FADE TO BLACK on DVD Oct. 5th
OW
as Welles. Co-starring Christopher Walken.
OW
> 2006 film about Orson Welles in Italy in the early 50's. Danny Huston
> as Welles. Co-starring Christopher Walken.
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FADE TO BLACK is not a great film, but it’s well done and
entertaining, and it’s political conceits are worth pondering. The
idea that the “Christian Democratic” party in Italy, which won the
pivotal elections of 1948 and remained in power for 60 years, was in
essence a posthumous continuation of Mussolini’s Fascist regime,
backed by both the Mafia and the U.S., is provocative but certainly
not implausible. As Christopher Walken’s CIA character indicates
towards the end of the film, that unholy alliance was the
manifestation of the U.S.’s willingness to go to any lengths to
prevent the countries of Europe from falling into the hands of Stalin,
even if it meant employing many of the same axis thugs that the west
had just spent so many years and lives trying to defeat. This idea
dovetails with the advent of HUAC, the Truman Doctrine, and the U.S.’s
shift towards the right and away from New Deal policies by the late
40’s. It’s not hard to see that the film’s questioning of U.S. foreign
policy may have prevented it from getting an American distributor,
especially with the “war on terror” still in full swing when the film
was first finished in 2006.
The film is effectively atmospheric, especially in it’s creepy
depiction of the torture camp deep in the woods, originally used by
Mussolini, but still being used by various parties after the war.
There are some beautiful locations in Rome as well, and I also like
the way that newsreels, silent movies and other movies within the
movie are sprinkled throughout the story. The film is very handsomely
photographed.
The movie has a slightly flippant, THIRD MAN-ish side as well,
particularly the scenes taking place on the barely competent set of
BLACK MAGIC; and at times the story comes across like an extended
episode of the LIVES OF HARRY LIME radio series, with Welles as
rascally opportunist naively stumbling into one misadventure after
another. The fact that Welles is just coming off of his failed
marriage to Rita Hayworth is a consistently good source of humour.
Danny Huston’s fusion of Welles and John Huston works nicely for the
most part, and Walken, Paz Vega, and Diego Luna offer solid support. I
like the way the film mixes fact with some imaginative speculation and
dramatic license, as in the romance between Welles and Lea Padovani.
Welles did say he had a tremendously difficult time in pursuing her,
and this film offers some interesting theories as to why. Naturally,
the film stretches the truth just as much as ME AND ORSON WELLES does,
but it does so in the service of a very entertaining and well-crafted
story. Perhaps FADE TO BLACK is not as good as it could have been, but
it was a pleasant surprise to finally have the opportunity to see it
at all, and to have it be well worth seeing.
NARRATOR: “The people were thrifty in that Midland town, because they
were the sons and grandsons of the “early settlers”, who had opened
the wilderness with wagons, axes and guns; but with no money at all.
The pioneers were thrifty or they would have perished- they had to
store away food for the winter, or goods to trade for food, and they
often feared they hadn’t stored enough.”
“They left traces of that fear in their sons and grandsons. In the
minds of most of these, indeed, their thrift was next to their
religion.”
Eugene makes his way through the streets of a small Midwestern farm
town, tipping his hat to people as he goes.
He is dressed like a dandy.
NARRATOR: “To save, even for the sake of saving, was their earliest
lesson and discipline. No matter how prosperous they were, they could
not afford to spend money on art, or on luxury and entertainment,
without a sense of sin.”