Two years ago Beatrice Welles was full of warm memories of her father, the late Orson Welles. “He was the best father in the world,” she said during a 2016 AFI Fest interview with Scott Mantz. Now, less than three weeks before Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind has its long-delayed premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Beatrice is singing quite another tune.

Yesterday (8.12) the Sunday TimesBryan Appleyard quoted her in somewhat confusing, contradictory terms:

“I’m turning up in Venice, and I’ll have my name up in stars,” Beatrice says. Doesn’t the phrase go “I’ll have my name up in lights”?

“It’s not what I wanted for it, it’s not my movie, it was never my movie,” Beatrice explains. “I just had better ideas about how it could end.” Uh-huh. And…?

Then Beatrice drops a bomb by saying that The Other Side of the Wind is “in the hands [of people] my father would have hated.” Wait…who’s she talking about? Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich? Filip Jan Rymsza? Netflix, without which the film would never have been completed? This isn’t adding up.

“I have to talk about it, and I have to be Orson Welles’ daughter,” Beatrice goes on. “I really honestly can’t tell the truth on this one. I hope I’m going to be writing a book finally, and I hope I’m allowed to tell the truth of what’s going on behind that movie.”

Translation: Beatrice feels compelled to talk about her Other Side of the Wind experience, but not quite truthfully. She hopes, however, that certain parties will “allow” her to tell the truth when she writes a book about it.