"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 the corner of our 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' earned 40 million at the box office. He likes your movie very much. I heard that I want to
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 my movies." Ronald said to Orson Welles.
"I have very mixed tastes in watching movies. As long as my legs and feet are convenient, I will go to see them."
Although Orson Welles is very old, and he hasn't made a movie for a long time, he still has the genius aura from back then, and he can dominate a conversation with just a few words.
"I don't have enough money right now, Orson. When I get the re-release of 'They All Laughed' and 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
We are old friends and we started chatting.
"They watch too many movies. Creators shouldn't watch too many movies. Including Spielberg, Scorsese, and that Brian De Palma. He always imitates Hitchcock,
In fact, his shots are even better than Hitchcock's, so there is absolutely 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 that he shouldn't watch too many movies?
It would be fine if an ordinary director said this. Welles was a genius who made the masterpiece "Citizen Kane" at the age of 23, and is a figure respected by many directors. He may have some profound meaning when he said this.
"Why don't you talk, young man." Orson Welles talked a lot. He noticed that Ronald didn't say a word and 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 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 proudly introduced Ronald to Welles as a fan of his.
"Oh, you are so young, have you seen my movie?"
"Yes, I attended the film department at New York University for two years, and one of the courses was classic film appreciation. Sometimes the CBS Evening Theater will show your movies, 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 back to Ronald.
“I actually prefer ‘touch of evil’.”
"Oh, the long shot of that movie is very good. Today's film students should study it carefully." 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 began 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. The car and the bomb were always placed
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 started 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 a time bomb to three minutes and then putting it in the trunk of a car. The audience knew there was a bomb from the beginning and waited to see when it would explode.
The subtitles and opening soundtrack are exactly three minutes long, but if handled this way, the audience will know that the bomb will explode when the subtitles end and the music stops, and they will lose their expectation of suspense.
Ronald never understood Wells' treatment 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 movie happened to be the first movie that Orson Welles returned to Hollywood from Europe to shoot. Universal's executives thought that he could no longer direct, so they re-edited the movie according to their own wishes.
Due to contractual obligations, they had to give 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 areas 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 subtitles and soundtrack to keep the audience in suspense.
However, Universal was one of the eight major studios at the time and ignored his request. The film was still screened according to their edit, and the box office was not good. After that, Orson Welles was considered to have exhausted his talents, and he rarely had the opportunity to get another film.
Invest in making movies.
"At that time, the director will not have the power to edit?"
"Of course, in the so-called golden age, the studios took back editing rights. You may be too young to know that in our day, aspiring directors never shot principal 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.
"Katherine Hepburn was messing around on the set, and I didn't like him very much. She used her high-school accent and cursed her, 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 speak without swearing. She's really vulgar, but cute."
"Grace Kelly was also promiscuous. She would do it in the dressing room whenever she could, but she never talked about her affairs. I like her very much."
"I have to go, Orson. I'm going to meet with the executives of Time Magazine in the 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 paid the bill. Orson Welles's clothes looked like they had no money, and Bogdanovich was also raising money to reissue his girlfriend's posthumous works.
It's up to him to pay the bill.
Maybe Bogdanovich brought him here for this reason.
"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 mysophobic? 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, he's harsh on others but relaxed on himself," said Orson Welles. "His original wife was an art director. The reason why many of Peter's early films were so successful was because of Polly Platt.
He is the person who made the greatest contribution behind the scenes.
But he abandoned Polly for a movie heroine, Cybill Shepherd. Of course I don't blame him, Cybill is a beauty, everyone will fall head over heels for her.
My movie is not finished and now I have to rely on Peter to get financing, so I can’t say too many 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.
Without strong emotions to express, it is impossible for you to direct a good work. Finding more beautiful women is the source of creation. When I was filming the movie "Ladies of Magic", Rita (Rita Hayworth) said
She still loved me, and I suddenly felt motivated to make 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. The new home here is a small house he bought by participating in talk shows as a guest and saving money.
.
"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 'Beautiful Lady,' here's a reference."
Ronald lowered his head and took it. It was handwritten by Orson Welles. He only read it once and then wrote many opinions. Ronald was amazed by this kind of mastery and genius of his own movies.
"Talk to me, I haven't seen an interesting young man like 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 remembered his comment and began to ask.
"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 thought of his own experience and nodded in agreement.
"If you keep watching other people's movies, you will be influenced by them, 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. Unconstrained by Hollywood clichés..."