Reviews

From "This Is Orson Welles" by Bogdanovich

On the film:

"I've never seen any of what we shot, not a foot. Nobody ever saw the rushes."

On filming in South America:

"I didn't even like it particularly. I liked samba, but I didn't want to go down and live in South America--it's my least favorite part of the world."

On filming:

"I had this enormous crew sent down--I didn't want them, but they gave me two camera crews. So I'd sent a crew out there and said, 'Shoot 'em marching up and down.' I had to keep them busy; they were always saying, 'We want to get home--we're trapped here.'...So there must have been an awful lot of junk shot, because I wasn't even there."

These are excerpts from a nine-page "Memo to Mr. Cohn from Mr. Welles", written after Orson had seen studio mogul Harry Cohn's edited version of the picture (he took an hour out):

"...The preview title music was written by a first rate composer, George Antheil. Although not written for our picture at all, this temporary title music had an atmosphere of darkness and menace combined with something lush and romantic which made it acceptable...The only musical idea which seems to have occurred to this present composer (Heinz Roemheld) is the rather weary one of using a popular song--the "theme"--in as many arrangements as possible. Throughout we have musical references to "Please Don't Kiss Me" for almost every bridge and also for a great deal of the background material. The tune is pleasing, it may do very well on the Hit Parade--but Lady from Shanghai is not a musical comedy...Mr. Roemheld is an ardent devotee of an old-fashioned type of scoring now referred to in our business as "Disney". In other words, if somebody falls down, he makes a "falling down" sound in the orchestra, etc., etc...If the lab had scratched initials and phone numbers all over the negative, I couldn't be unhappier about the results...Just before I left to go abroad, I asked Vi (Viola Lawrence, the editor) to make a cut which would involve dropping the near accident with the taxi-cab and also quite a bit of dialogue. I am convinced that this would have been an excellent cut...saving much needed footage in the slow opening sequence (this was not done, accounting for the main weaknesses of the film's opening reel)...There is nothing in the fact of Rita's diving to warrant a big orchestral crescendo...What does matter is Rita's beauty...the evil overtones suggested by Grigsby's character, and Michael's bewilderment. Any or all of these items might have inspired the music. Instead, the dive is treated as though it were a major climax or some antic moment in a Silly Symphony: a pratfall by Pluto the Pup, or a wild jump into space by Donald Duck...There is no sound atmosphere on the boat. A little wind and water is sorely missed. There's no point in photographing a scene on a real boat if you make it sound as though it all happened in front of a process screen...At the start of the picnic sequence...in the temporary score, we used a very curious, sexy Latin-American strain...This has been replaced with a corny "dramatic" sequel--bad stock stuff...This sort of music destroys that quality of strangeness which is exactly what might have saved Lady from Shanghai from being just another whodunit...There is a big musical outburst after Grigsby's line, "I want you to kill him." This is absurd...The Hawaiian guitar music which comes out of the radio...was supposed to be corny enough to make a certain satirical point. As it stands now, it's on about the same level as the rest of the scoring. Nobody in the audience could possibly suspect that we're kidding...The aquarium scene needs more echo. "Please Don't Kiss Me" is in again!...A bad dubbing job and poor scoring has destroyed the character of Michael's run down the pier. From the gunshot through to the phone call, a careful pattern of voices had been built up with the expenditure of much time and effort. For some reason, this has all been junked in favor of a vague hullabaloo. As a result, the whole sequence seems dull...The audience should feel at this point, along with Michael, that maybe they are going crazy. The new dubbing job can only make them feel that maybe they're going to sleep...The gun battle with the breaking mirrors must not be backed with music...The closing music again makes reference to "Please Don't Kiss Me"...This finale is obvious to the point of vulgarity, and does incalculable injury to the finish of the picture."

All of these edits from Orson were ignored

I found the following disturbing. Its a passage from the very necessary "This is Orson Welles" book by Orson's friend, director Peter Bogdanovich:

"...in a Beverly Hills hotel suite (in the late '60's), Orson was flipping the TV dial as usual when he happened on an early scene from Ambersons. Almost before it was visible, he quickly switched channels, but I noticed it and asked him to leave it on. He loudly refused, but everyone in the room started badgering him to let us see the film--one of the people had never seen it--and finally, exasperated, he turned back to the channel and stalked out of the room.

"Now we all felt terrible, and called to him to come back; he yelled in jokingly that he was going into the 'soundproof room.' We watched for a while, and pretty soon Orson appeared in the doorway, leaning against the door, looking at the TV unhappily. We all pretended not to notice and went on watching the picture. A few minutes went by. Orson casually made his way across the room and sat on the very edge of a sofa, and looked at the TV intently, but with a kind of desperation combined with a terrible anxiety.

"The film went on, and Orson loudly announced the loss of certain truncated scenes. Several minutes later, he stood up and, turning his back to us, went to the window and began fiddling with the venetian blinds. The rest of us exchanged looks. We'd all noticed there were tears in his eyes."

If you're looking for this, its on the Criterion DVD of 'Blood of A Poet' as a special feature.

With this film, Cocteau helps the viewer not only get into his head but all the artistic pioneers who were his peers in the first decades of the 20th century. Cocteau, especially in this, seems to have quite a lot of respect for the viewer in some way--he makes you care about his life, not only because he was always surrounded by inspired art, but also because he always seems to be imparting something more than what he's saying.

The camera work is interesting as well, as one might expect with a Cocteau related film.

You can find this in the special features section of one of his Orphic trilogy DVDs from Criterion ('Orpheus' I think).

Cocteau brings the viewer around a home he painted in 1950, the quality of the 16mm film is good enough that you can certainly appreciate his work which covers the walls and doors of the island villa. Lots of nice esoteric imagery if you know what you're looking for (Cocteau was apparently head of the Priory of Sion from 1918 to '63), like fish and medieval beasties.

He also shows more than a few of his works on canvas. The pacing of the whole piece is engaging and his characteristic visual flourishes and cinematic tricks are there.

Armenian filmmaker Don Askarian wrote, directed, and edited this often surreal look at one expatriate's reflections upon life in his homeland. In Holland, a group of Armenian terrorists have swung into action, murdering a Turkish intelligence agent and holding his son for ransom. As the battle of wits between the terrorists and the Dutch police plays itself out, an author from Armenia living in Rotterdam finds himself following the events as he thinks back on his life in his homeland, indulging in fantasies about his past, his future, and his obsessions. On the Old Roman Road was shown at the 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival as part of a series financed in part by the Hubert Bals Fund, which also provided backing for the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide