Exploiting Hollywood 1980

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

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

"Don't mess with her, Qiqi will bite." Sitting on a chair in a corner of my Little Chef restaurant was a fat, old man with a beard.

"Orson, this is my friend Ronald Lee. He is also a film director. His film 'Fast Richmond High' took 40 million at the box office. He likes your movie very much. He heard that I want to Let’s have lunch with you and come to see you.”

"Ah, I've seen that movie. It's a standard B-level exploitation film."

"Hello, Mr. Welles, nice to meet you. I didn't expect you to have seen one of my movies." Ronald said to Orson Welles.

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

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

"I don't have enough money right now, Orson. When my 'They All Laughed' is re-released and I make enough money, I can reboot your movie 'The Other Side of the Wind.'" Bogdanovich said Wells said.

"It turns out that Orson Welles still wanted to make movies." Ronald couldn't help but respect him. He was still working hard to attract investment for his own movies when he was nearly 70 years old.

"You make fewer movies now. In the 1970s, you made a lot of good movies." Orson Welles began to praise Bogdanovich in his words.

"Many directors of our generation have struggled to produce works. Marty Scorsese's recent films have all failed at the box office..." Bogdanovich once published an interview with Orson Welles, and the two They were old friends and we started chatting.

"They watch too many movies. Creators shouldn't watch too many movies. That includes Spielberg, Scorsese, and that Brian De Palma. He's always imitating Hitchcock, In fact, his shots are even better than Hitchcock’s, so there’s 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. Welles was a genius who made the masterpiece "Citizen Kane" at the age of twenty-three, and is a figure respected by many directors. He may have some profound meaning in saying this.

"Why do not you speak,

young people. "Orson Welles talked a lot, noticed that Ronald didn't say a word, just listened to him and Bogdanovich bragging quietly, so he asked him.

"I thought your conversation was interesting, so I didn't interrupt."

Orson Welles winked at Ronald, "I often eat at my little kitchen. Their seafood salad is pretty good. Would you like some?"

"Sir, we are out of seafood salad."

"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 I can't order it. Isn't that a disappointment?" Wells couldn't eat his favorite seafood and complained a few words, " Then have some chicken salad.”

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

"Have you not seen how many guests there are now? You want the chef to pick out pickles for you when you are so busy?" Orson Welles was surprised, "It's up to you."

"Is there crab salad? If so, give me some." Ronald decided to follow Wells's suggestion and order another dish. For such a busy chef, Bogdanovich still made such a request. It would be bad if the chef added some ingredients to it.

"Smart choice." Orson Welles praised, "You seem to be very silent. Listening is a very important director's ability, but I am not good at it."

"He's an admirer of yours and loves your movies very much. Don't scare him, Orson." Bogdanovich triumphantly introduced Ronald to Welles as his fan.

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

"Yes, I attended the film department at New York University for two years. One of the courses was classic film appreciation. Sometimes CBS Evening Theater would also show your films, Mr. Wells."

"Orson is a genius, and his 'Citizen Kane' is an eternal classic. I think that movie should be ranked first in the history of Hollywood movies."

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

"Which Orson movie do you like? Ronald?" Bogdanovich turned to Ronald.

“I actually prefer ‘touch of evil’.”

"Oh, the long shots of that movie are very good. Today's film students should study hard." Bogdanovich began to express his opinions again.

"What about you? Which part of The Lost Lady do you like?" Orson Welles seemed to be more interested in Ronald and started to ask him.

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

"That long shot was shot by Orson all night, and the last shot was taken before dawn. Can't you tell? It's actually the movement of the camera and the cooperation of the actors. Keeping the car and the bomb in the The middle of the frame.”

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

"Hahahaha... few people saw that it was a long shot. Universal's producers cut a cut in the middle of a roll of film, making it look like it was shot in two parts. In fact, it was a complete shot."

Orson Welles was very happy. After Bogdanovich's biography was published, many people regarded him as a master, but most of them had never seen his own movie. It is praised by strange reviews, but it is very boring at first glance.

Someone like Ronald, who has watched his movies and filmed them himself, can also point out some aspects that others have not noticed, which just scratches his itch.

"The wall of that hotel is movable. I finished shooting this side and let the camera move over. Then there were many sets and props. It felt like the wall here was removed. When the camera went back around, I could shoot the room from an outdoor angle. scene.”

"Actually, there's something I don't quite understand, Mr. Wells. Why do you need music and subtitles for the opening scene?"

