Janus Films’ restored Chimes at Midnight is making its way across the country to rave reviews.
The Orson Welles film, which was famously panned by Bosley Crowther in The New York Times upon its release in 1966, is being appreciated by a new generation of movie critics.
Here is a sampling of reviews published since its re-release on January 1:
“At long last, though, Chimes at Midnight has undergone a brilliant restoration, by Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, and will be playing around the country in the next few months, with a new DVD release in prospect. See it on the big screen if you can; for all of its flaws it’s a glory.” – The Wall Street Journal
“Why revisit this film now? For one thing, there’s a renewed interest in Welles, whose centennial was celebrated in May 2015. But it’s also in no small part due to the efforts of the arthouse distributor that released Chimes, Janus Films, which tasked itself with the challenge of resuscitating long-lost cinematic gems and ushering people back into the theater along with them.” – Newsweek
It’s early in the year, but it’s already the year of Chimes at Midnight, Orson Welles’s mighty adaptation, from 1965, of Shakespeare’s plays featuring the colossal character of Falstaff… The new restoration… is a cinematic event of the first order.” – The New Yorker
“Thanks to an astonishingly crisp restoration, Orson Welles’ 1965 Shakespearean masterpiece can now be appreciated by anyone who thought his best days behind the camera ended with Touch of Evil.” – Entertainment Weekly
“The picture is by turns joyous and mournful, and features one of the most arresting battle sequences ever put on film, all the more amazing for the fact that Welles shot it — not to mention all of Chimes at Midnight – on a mouse-sized budget in Spain, where he was living at the time… the movie’s craftsmanship overall is remarkable: Every shot is packed with meaning or purpose.” – Village Voice
“In spite of budget constraints causing shoddy sound design and continuity errors, Chimes at Midnight is one of the few perfect films in American cinema. Welles recognized Falstaff’s purity and innocence, and his performance is the glue that holds together this masterpiece. Chimes at Midnight is hilarious, energetic and the final betrayal is heavy and affecting.” – The State Press
“Falstaff is his greatest role and his greatest performance not because he looks so right for the part but because his usual flagrant theatricality is, this time, at the service of a character infinitely rich in emotional possibilities.” – Christian Science Monitor
“The movie, shot in black and white, has been refurbished, and the look is stunning. Welles’ vision and imagination is unmatched in film. His use of light in a forbidding, dark castle is a wonder. The way he stages scenes, placing actors here and there just so, moving them like chess pieces as they deliver the Bard’s dialogue, is so inventive that it commands your attention without distracting from the action.” – The Arizona Republic
“… the criminally under-appreciated Chimes At Midnight, the gorgeous restoration of which has now begun to circulate through arthouse theaters across major cities.. (is) deserving of every iota of respect still paid to Kane. Welles’ patchwork fan-edit of the Bard’s historical plays contains some of the master’s most ambitious stylistic gambits, as well as guarded yet recognizably personal ruminations on the bonds and betrayals between fathers and their sons. Long overdue for some new exposure, Chimes is a major work from American cinema’s most major talent. – UPROXX
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