| Filming Othello | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Orson Welles |
| Directed by | Orson Welles |
| Starring | Orson Welles Micheal MacLiammoir Hilton Edwards |
| Music by | Alberto Barberis Angelo Francesco Lavagnino |
| Country of origin | West Germany |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Juergen Hellwig Klaus Hellwig |
| Cinematography | Gary Graver |
| Editor | Marty Roth |
| Running time | 84 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Release | 1978 (1978) |
Filming Othello is a 1978 English-language West Germandocumentary film directed by and starringOrson Welles about the making of his award-winning 1951 productionOthello. The film, which was produced forWest German television, was the last completed feature film directed by Welles, as well as the last one to be made during his lifetime.
Filming Othello begins with Welles standing behind amoviola. He directly addresses the camera and announces: "This is to be a conversation, certainly not anything so formal as a lecture, and what we're going to talk about isOthello,Shakespeare's play and the film I made of it." Welles initially conducts a monologue where he recalls the events that lead up to the creation ofOthello and some of the problems that plagued the production. As the film progresses, he switches to a conversation in a restaurant between himself and two of the film's co-stars,Micheal MacLiammoir (who played Iago) andHilton Edwards (who played Brabantio). The three men talk at length about the making ofOthello. Welles then resumes his monologue from his position behind the moviola. He then runs footage on the moviola of a question and answer session he conducted during a 1977 screening ofOthello inBoston. Welles concludes the film in his position as a monologuist, proclaiming: "There are too many regrets, there are too many things I wish I could have done over again. If it wasn't a memory, if it was a project for the future, talking aboutOthello would have been nothing but delight. After all, promises are more fun than explanations. In all my heart, I wish that I wasn't looking back onOthello, but looking forward to it. ThatOthello would be one hell of a picture. Goodnight."[1]
Filming Othello was made between 1974 and 1978. It was intended to be the first in a series of documentaries directed by Welles on the creation of his classic films. However,the second film in the proposed series, on the making ofThe Trial, was never completed.[2]
Filming Othello was shot in 16mm, withGary Graver as the cinematographer. Welles shot the footage of his conversation with MacLiammoir and Edwards inParis, France, in 1974, and shot the footage of his part of their conversation two years later inBeverly Hills, California. Footage was also shot of Welles visitingVenice, Italy, but it was not included in the final print because it had been believed lost when Welles was moving around Europe.[1] However, many years later, cinematographerGary Graver located at least some of the footage, and short excerpts can be seen in his 1993 documentaryWorking With Orson Welles, in which Welles (theatrically clad in black cape and black hat) rides around Venice in a gondola pointing out old filming locations, while crowds wave at him.
The film includes a conversation with a Cambridge, Massachusetts audience after a screening of the film on 8 January 1977 at the 400-seat Cinema 1 inside the Orson Welles Cinema Complex. (Welles had starred inAn Evening With Orson Wellesthe night before at Boston Symphony Hall.)[3]
Some of Welles'The Other Side of the Wind crew—Gary Graver, Michael Stringer and Larry Jackson—worked onFilming Othello.[3]
Filming Othello uses clips fromOthello, but the footage is not accompanied by the film's dialogue track.[4]
Filming Othello was first shown at the 1978Berlin Film Festival. It was first screened in the U.S. in 1979 at the Public Theater in New York, where it played on a double bill withOthello. However, the film's presentation did not receive newspaper reviews.[1]Filming Othello had no further U.S. screenings until it returned to New York in 1987 for an engagement at theFilm Forum, a nonprofit cinema, and that presentation was acknowledged byVincent Canby ofThe New York Times as "entertaining and revealing" and "full of priceless anecdotes."[5]
Filming Othello was released on home video for the first time on 10 October 2017 byThe Criterion Collection. It was included in DVD and Blu-ray sets featuring newly restored 4K digital transfers of both the 1952 European and 1955 U.S. versions ofOthello.[3]