Fade to Black

2006
R
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

925

YOUR RATING

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Mystery Thriller

Attempting to recover from his failed marriage to Rita Hayworth and restart his career, Orson Welles travels to Italy only to be drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue, murder and politics w... Read allAttempting to recover from his failed marriage to Rita Hayworth and restart his career, Orson Welles travels to Italy only to be drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue, murder and politics when an actor is murdered on his set.Attempting to recover from his failed marriage to Rita Hayworth and restart his career, Orson Welles travels to Italy only to be drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue, murder and politics when an actor is murdered on his set.

Director
- Oliver Parker
Writers
- Davide Ferrario
- Oliver Parker
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

925

YOUR RATING

Director
- Oliver Parker
Writers
- Davide Ferrario
- Oliver Parker
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The film Orson Welles is showing making in post-war Italy is a real one, "Black Magic" (1949), to which he made a number of uncredited contributions as both writer and director. Welles is played by Danny Huston, the son of one of Welles's oldest and closest friends, John Huston. Although the on-screen Welles seems dismissive of the film, the real Welles often said it was the one which had given him the most sheer fun of his entire career.

Quotes
Orson Welles: [First lines, narrating, as graphic archival images of war and strife in Italy are shown] Oh, yes. The Second World War was quite a disaster for poor old Italy. Their Fascist leader, Mussolini, had teamed up with Hitler and thought he was on a winning ticket. Then, Benito was shot by Partisans and strung up by his heels in the local square... Now, in 1948, the country is still leaderless, broke, and heading for chaos. Sure, the rich are still rich... If you're not in furs, you're in rags. People are starving and disillusioned, and getting angrier by the day. Meanwhile, the black market is booming: with a fistful of lire, you can get yourself just about whatever you want.
Orson Welles: [Still narrating, as a news photo of an assassinated aristocrat man and wife is shown - both shot in the head] If you still harbor a grudge or two from the war, it's a fine time to lay your mind to rest.

Connections
Referenced in Orson Welles - Fade to Black (2008)

User reviews8

Review

Featured review

8/10

You want historical facts, read a History book!!

Our subject film gets underway by showing Mr. Welles in a very inauspicious light, as evidenced by his tepid, if not sarcastic, reception at the Rome airport as he arrived at the terminal almost unnoticed and visibly upstaged by Ty Power's arrival. But what's our guy to do given his current set of circumstances brought upon him by Ms. Hayworth giving him the old heave-ho and thereby ending their marriage?

So now he's in post WWII Rome where he shall try to undergo some face saving (he hopes) by attempting to reinvigorate his career by directing his slightly convoluted version of Othello that starts to look like a comedy of errors at the immediate onset of this dubious production.

But camp turns to tragedy as one of the actors gets murdered not long into the production. The dying thespian whispers something into Mr. Welles' ear just before passing on, and now a whole new chain of events starts to take place. One mystery begets other mysteries in a sort of arithmetic progression and the serious side of this drama/mystery starts to unfold. And this part of the film shows an understated, realistic Orson Welles who stumbles about looking for murder clues amidst a truly chaotic time in Italy. No star fanfare or ballyhoo here as he undertakes this complex task.

After all, it is post WWII Italy and the country is in total upheaval as large segments of the populace live in dire poverty. Added to this is a loose but dangerous amalgamation of ex-Nazis, dope dealers, neo-Fascists, US & other Allied forces' mercenaries acting under the guise of the political umbrella called the Christian Democrats who purportedly want to democratize Italy and make it a safe haven for democracy, out of Stalin's Communist Party's reach. Welles stumbles into these characters as he proceeds with trying to find more facts surrounding the murder on his set and ends up in a bailiwick of troubling surprises in so doing. What he sees, hears and learns from one of his old friend American colleagues (Chris Walken's role) and others in the aforementioned umbrella group is what drives the latter part of the film and pieces together the political ramifications of what transpires here. Was this a true account of what actually happened in post WWII Italy's chaotic time of turmoil? As was said toward the film's conclusion: "You want facts, read a History book!" At least there you will find out one person's view of the facts...Welcome to the real world!!