THE TRIAL - BBC MONITOR INTERVIEW in pdf file

[jaime marzol]

http://www.milestonefilms.com/pdf_press/Trial.pdf

[Hannaford]

Here's a humorous little quote from FILMING THE TRIAL:

ORSON WELLES: I see the monstrous bureaucracy, which is the villain of the piece, as not only Kafka’s clairvoyant view of the future, but of his racial and cultural background — of being occupied by the Austria-Hungarian Empire. I see a curious combination in the book of an unthinkable sterile future, combined with an unthinkable dusty accumulation of those traditions which bureaucrats set up in order to perpetuate their monstrous lies.

If I sound like our President, I profoundly apologize.

[Glenn Anders]

Hannaford: You may have something. The Course of Empire tends to be the same in every era. Only the players and appearances change. Corruption, coverups, and over-reaching tend to bring them down.

Glenn

[Wilson]

Per board rules, let's make sure this remains on topic with Welles rather than a political discussion. Thanks.

[Hannaford]

Another quote from Mr. Welles:

OW: I've never cared much for movies, I never cared much for the theater, you know, I just loved doing it, which makes me a very bad person to interview on the subject that these magazines are about (movies). All I read about and care about is politics, all of my life. You know, I read certainly ten times more a week than Reagan has in his life. It's my subject. But the fact that I might have been successful in politics is very much open to question.

[Knowles Noel Shane]

That's another lost vista, how Welles' career as a politician would have turned out. Even if he'd failed to defeat McCarthy, had he run against him it would have been another fascinating aspect of his career. The most sustained of his political output are the Almanac newspaper columns and the Commentaries radio series. I find both too esoteric, since I don't know anything about OPA price controls or the other topical events of the political landscape of the 1940s to which Welles referred. I wouldn't doubt they were incisive observations, I wish I knew more. I suggested to Sid Gottlieb that he provide a little background to the more obscure references in the newspaper columns to help clarify his book, but then Beatrice murdered it anyway. I hate to keep thinking she's such a culprit, but the culpability for interference keeps seeming to be hers. Whatever.

Since this thread is on The Trial (and I seem to be babbling off topic again,) I hope some version of Filming The Trial shows up someday. I know very little about what was shot or written. If anyone knows, please post.

[Knowles Noel Shane]

While I'm off topic, I thought of something else concerning Welles' political activities. Again (and I apologize) I don't remember what biography mentions this, but it stated that Welles took Roosevelt's place in a presidential debate during one of the campaigns because FDR was ill. Whatever the venue was, there must be some transcript or recording of it, and it's an amazing gesture on the President's part to name Welles as his surrogate. Perhaps the account is a misrepresentation or purely fallacial, but I've been intrigued and bothered by it since first I read of it.