Welles at Work/Welles au Travail by Thomas and Berthome

[K Dobry]

While waiting for a full review of the book, I though I'd post a quick word about it (esp. because it's discounted at the moment on Amazon).
I have the French edition of Welles at Work (which I assume is exactly the same as the English one), and it's quite a great book.
While there is a lot of information that can be found elsewhere, scattered in various sources (interviews with Edmond Richard, for example) , this book does a great job collecting it all in one place, as well as presenting a great deal of other info I've never been able to find elsewhere.
Each chapter covers a specific film (including Fountain of Youth),and focuses on the technical aspect and production: the phototograhy (there is some mention of filtration and lenses), a bit on editing techniques, a lot on set design, and a lot of info on how the productions were organized and shot.
For example, the authors have assembled tables listing the exact contribution of the various DPs on Ambersons and some information on the various DPs on Lady from Shanghai.
For Touch of Evil, there is a nice description on how some scenes originally meant to be shot in the studio were instead done on location (which of course is what gave rise to the complaint about Welles "changing his ideas in the middle of shooting").
For The Immortal Story, there are small thumbnail photos comparing different shots made with the various-sized lenses used for the film.

There is an embarrassment of riches in terms of photos and documents: a make-up test of Welles for Heart of Darkness, memos between Welles and Richard Wilson during the post-production of Lady from Shanghai, as well as some pre-production costume and set drawings, and location scouting photos.

Overall, a well-researched and rich source of information, and probably a must-have for anyone who posts here.

[Jeff Wilson]

I'll have a review up at some point soon, but I would agree with the previous points. It's an excellent book, well worth picking up.

[Skylark]

Thanks for the review and review to come - They did a similar book like this on Eisenstein which is excellent - I have to get this book -

[ToddBaesen]

It's interesting that Welles had at least three films scheduled to show in the Venice Film Festival, all which would eventually be withdraw: MACBETH, OTHELLO and in 1962, THE TRIAL. I haven't looked at what film won the Golden Lion in those years, but certainly in retrospect, it would seem like Welles would have had a lock on the Golden Lion for both THE TRIAL and especially for OTHELLO, since it was shot in Venice.

And according to ORSON WELLES AT WORK, producer Alex Salkind pressured Welles to finish editing on THE TRIAL so it could be shown in time for the Venice festival, in Sept, 1962. Welles is quoted as saying: "This is my film. I will not bend to any pressure which attempts to force me to expose it to the public until I am completely satisfied that, in its every phrase, it is commensurate with the hight standards I have set for myself."

[Skylark]

Got the book - great text but I must say that I agree with the authors about the book's visual presentation - compared to a book like Eisenstein at work, I'm disappointed at the relative sparseness of non-photographic visual documentation - with the Eisenstein book, you really get a good visual glimpse into the director's conceptual process and methods plus a generous look at the director's graphic illustration abilities - this book limits the artist sketches and screenplay or production memo samples to about one sample per film - not the author's fault - apparently it was the publisher who redesigned the book - very good book, but hopefully one day there will be a book devoted to Welles' graphic art output, as has been done with Eisenstein - (there was actually an anthology book themed on film director's as grahic artists - but Welles wasn't included.)