''A Final Cut for Orson: 40 Years in the Making'' is a 2018 American documentary short, directed by Ryan Suffern, revolving around the completion of ''

The Other Side of the Wind ''The Other Side of the Wind'' is a 2018 satirical drama film, directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Orson Welles, and posthumously released in 2018 after forty-eight years in development. The film stars John Huston, Bob Random, Pe ...

'', directed by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

. It offers a glimpse behind the scenes into the complicated process of recovering and completing what Welles had intended to be his Hollywood comeback film in the 1970s. The documentary short and ''The Other Side of the Wind'' were produced by Frank Marshall and

Filip Jan Rymsza Filip Jan Rymsza (born December 29, 1977) is a Polish-born filmmaker and writer. He is best known for, along with fellow producer Frank Marshall, spearheading the successful completion of Orson Welles' last major work, ''The Other Side of the Wi ...

. ''A Final Cut for Orson'' premiered at the

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022. History First held on 30 August 1974, th ...

on September 1, 2018. It was released on November 2, 2018 by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Cast

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the "New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on R ...

* Frank Marshall *

Bob Murawski Bob Murawski (born June 14, 1964) is an American film editor. He was awarded the 2010 Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on ''The Hurt Locker'', which he shared with his wife, fellow editor Chris Innis. He often works with film dir ...

Michel Legrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many son ...

* Ruth Hasty *

Mo Henry Mo Henry is an American film negative cutter whose works include ''Jaws'', ''Apocalypse Now Redux'', ''L.A. Confidential'', and ''The Big Lebowski''. Career As a fourth generation negative cutter, Henry's distant aunt emigrated from Ireland duri ...

Danny Huston Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston. He is known for h ...

Production

In May 2015, Rymsza revealed during a panel talk at Indiana University that fellow producer Marshall had been chronicling the completion of ''

'' for a potential documentary''.'' ''A Final Cut for Orson'' was produced by The Kennedy / Marshall Company in association with Rymsza's Royal Road Entertainment. Suffern, who also directed '' Finding Oscar'', is head of the documentary division at Kennedy / Marshall.

Release

''A Final Cut for Orson'' had its premiere at the 46th

on September 1, 2018, where it was shown alongside ''The Other Side of the Wind'' and

Morgan Neville Morgan Neville (born October 10, 1967) is an American film producer, director and writer. His acclaimed film '' 20 Feet from Stardom'' won him the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2014 as well as a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. H ...

’s companion documentary '' They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead''. ''A Final Cut for Orson'' had been scheduled to screen a day earlier at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

with ''The Other Side of the Wind'', but was pulled without explanation. It debuted on

on November 2, 2018.

Reception

The website Wellesnet called Suffern's documentary short a "38-minute hidden gem, which expertly chronicles precisely how behind the scenes artisans combed through 1,083 reels of negative and film elements, carefully piecing together the movie in a painstaking effort to honor Welles’ artistic vision. The Gate wrote, "''A Final Cut for Orson'' is a must-see for anyone interested in seeing how tremendously difficult it can be to restore or reassemble a motion picture from scratch... ''The Other Side of the Wind'' was truly ahead of its time, and ''A Final Cut for Orson'' shows how the people who realized the film’s potential weren’t willing to let it slip through the hourglass of time."

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

wrote, "Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern’s ''A Final Cut for Orson: 40 Years in the Making'' is an excellent chronicle of how they and a loyal team of Wellesians overcame one obstacle after another to piece his last feature film together." ''A Final Cut for Orsons editor, Martin Singer, was nominated for an ACE " Eddie" Award in the Best Edited Documentary (Non-Theatrical) category by the American Cinema Editors guild in 2019.

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Final Cut For Orson, A 2018 films American documentary films Netflix original documentary films Documentary films about Orson Welles Documentary films about films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films