Treasure Island - Megaphone-holding department

[catbuglah]

There's this thing they do a lot in Treasure Island - they start a scene with a close-up on an object and then move into the scene proper (by travelling or zooming back) - fun thing -(they actually do that a lot in Dances with Wolves, to good effect IMO, whether Costner is familiar with Welles, I don't know) - but I was noodling around in TOE recently, and noticed that kind of thing a few times (including a similar drinking scene where the scenes begins with a close-up on the glasses being filled...)

[Tony]

Check out the Inn scene, near the beginning: adjust your set to black and white, and you'll think you're watching a welles scene, for sure.
:;):

[catbuglah]

The black spot! Good suspense. Music's not bad.

"too close to home" AKA "protesteth too much".
In the Treasure Island bit in TIOW, he doesn't protesteth too much, but methinks he does denyeth too much, though. He seems quite careful to distance himself from the directing issue. I don't think he's usually so evasive when discussing his anonymous directing in poorly received movies - my guess is that he would be disinclined to claim he had contributed so much to a movie that didn't go over well - essentially, I believe, because of the stilted acting, something which Welles alludes to in that discussion.

[Tony]

I recall in the Audrey Stainton article on Don Quixote, she remembers coming onto the set of David and Goliath and Welles was high up on a platform directing a scene. I don't recall him speaking about this, though; however there are Wellsian shots, and in particular one stunning shot of the camera dollying up to Saul standing beside a column with that metaphysical vibrating, just as it dollies up to Othello as he makes his decision to kill Desdemona.

Of course, he would borrow D&G eqiupment at night in order to film scenes for DQ; thus, he dragged out the filming of D&G as much as humanly possible, for 2 reasons: to borrow film equipment and to get more money to pay for the filming of DQ. And I suppose directing certain D&G scenes allowed him to prolong it's production, thus prolonging the DQ production.

I pity some of those poor producers and directors: how could they have known they hadn't just hired an actor, but had taken on the production of a second film as well!
:laugh:

[catbuglah]

That's the best bit I've read on Welles directing in other people's movies. I'll see if can do a screen grab of that David - Othello comparison you've mentioned.

[Tony]

that would be cool

[Skylark]

François Thomas wrote:

On the 1972 "Treasure Island", see also Esteve Riambau's "Orson Welles : una España inmortal", Filmoteca de la Generalitat Valenciana/Filmoteca Española, 1993.

From http://wellesnet.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1538 thread

[Skylark]

Hispanola wrote:

Some hours of work but great fun...and now its finally finished.
The "Treasure Island" Location Report:

http://www.western-locations-spain.com/ ... sombrerico