David Farnor | On 30, Oct 2018

In 1970, Orson Welles began filming what would ultimately be his final cinematic opus with a cast of luminaries that included John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Welles’s partner during his later years, Oja Kodar. 48 years later, that movie is now finally coming to our screens, after the unfinished project was rescued from a Paris vault in 2017.

Since then, Frank Marshall (who served as a production manager on Wind during in its initial shooting) and Filip Jan Rymsza have spearheaded efforts to complete and restore the film, with Michel Legrand contributing a new score for the final movie. And, thanks to the financial backing of Netflix, that restoration was possible, and The Other Side of the Wind will finally be released for all to see.

The movie tells the story of famed filmmaker J.J. “Jake” Hannaford (Huston), who returns to Hollywood after years in self-exile in Europe with plans to complete work on his own innovative comeback movie. A satire of the classic studio system as well as the new establishment who were shaking things up at the time, Welles’ final film is both a fascinating time capsule of a now-distant era in movie making as well as the long-awaited “new” work from a legend of cinema.

“The result isn’t something to fall in love with, but you’ll be glad it exists,” we wrote in our review of the film, following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. “As an experiment out of time, there’s as much fascination here as there is frustration; the dated distaste and brilliant ambition collide in ways that are often uninvolving but always surprising – a juxtaposition that’s all too apt for a cinephile’s dream that has only been completed with the support of a streaming service.”

The movie will be available on Netflix worldwide from Friday 2nd November, but will also be released in UK cinemas, courtesy of Curzon. It will be screening daily in the morning or early afternoon at Curzon’s Wimbledon, Bloomsbury, Canterbury, Knutsford, Sheffield, Soho, Wimbledon, Aldgate, Oxford and Colchester sites. You can book tickets here.

A screening will also be held at the Deptford Cinema on Friday 2nd November from 3pm to 5.30pm, with tickets available for free, thanks to the community cinema’s remit to inform and educate. You can find out more about that screening here.

We’ll keep this page updated with any additional UK cinema screenings as and when they’re confirmed.

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