By RAY KELLY
Wellesnet was recently afforded the opportunity to view Brian Rose’s ambitious work-in-progress – a 131-minute reconstruction of The Magnificent Ambersons, a labor of love and scholarly devotion the animator/editor has painstakingly worked on since 2018.
Rose made a 4K scan of his copy of the RKO Radio Pictures release print, which as Wellesians sadly know runs just 88 minutes and includes a studio-ordered happy ending tacked on by editor Robert Wise in Welles absence. Using the March 12, 1942 cutting continuity of Welles’ lost, longer cut and surviving frame enlargements as a guide, Rose has crafted at 131 minute and 45 second version of the film with voice actors and storyboard-like animation filling the numerous gaps. In addition, Bernard Herrmann’s score and appropriate sound effects accompany those missing scenes.
I must admit that as a devoted fan of The Magnificent Ambersons reconstruction undertaken decades ago by Roger Ryan using frame enlargements, I had serious doubts over the use of animation. But the style of animation and Rose’s painstaking attention to detail has won me over. Some of the RKO cuts were minor but the reconstruction provides a much better understanding of how the family goes bust. Other lost scenes, like the Friends of the Ace meeting, come to life with Rose’s animation. Most striking was the pacing of the final conversation between Eugene Morgan and Fanny Minafer at the boarding house. Barring a discovery by Josh Grossberg and his dedicated team of film finders in Brazil, this may be as close as we ever come to understanding Welles’ original vision of The Magnificent Ambersons.
In a series of text exchanges, Rose described to Wellesnet his plan to seek approval from Warner Bros. to show his work when it is completed. He has not set a firm timetable as he continues to fine tune the animation and make further adjustments.
Rose graciously provided a brief video clip of his work so that Welles fans can better understand the reconstruction project. (See embedded video below).
He said would also like to craft a supplementary guide to the film – a revision of the late Robert Carringer’s reconstruction. “I want to explain my rationale for every reconstructed shot, my process and methods, so those interested can see that this really is an academic, as well as artistic undertaking.”
“One of the things I did was a tabulation of every scene in the film, along with its status, namely if the scene was altered, deleted, reshot or survives intact,” Rose said. “According to my tabulation, I came up with a total of 69 distinct scenes, and 4 inserts For my purposes I defined these as shots without an encompassing scene, like the deleted shot of George’s diploma, for a total of 73 distinct ‘pieces’ that comprised the original cut.”
“Here are some stats: Of these 73 scenes, 21 were completely deleted, or reshot. A further 39 scenes were shortened or in the case of one scene – the apothecary – was replaced by an alternate take.”
“Only 13 scenes survive essentially unaltered. If we count shots that are altered because their ordering and placement altered their context, like how the George and Lucy’s carriage ride was moved thereby altering the chronology of events, that drops to just 9 shots that are as Welles shot them, and more or less remaining in the story’s chronology as intended. 7 of the surviving shots take place in the opening sequence, before we even meet George as a young man. Another 4 come from the middle of the film as Eugene courts Isabel and is then thwarted.”
“Just 2 shots – Bronson’s Office and the Garden Scene – survive intact out of 27 scenes comprising the last third of the picture, and both of these shots have been moved from their intended placement in the film’s chronology, meaning in substance, nothing about the last third of the film remains unaltered. Three of the 4 inserts, all of which were critical for offering clarity to the plot and timeline, were cut, while the fourth – the film’s opening titles – were altered.”
“In 20 years as a filmmaker and researcher, I’ve never seen another case of a movie so drastically altered,” Rose said.
(Brian Rose provides updates on his continuing work on The Magnificent Ambersons at instagram.com/theambersonsproject or learn more about the reconstruction at his website, www.ambersonproject.com)
__________
Post your comments on the Wellesnet Message Board.