Orson Welles had an obviously nightmarish vision in mind when approaching Shakespeare’s “Othello.” The story itself is a maddening depiction of betrayal, deception, manipulation, and death, and Welles emphasizes that back drop in every shot. Despite being a troubled production, “Othello” looks beautiful and depicts the world around Othello as a confused and jarring mess where nothing is ever what it seems; that’s emphasized by the dizzying editing and close ups. Othello is a man driven by his passion who finds that the one person he trusts has likely betrayed him. This makes him abusive and inevitably murderous, and Welles offers no quarter when it comes to the titular character.
When a secret marriage is planned between Othello (Orson Welles), a Moorish general, and Desdemona (Suzanne Cloutier), the daughter of Senator Brabantio (Hilton Edwards), her old suitor Roderigo (Robert Coote) takes it hard. He allies himself with Iago (Micheál MacLiammóir), who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. When their first plan, to have him accused of witchcraft, fails, they plant evidence intended to make him believe Desdemona is unfaithful.
Othello is a blow hard and a short tempered naïve man who submits to his baser urges through the very end, and suffers dearly. There are reportedly two versions of Welles’ adaptation that exist – the 1952 European edition (which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival) and the 1955 American/UK edition. While both versions are included in this Criterion Bu-ray release, I saw the 1952 version. The troubled film began shooting in 1949, but dragged on for many, many years due to constant funding problems that tested the patience and endurance of the entire cast and crew behind the film. It also managed to create some jarring editing and production issues involving blatant dubbing and dialogue synching, as well as bad continuity for the final film.
In any case Orson Welles’ direction is enormous with so many scenes staged so gorgeous like a horror movie. Especially in the final confrontation between Othello and Desdemona in her chambers which sees Othello skulking over her like a serial killer. The final shot of her lurking beside her, ready to smother her to death is a shot that precedes the entire film. It’s so visually impressive, morbid, and garners a slew of strong performances. Despite the choice of black face by Welles, “Othello” goes down well, even if it’s not one of the most remembered adaptations of Shakespeare’s play.
There’s an audio Commentary, recorded in 1994, for the Criterion laserdisc edition of Othello, which accompanies the 1955 “original American release version as approved and prepared by Welles himself,” featuring remarks by director Peter Bogdanovich, who recalls his personal interactions with Welles, and Welles scholar Myron Meisel, whose insight and knowledge enhance the commentary. Both analyze Othello from various angles and talk about the troubled production. There’s Documentary: Filming Othello, an eighty three minutes completed feature film directed by Orson Welles that examines one of his greatest achievements. There’s the Vintage twenty eight minutes Short Film Return to Glennascaul by actor Hilton Edwards who wrote and directed this charming short film that features both an appearance by Welles (who plays himself) and his narration.
“A short story straight from the haunted land of Ireland,” Return to Glennascaul (which means “glen of the shadows”) tells the supernatural tale of a stranded motorist (Michael Laurence) who is offered a lift by a benevolent Welles, who is on his way back to Dublin after meeting Hilton Edwards to discuss some “Othello business.” This earned a 1953 Academy Award nomination for Best Two-Reel Short Subject; director Peter Bogdanovich supplies an informative introduction that was filmed in 1992. There’s the forty nine minutes Documentary Souvenirs d’Othello with actress Suzanne Cloutier who and over the course of this engrossing 1994 profile, she outlines many of her challenges. Divided into two parts (one in French, the other in English), the documentary examines the production of Othello and Cloutier’s relationship with Welles after its completion.
It provides many valuable personal insights and reflections. There’s a twenty two minutes interview with Simon Callow, a prolific actor who also wrote an exhaustive three volume biography of Welles (the fourth and final installment has yet to be released). Along with rare photos and excerpts from archival correspondence, Callow talks about Welles’ spontaneous directorial style, the film’s financial difficulties, the on-again-off-again nature of the production, and Welles’ long, turbulent relationship with co-star Micheál MacLiammóir. The twenty one minutes Interview with Ayanna Thompson features Scholar and author Ayanna Thompson, who addresses the question of race in Othello as it pertains to both the play and film in this absorbing examination.
Throughout the interview, Thompson discusses the racial history of Othello, and the complex racial politics of Welles. “Perspectives on Othello: Joseph McBride on Orson Welles” is a thirty three minutes 2014 interview with Welles biographer Joseph McBride, who talks about Welles’ stature as a “maverick director,” and his admiration of Shakespeare. There are a slew of photos and film clips within the discussion, which sheds a good deal of light on Welles. Finally there’s an eighteen minutes interview with François Thomas, a Welles scholar who compares and contrasts the two versions of Othello, which differ more from an audio standpoint than a narrative or visual one. It reportedly took Welles two years to edit Othello, and he used editing as a tool to cleverly mask the movie’s sync issues.
Aside from the commentary track, all of the supplements reside on the second disc.