Friday Night Flicks: The Other Side of the Wind

Adaptation. Boogie Nights. The Disaster Artist. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Mank.

Films about films almost always make for interesting cinema. This is in no way an absolute rule; but in many ways, going meta provides the filmmaker with a certain advantage. In accepting the fact that what is being portrayed on the screen is in some ways a form of satire, the audience naturally lowers their guard. The urge to criticize takes a comfortable backseat to good old fashioned, fourth wall-breaking, self-referential fun. 

Take The Other Side of the Wind for example, the semi-recently-exhumed swan song of the great Orson Welles. It traces the last day in the life of an aging, alcoholic director played by John Huston (think: a cross between Hemingway and Welles himself) the events of which culminate in an über-glitzy viewing party for his final film somewhere deep in Laurel Canyon. The film was shot over a fifteen year period from 1970 up to Welles’ death in 1985, which halted production for decades. Even with the efforts of a tight-knit crew of editors and directors personally appointed by Welles himself, The Other Side of the Wind didn’t grace our screens until 2018, when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival to rave reviews.

For those whose seeking something even more meta, check out They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, a documentary about the making of The Other Side of the Wind - perhaps the greatest ever film about a film about a film. —Jackson Todd