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

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

The opening plot of "The Lady in Time" is about a bad guy setting the time bomb to three minutes and then putting it in the trunk of a car. The audience knows from the beginning that there is a bomb and is waiting to see when it will explode.

The subtitles and the opening soundtrack are exactly three 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 the expectation of suspense is lost.

Ronald never understood Wells' handling of this paragraph, so he asked about it on the spot when he had the opportunity today.

"That was added by Warner afterwards. There were no subtitles or soundtrack in my original footage." Orson Welles looked at Ronald, and the young man asked exactly what he was feeling.

This film happened to be Orson Welles's first film back in Hollywood from Europe. Universal's executives believed that he no longer knew how to direct and re-edited the film according to his own wishes.

Due to contractual obligations, they had to spare Welles the final cut, but only once.

After Orson Welles watched the finished film, he suppressed his anger and wrote a memorandum, listing a number of inappropriate aspects in the finished film, and in a humble tone, asked Universal to correct it from an artistic point of view. This includes removing the opening credits and soundtrack to keep the audience in suspense.

But Universal, one of the eight major studios at the time, ignored his request and the film was released according to their cut, which did not do well at the box office. After that, Orson Welles was considered to have exhausted his talents and rarely had the opportunity to get investment to make movies.

"At that time, the director will not have the power to edit?"

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

"Why?" The master shot is a standard construction method in Hollywood. Why don't aspiring directors shoot it?

"With the main lens, they can edit randomly. If they don't shoot the main lens, the general plot can only be edited according to my wishes. At that time, John Ford and others did not shoot the main lens."

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

"Katharine Hepburn was messing around on the set, and I didn't like her. She was swearing in her high-school accent and saying how John Hughes... raped her on the couch."

"Clark Gable's wife, Carol Lombard, is also full of swear words, but she's not annoying. She comes from a lower class background and doesn't know how to talk without swearing. She's really vulgar, but cute."

"Grace Kelly also messed around, doing it in the dressing room whenever she could, but she never talked about her affairs. I liked her very much."

"I have to go, Orson. I'm going to meet with the executives of Time this afternoon and ask them to sell the distribution rights of 'They All Laughed' back to me. Wish me luck." Bogdanno Vicky bragged with Wells for a while, finished lunch, stood up and said goodbye.

Ronald stood up, called the waiter over, and settled the bill. Orson Welles's clothes look like they don't have money, and Bogdanovich is raising money to reissue his girlfriend's legacy, so he should foot the bill.

Maybe Bogdanovich brought him here with this intention.

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

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

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

"It's impossible to talk about it. I just don't understand his personal life." Ronald replied.

"Are you a germaphobe? Do you 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.

"That's the kind of person Peter is, harsh on others but 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 because of Polly Platt. It is the person who makes the greatest contribution behind the scenes.

But he abandoned Polly for a movie heroine, Cybill Shepherd. Of course I don't blame him, Sybil is a beauty and anyone would fall head over heels for her.

My film is not finished and now I have to rely on Peter to get financing, so I can't say too much bad things about him. Hahaha. "

"You should relax. The artist's emotion is the greatest advantage. The good actors I know are not very smart. Emotion is their greatest advantage. Artists are not a group of people bound by public morality.

You can't direct a good work without strong emotions to express. Finding more beautiful women is the source of creation. When I was making the film "The Last of Us", Rita (Rita Hayworth) said she still loved me. I was immediately motivated and made the best movie of Rita's career. "

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

The car drove to the home of Orson Welles. He once lived in Peter Bogdanovich's villa for a long time. His new home here is a small house he bought by saving money by participating in talk shows as a guest.

"Ronald, come on, give me a hand." Ronald helped Orson Welles into the house.

"These are the editing and revision suggestions I wrote to Universal back then. There are twenty-four in total." Wells found a copy from the study and handed it to Ronald.

“If, and I mean if, you ever get the chance to re-edit my ‘Lady,’ here’s a reference.”

Ronald lowered his head and took it. There was Orson Welles' handwriting on it. He only watched it once and then wrote multiple opinions. Ronald was amazed by this mastery and genius of his own movie.

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

"Why do you think directors shouldn't watch more movies?" Ronald began to ask, remembering his comment.

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

Ronald recalled his own experience and nodded in agreement.

"If you keep watching other people's movies, you will be influenced by others, and then you will never have a way of expressing yourself. When I was filming 'Citizen Kane,' my director of photography was very happy because I didn't understand anything, so he shot it The shots are very free. Not bound by Hollywood clichés…”

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