Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 353 Chapter 3 The Strange Man Orson Welles
"Hello Kiki! How are you?" Peter Bogdanovich greeted a puppy.

Ronald accepted Bogdanovich's offer to meet Orson Welles, the Hollywood oddball.

"Don't mess with her, Qiqi will bite." Sitting on a chair in the corner of my small kitchen restaurant is a big fat old man with whiskers.

"Olson, this is my friend Ronald Lee. He is also a film director. His 'Fast-paced Richmond High' made 4000 million at the box office. He likes your film very much. I heard that I will be with you You have lunch together and come to see you together."

"Ah, I've seen that movie, and it's a standard B-grade exploitation flick."

"Hello, Mr. Wells, nice to meet you. I didn't expect you to have seen my movie." Ronald said to Orson Wells.

"I have very mixed tastes in watching movies. As long as my legs and feet are convenient, I will go to see them."

Although Orson Welles is very old, and he hasn't made a movie in 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 I re-release 'They All Laughed' and make enough money, I can reboot your movie 'The Other Side of the Wind.'" Bogdanovich said of the Wells said.

"It turned out that Orson Welles still wanted to make movies." Ronald couldn't help feeling respectful, and he was still running around for his own movies at the age of nearly [-], soliciting investment.

"You make fewer movies now. In the 70s, you made a lot of good movies." Orson Welles began to praise Bogdanovich in his words.

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

"They watch too many movies. Creators shouldn't watch too many movies. Spielberg, Scorsese, they all watch too many movies. And that Brian De Palma. He I always imitate Hitchcock, in fact, his shots are better than Hitchcock, there is no need to imitate him.”

Ronald was a little confused. As a director, shouldn't he watch more classic movies to absorb nutrients?Why did Orson Welles say you shouldn't watch too many movies?
It would be fine if this was said by an ordinary director. Wells is a genius who shot the masterpiece "Citizen Kane" at the age of 23, and he is a figure admired by many directors.There may be some deep meaning in what he said.

"Why don't you talk, young man?" Orson Welles babbled, noticing that Ronald was silent and listening quietly to his bragging with Bogdanovich, so he asked him a question. .

"I thought you had an interesting chat, so I didn't interrupt."

Orson Wells winked at Ronald, "I often eat at my kitchen, and their seafood salad is pretty 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 want to eat but can't order it. Isn't it a disappointment?" Wells couldn't eat his favorite seafood and complained a few words, " Then have some chicken salad."

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

"Don't you see how many guests are there now? And let the back kitchen pick capers for you when it's so busy?" Orson Wells was surprised, "You can do whatever you want."

"Is there any crab salad? If you have some, give me some." Ronald decided to follow Wells's suggestion and order another dish.With such a busy back kitchen, Bogdanovich still made such a request, it would be bad for the chef to add some ingredients to it.

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

"He is your admirer and he likes your movies very much. Don't scare him, Orson." Bogdanovich triumphantly introduced Ronald to Wells as his fan.

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

"Yes, I have been in the film department of New York University for two years. One of the courses is classic film appreciation. Sometimes CBS Evening Theater will show your films, 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 No.1 in Hollywood movie history."

"Giggle..." Orson Welles smiled happily when he heard the praise for his film, even though it had been many years.

"Which of Orson's movies do you like? Ronald" Bogdanovich asked Ronald over his shoulder.

"I actually prefer 'Touch of Evil'."

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

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

"I like the beginning, but the long shot still confuses me. I don't know how it was shot. I always want to ask you in person, Mr. Wells."

"Osun took that long shot all night, and it was the last shot before dawn. Can't you see it? It's actually the movement of the camera and the cooperation of the actors. Putting the car and the bomb on middle of the screen."

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

"Hahahaha... Few people can see that it is a long shot. Universal's producer cut a knife in the middle of a roll of film, which looks like it was shot in two parts. It is 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 never seen his own movie. It is very boring to look at it because of strange comments.

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

"The wall of that hotel is movable. After I finished shooting this side, I let the camera move over, and then a lot of set and prop crews quickly removed the wall on this side. When the camera circled back, I could shoot the room from the outside angle. The scene in the movie."

"Actually, I still don't understand something, Mr. Wells. Why do you have music and subtitles for the opening scene?"

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

"I just thought the subtitles and the music ruined the suspense of the bomb going off," Ronald replied.

