By RAY KELLY
For many, there is little good to say about 2020 — other than it is over.
But Orson Welles fans can be happy that several projects in the past 12 months drew attention to his achievements in radio and film.
• Producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski surprised us with the fascinating Hopper/Welles, a two-hour conversation between Welles and Dennis Hopper filmed in November 1970 during The Other Side of the Wind shoot. While Hopper’s appearance in TOSOTW amounted to just a cameo, Welles had filmed a lengthy conversation dealing with religion, politics and filmmaking. Hopper/Welles had its debut at the Venice International Film Festival in September, followed by showings in New York, at the AFI fest and elsewhere. Rymsza is exploring options for commercial distribution.
• Welles’ performances in two 1940s radio shows were sampled by rapper Logic for his best-selling album No Pressure in July. Most notably, Logic used a lengthy Welles commentary condemning racism. No Pressure topped the Billboard Rap Chart and introduced Welles to a new, younger audience. His 1946 talk on race hatred struck a chord with 21st century listeners as Black Lives Matter demonstrators took to the streets. Welles’ voice was also sampled in a teaser trailer for the next installment in the popular sci-fi video game series Mass Effect.
• November brought David Fincher’s much-hyped film Mank about the co-writer of Citizen Kane. Unfortunately, the Netflix offering wasn’t just misleading about Welles’ contribution to the Kane screenplay, it was downright boring in spots — despite solid performances by Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz and Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies. Film historian Joseph McBride, who wrote “Rough Sledding,” a 1971 look at the authorship of Kane, returned to the topic this year with the insightful “Mank and the Ghost of Christmas Future,” which pointed out what Fincher got wrong.
• Want more on what many still consider the “greatest movie ever made”? Harlan Lebo (Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey) treated fans to a faithful online transcript of Citizen Kane, and a scholarly overlay. Lebo highlighted the differences between the script Welles c0-wrote with Mankiewicz and what ended up on screen. Lebo’s study can be found at wellesnet.com/harlan-lebo-script-study
• Daron Hagen’s filmed opera, Orson Rehearsed, played at movie festivals around the world in 2020. It has won laurels in the Los Angeles Film Awards, Chicago Indie Film Festival, Cinefest India, and the After Hour Festival in Brazil, among others.
Sadly, we had our share of losses in 2020, including film critic and author F.X. Feeney (Orson Welles: Power, Heart, and Soul), actors Michael Lonsdale (The Trial) and Tim Brooke-Taylor (Orson’s Bag), and Ralph Hoagland III, co-founder of the CVS pharmacy chain and one-time owner of the Orson Welles Cinema Complex in Cambridge, Mass.
Some projects remained in development in 2020. Simon Callow spent part of the pandemic lockdown working on the fourth and final installment in his acclaimed Welles biography series. The Estate of Orson Welles secured the copyright to the unsold Orson Welles Show pilot with plans to release it. Documentary filmmaker Josh Grossberg had planned to go to Brazil to hunt down the lost version of The Magnificent Ambersons, but COVID-19 got in the way of his expedition.
So, here’s to better days ahead in 2021.
Wellesnet, which welcomed 544,224 visitors in 2020, is marking its 20th year in March. It will continue to remain what has been called “the go-to site for all things Welles.”
Have a happy, safe and healthy New Year!
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