This article is based on a piece by Jean-Pierre Berthome that appeared in French in The Unknown Orson Welles, the wonderful book edited by Stefan Drossler of the Filmmuseum Munchen. Special thanks to Francois Thomas, who graciously translated key portions of the text for me. All the sections below in bold type are taken from […]
Thanks to Lance Morrison for tallying up all the votes so far of Wellesnet members ongoing ranking of their favorite Orson Welles’ movies. I’ve taken the results Lance has posted on the message board and added in ten more votes, including my own, as well as people I’ve asked to send me their rankings, including […]
I recently received a letter from a 7th grade student in Mass. who asked me a series of interesting questions about Orson Welles. By a strange coincidence, I had just been talking with Joseph McBride about the upcoming group of younger Welles scholars. In any event, I was quite impressed by the intelligence of the […]
By exclusive arrangement with Nick Louras, the editor of PENNY BLOOD magazine, Wellesnet is able to provide these excerpts from Harvey Chartrand’s extensive and fascinating interview with Orson Welles late, great cinematographer Gary Graver. The full text of the article can be read in PENNY BLOOD magazine #11 featuring a cover story on the films […]
Art should never try to be popular; the public should try to make itself artistic. —Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man under Socialism ________________________________ Director Marc Forster has claimed in nearly every interview he’s given while promoting his new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, that since he had never made an action movie before […]
My real interest in life is education. I want to be a teacher. All this experience I’ve been piling up is equipping me for that future …I shall know how to dramatize the art of imparting knowledge. One day I shall leave all this behind me, go back (to Todd School) and give full rein […]
Q: Where is home for you? ORSON WELLES: I have lots of homes …I suppose its Woodstock, Illinois, if it’s anywhere. I went to school there for four years, and if I think of home, it’s there. It may be a tedious cliché to say that school days are the happiest days of your life, […]
For anyone with an interest in the University of Michigan’s two collections of Welles papers, here’s an update as to their status from Welles scholar/U of M professor Catherine Benamou: “Thanks to a special grant from a library donor, processing (the physical organization and labeling) of the Richard Wilson-Orson Welles archive at the Special Collections […]
Thanks to Sir Bygber Brown for posting the letters Orson Welles wrote that are currently for sale at www.abebooks.com You can visit the site to see more details about buying the letters, but since they are selling for $2,000 and up, I don’t imagine many people can afford them! However, because they are all quite […]
With the impending release of Warner Bros. last man on earth story, I Am Legend, I recently re-watched Charlton Heston in The Omega Man, the second abortive attempt at bringing Richard Matheson’s classic end of the world novel to the screen, and noted a few interesting similarities between it and Welles’ Touch of Evil, as they were both […]
Two prevailing and diametrically opposed attitudes seem to dictate the way most people currently think about Orson Welles. One attitude, predominantly American, sees his life and career chiefly in terms of failure and regards the key question to be why he never lived up to his promise—”his promise” almost invariably being tied up with […]
Greetings all, as noted below, the University of Michigan opened an exhibition based on their recently acquired Welles collections tonight. The displayed items will eventually change, but the display itself will continue through December, and the collection is available for research purposes now, though not all of it has yet been cataloged. Catherine Benamou […]