At the beginning of the plot of "Beautiful Woman", a villain set the time bomb to 3 minutes, and then put it in the trunk of a car.The audience knows from the start that there is a bomb and waits to see when it will explode.

The subtitles and the opening soundtrack are exactly 3 minutes long, but if it is handled this way, the audience will know that the bomb will explode when the subtitles end and the music stops, and they lose their expectation of suspense.

Ronald still didn't understand Wells' handling of this passage, so he asked about it on the spot when he had the opportunity today.

"That was added by Warner. I didn't have subtitles and soundtrack in my original footage." Orson Welles looked at Ronald, and this young man just asked about his pain point.

This film happened to be Orson Welles' first film in Hollywood when he returned from Europe.The executives of Universal thought that he could no longer direct, and re-edited the movie according to his own wishes.

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

After viewing the finished film, Orson Welles held back his anger and wrote a memo, listing a number of inadequacies in the finished film, and in a humble tone, he asked Universal to correct it from an 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 exhausted, and he rarely had the opportunity to get investment to make movies.

"At that time, the director didn't have the right to edit?"

"Of course, in the so-called golden age, the studios took the editing back. You're too young to know, in our day. Aspiring directors never did principal shots."

"Why?" The master shot is the standard method in Hollywood, why don't aspiring directors shoot it?

"With the main shot, they can cut it blindly. If they don't shoot the main shot, the general plot can only be cut according to my wishes. At that time, John Ford and others didn't shoot the main shot."

"So that's the case." Ronald resumed the listening mode and began to listen to the two directors bragging.

"Katharine Hepburn was messing around on the set and I didn't like him very much. She was swearing vulgar swear words in that high school accent about how John Hughes ... fucked her on the couch."

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

"Grace Kelly fucks too, every chance she gets in the dressing room, but she never talks about her affairs, I like her."

"I've got to go, Orson. I'm going to meet the top executives at 'Time' this afternoon to get them to sell me back the rights to 'They're All Laughing'. Wish me luck." Bogdano After bragging with Wells for a while, Vicky finished his lunch and got up to say his goodbyes.

Ronald stood up, called the waiter over, and settled the bill.Orson Welles doesn't seem to have much money in his clothes, and Bogdanovich is raising money to reissue his girlfriend's posthumous work, so let him foot the bill.

Maybe Bogdanovich brought him here for that purpose.

"Ronald, my knees are starting to hurt again, can you take me home?" Orson Wells suddenly said to Ronald.

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

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

"I can't talk about it. I just don't understand his private life." Ronald replied.

"Do you have a moral cleanliness? Think Peter is morally corrupt?"

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

"Peter is such a person, he is harsh on others and more relaxed on himself," Orson Welles said. "His original wife was an art director. The reason why many of Peter's early films were so successful was Polly Platt. It's the one behind the scenes who made the biggest contribution.

But he ditches Polly for a movie lead, Cybill Shepherd.I don't blame him, of course, Sybil is a stunner, and anyone would fall head over heels for her.

My film wasn't finished and I had to rely on Peter for financing, so I can't say too many bad things about him.Hahaha. "

"You should relax a bit. The artist's emotion is the biggest advantage. The good actors I know are not very smart. They rely on their abundant emotion to become good actors. Artists are not a group of people who are bound by the morality of the public.

You can't direct well without strong emotions to express.Finding more beautiful women is the source of creation.When I was making that movie, Rita (Rita Hayworth) said she still loves me, and I got motivated all of a sudden, and made the best movie of Rita's career. "

"Maybe it's my family background. I hope to have a complete family life." Ronald said briefly about himself.

The car drove to the home of Orson Welles.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 participating in talk shows as a guest.

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

"This is the editing suggestion I wrote to Universal back then, a total of 24." Wells found a copy from the study and handed it to Ronald.

"If, I mean if, you ever get a chance to re-edit my 'Gone with Time' in the future, here's 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. This kind of mastery and genius of his own film, Ronald was amazed.

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

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

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

Ronald thought of his own experience and nodded in agreement.

"Watching other people's movies all the time, you will be influenced by others, then you will never have a way to express yourself. When I was shooting 'Citizen Kane', my director of photography was very happy, because I didn't understand anything, so I shot it. The camera is very free. Not bound by Hollywood clichés...”

(End of this chapter)