Orson and black and white

[Tony]

I was just reading the notes to "The Cradle Will Rock" script, and had forgotten that OW intended for it to be a black and white film; suddenly I recalled that he also intended to make both "Big Brass Ring" and "King Lear" in black and white also. This means that his colour period was about a decade long, from "Immortal Story" in 1966 to the probable release of "The Other Side of the Wind" and "The Dreamers" in the late 70s, had he gotten the financing to complete them. But "Brass", "Cradle" and "Lear" would have been B&W.

I've always felt that Welles was stronger in B&W, that he lost a lot of power in colour... and of course he was with the trend at the time, as Woody released "Manhattan" in beautiful B&W in 1979, and Scorcese released "Raging Bull" also in B&W in 1980. So I don't think anyone would have had a problem with OW releasing his pictures in that form at that time.

Just another thought...

[mteal]

Welles probably felt more comfortable with Black and White; his was to some extent, an art of light and darkness. But personally, I'd like to see more Welles in color, and hopefully we will before too long. Several of the works from Welles' "color period" remain unseen, so it's hard to judge exactly what his full acheivement in this regard was or would have been. Apparently, THE BIG BRASS RING was to have been in black and white until the climax of the story, during which a fireworks display would have been in color. I'd like to find out what that meant.

There are also a few fascinating snippets of color footage in the IT'S ALL TRUE docu, including that great "West Side Story"-like recreation of an old-time Carnival street fight. If Welles' Brazillian adventure had turned out better, maybe we might have had an Orson Welles color period much earlier in his career as well. It's interesting though that, 20 years later, his first color feature THE IMMORTAL STORY was quickly followed by an abridged version of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE which, from the available fragments, seems to have a strikingly similar look and atmosphere to it. Perhaps Welles found his color vision quickly, but after a few films felt he had nothing left to prove in color. Not that he had anything left to prove in black and white, either.

[R Kadin]

Allegory tends to work better in B&W.

[Peter Tonguette]

As Bill Krohn expressed to me in our interview, Welles' cinema is a black-and-white cinema. He was a master of the form and clearly expressed a preference for it over most color photography.

That said, there is a significant legacy of color works and many of them indicate a very accomplished sense of color photography. "The Immortal Story" and "The Dreamers" are of a piece: amazingly beautiful works with carefully selected pallettes and immaculate compositions. Parts of "London" are also quite bold, such as the "Four Clubmen" sequence in that film. And I bet I'd agree with you on "Merchant of Venice" if I could judge something other than that terribly scratchy workprint they excerpt in "One Man Band." Interestingly, I'd bet that the use of color in Jake Hannaford's film in "The Other Side of the Wind" is more interesting than the "documentary" sections of that movie!

"F for Fake" and "Filming 'Othello'" don't stand out to me in terms of color. But Welles' work in "The Immortal Story" and "The Dreamers" is for the ages.

Adding to the list of films Welles hoped to make in B&W: "King Lear."

Peter