed, which just scratches his itch.

"The wall of the hotel was movable. After I finished shooting this side, I moved the camera over, and then a number of set and prop crews quickly dismantled the wall on this side. When the camera came back, I could shoot the room from an outdoor angle. scene."

   "Actually, there is one thing I don't quite understand, Mr. Wells. Why do you need music and subtitles for your opening scene?"

   "That's a Hollywood convention." Bogdanovich began to popularize again.

   "I just think the subtitles and the music spoil the suspense of the bomb," Ronald replied.

  The opening plot of "Beautiful Woman" is that a bad guy sets the time bomb to three minutes, and then puts it in the trunk of a car. The audience knew there was a bomb in the first place and waited to see when it exploded.

   The subtitles and the opening soundtrack are exactly three minutes, but if you handle it this way, the audience will know that the bomb will explode when the subtitles end and the music stops, losing their expectation of suspense.

  Ronald never understood how Wells handled this passage, so he asked on the spot today when he had a chance.

   "That was added by Warner. I didn't have the subtitles or the soundtrack in my original storyboard." Orson Welles looked at Ronald, the lad who just asked about his sore spot.

   This film happens to be Orson Welles' first film on his return to Hollywood from Europe. Universal's executives thought he was no longer able to direct, and re-edited the film according to his own ideas.

  Because of the contract, they had to show Welles the final cut, but only once.

  Orson Welles, after watching the finished film once, held back his anger and wrote a memo listing a number of inappropriate points in the finished film, and in a low voice, asked Universal to revise it according to the artistic point of view. This includes removing the opening subtitles and soundtrack to keep the audience in suspense.

   But Universal, one of the eight major studios at the time, ignored his request at all, and the movie was screened according to their cut, and the box office was not good. After that, Orson Welles was considered to be the last of his talents, and he rarely had the opportunity to get investment to make movies.

   "The director didn't have the power to edit at that time?"

   "Certainly, in the so-called golden age, studios took back editing rights. You're too young to know, in our day. Aspiring directors never took master shots."

   "Why?" The main shot is a standard Hollywood method, why not an aspiring director?

   "With the main shot, they can cut it blindly. If you don't shoot the main shot, the general plot can only be cut as I want. At that time, John Ford and others didn't shoot the main shot."

   "So it is." Ronald resumed listening mode and began to listen to the two directors brag.

   "Katherine Hepburn **** all over the set, I don't like him. She uses that upper girls' school accent to swear vulgar swearing about how John Hughes **** her on the couch..."

   "Clark Gable's wife, Carol Lombard, is also foul-mouthed, but not annoying. She's from the bottom and doesn't know how to speak without foul language. She talks really vulgar, but cute."

   "Grace Kelly also **** up and throws her hair when she gets the chance in the locker room, but she never talks about her affairs, I like her a lot."

"I've got to go, Orson. I'm going to meet the TIME executives this afternoon and have them sell me the rights to 'They All Laughed' back to me. Good luck to me." Bogdano Vicky was bragging about Wells for a while, and after lunch, got up to say goodbye.

   Ronald stood up, called the waiter over, and settled the bill. Orson Welles doesn't look like he has money, and Bogdanovich is raising money to re-release his girlfriend's posthumous work, so he'll pay for it.

   Maybe Bogdanovich brought him, that's what he meant.

   "Ronald, my knee is starting to hurt again, can you take me home?" Orson Welles suddenly said to Ronald.

   "No problem. I'll drive the car to the door," Ronald replied.

   "You don't like Bogdanovich?" Orson Welles suddenly said to Ronald in the back seat of the car.

   "No way. I just don't understand his private life," Ronald replied.

   "You have a moral cleanliness? Think Peter is immoral?"

   "No, I don't condemn him. It's just that Stratten is still married. Since Peter is living with her, he should help her resolve this matter." Ronald expressed his thoughts.

"Peter is that kind of person, **** people and more relaxed with himself," Orson Welles said. "His former wife was an art director, and Polly Platt was the reason why many of Peter's early films were so successful. It's the person who made the biggest contribution behind it.

   But he dumped Polly for a movie heroine, Cybill Shepherd. Of course I don't blame him, Sybil is a stunner, and everyone will be fascinated by her.

   My film is not finished and now I have to rely on Peter for financing, so I can't speak ill of him too much. Hahaha. "

   "You should relax a little, the artist's emotion is the biggest advantage. The good actors I know are not very smart. They become good actors by having abundant emotions. Artists are not a group of people who are constrained by the morals of the public.

  Without strong emotions to express, it is impossible for you to direct a good work. Finding more beautiful women is the source of creation. When I was doing the Mad Woman, Rita (Rita Hayworth) said she still loved me, and I was instantly motivated to make one of the best films of Rita's career. "

   "Maybe it's my family background. I want to have a full family life." Ronald said a little about himself.

The    car drove to Orson Welles' home. He used to live in Peter Bogdanovich's villa for a long time, and his new home here is a small house he saved to buy by being a guest on a talk show.

   "Ronald, come here and help me." Ronald helped Orson Welles into the house.

   "This is the editing suggestion I wrote for Universal, there are 24 pieces in total." Wells found a copy from the study and handed it to Ronald.

   "If, I mean if, you have the opportunity to re-edit my 'Beautiful Lady' in the future, here is a reference."

   Ronald bowed his head and took it, which was handwritten by Orson Welles. He only watched it once and then wrote multiple opinions, and Ronald was amazed by the mastery and genius of his own film.

   "Talk to me, I haven't seen such an interesting young man like you for a long time." Orson Welles saw Ronald put away the copy and stopped mentioning this matter.

   "Why do you think the director shouldn't watch more movies?" Ronald remembered his comment and began to ask.

   "Directing is divided into learning and creative stages. In fact, all the technical aspects of being a director can be learned in a week by a smart person."

   Ronald remembered his experience and nodded yes.

"If you keep watching other people's films, you will be influenced by others, then you will never have a way of expressing yourself. When I made 'Citizen Kane', my DP was very happy, because I didn't understand anything, so I shot it. The footage is very free. Not bound by Hollywood clichés…”

   (end of this chapter)