Criterion: Othello Blu-ray Release Delayed

Posted April 19, 2017 02:10 PM by


The Criterion Collection has informed us that the upcoming Blu-ray release of Orson Welles' Othello will be delayed. The release was scheduled to arrive on the market on May 23. A new street date has not yet been announced, but as soon as it is confirmed we will update you. Synopsis: Gloriously cinematic despite being made on a tiny budget, Orson Welles's Othello is a testament to the filmmaker's stubborn willingness to pursue his vision to the ends of the earth. Unmatched in his passionate identification with Shakespeare's imagination, Welles brings his inventive visual approach to this enduring tragedy of jealousy, bigotry, and rage, and also gives a towering performance as the Moor of Venice, alongside Suzanne Cloutier as his innocent wife, Desdemona, and Micheál MacLiammóir as the scheming Iago. Shot over the course of three years in Morocco, Venice, Tuscany, and Rome and plagued by many logistical problems, this fiercely independent film joins Macbeth and Chimes at Midnight in making the case for Welles as the cinema's most audacious interpreter of the Bard. Special Features: New, restored 4K digital transfers of two versions of the film, the 1952 European version and the 1955 U.S. version, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray Audio commentary featuring filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles scholar Myron Meisel Return to Glennascaul, a 1953 short film made by MacLiammóir and actor Hilton Edwards during a hiatus from shooting Othello New interview with Welles biographer Simon Callow New interview with Welles scholar François Thomas on the differences between the two versions New interview with Ayanna Thompson, author of Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America Interview from 2014 with Welles scholar Joseph McBride And MORE... PLUS: An essay by film critic Geoffrey O'Brien
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News comments (12 comments)

Top contributor

Majin Blu

Apr 19, 2017

No. NO! Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I'm cool now

RICKBONDOO7

Apr 19, 2017

I wish Criterion would release a 4k transfer of Orson Welles's ... The Stranger ! ...I Love this movie !!! : )

re1payne

Apr 19, 2017

I'm okay with a delay so the release will be better and not an issue like Dressed to Kill was.

filmczy

Apr 19, 2017

Mr. Welles wants to do a couple more edits...

Anyone know anything about the differences between the European and US versions? I'd seen this years ago on video (not sure which version), and I wasn't all that impressed with it (couldn't remember why).

Top contributor

brian9229

Apr 19, 2017

Damn!! Been holding my breath for this one.

filmczy

Apr 19, 2017

@The Conspiracist

From IMDb:

This film by Orson Welles, was 'restored' by a group in Chicago in 1991/2. The film was transferred to, and enhanced in video, (D1 format) retaining it as black and white. The audio was completely rebuilt, including the score, in Stereo Surround. All dialogue, however was original. This was a problem as some of the dialogue was distorted and unintelligible. John Fogelson, editor, was a major supervisor of the project. Ed Golya, Lorita DeLacerna, and Steve Wilke, were digital editors. And Ed Golya remixed the soundtrack. The process took 9 months. It was purchased for distribution by Castle Hill, and taken to New York where it went through another transformation before release. Unintelligible dialogue was replaced with 'sound-alikes'. This decision was made for the entertainment value of the film. The original mono music was then reintroduced into the final product. Basically, the film was retransferred, and the rebuilt sound effects tracks were added. This was done at Sound One, in NYC.. The credits were adjusted to place Lee Dickter (sp?) as Re-recording Mixer, and Ed Golya as Sound Effects Editor.

There are actually 3 significant versions of this film. The version that is available on DVD and at Film Festivals is the "restored" version mentioned above. The Criterion laserdisc consists of Orson Welles' American version of the film in which he completely overdubbed Desdemona's voice with a new actress and overdubbed many characters including Roderigo with his own voice. In addition this version contains written credits instead of spoken and has many alternate shots. The original Cannes version was shown once on British Televison in the early 80's and is very difficult to find.

sjt

Apr 19, 2017

So what is it available on blu ray - looking fabulous, I might add - on the French Carlotta label?

The Conspiracist

Apr 20, 2017

@filmczy

Thanks!

atcolomb

Apr 20, 2017

I hope they will add the documentary "Filming Othello" that was on the Criterion laserdisc ...

Dwigt

Apr 22, 2017

@The Conspiracist

As filmczy said, there are three existing versions.

Welles' original version is the European cut. He had to make a few cuts/adjustments/dubbing for the American release, which always had audio issues due to stuff such as the additional hiss. Both cuts also have out of sync audio, which isn't very surprising as Welles did a lot of ADR in post, as he enjoyed voicing characters and impersonating voices for some lines, but cared little for lip-syncing. It wasn't out of the ordinary for Italian films of this era, anyway.

When Beatrice Welles, one of Orson's daughters, commissioned a very expensive restoration of Othello in the early nineties, she picked a crew that didn't actually do their homework. Common sense would have been to start with the European version, and apply some light restoration work on the material, or at least use some elements from this version, as they were in better condition. Instead of this, they applied some unnecessary work on the US cut to try to recreate material that was already present in the European cut, which they didn't take into consideration. And they tried to synchronize the dialog, which also had a negative effect on the original score.
This restoration has been controversial almost from the start, even with the corrective work that was applied on glaring mistakes after some early screenings.
The version was also mostly a way for Beatrice Welles to establish copyright under her name, and to forbid anybody from showing footage from the two previous cuts, which extended to the Filming Othello documentary, as it used (reedited) footage from the original film.

Basically, Criterion is doing what should have been done a quarter of century ago: start with the 1952 international version and clean it a little. What remains to be seen is whether or not Beatrice Welles and Criterion have come to an agreement. But I doubt that Criterion would attempt anything if they were not sure to have solid legal base on the two versions.