32 years ago, in 1978 when I was the the chairman of The Cinema Guild at a New England College, we received a grant from the Johnson-Mellon foundation for $10,000 to bring important artistic speakers to our campus for a day of interaction with students. Early in our talks with the University “committee” for the […]
While Orson Welles spent time all over the world, and in at least five of the seven continents, I’m not quite sure if he ever made it to New Zealand or Australia. However, I find it rather amazing that today, due to the internet, we can get input from people down under, just as easily […]
Coming across the Autumn, 1962 issue of Sight & Sound at a flea market recently, I was struck by a John Houseman interview, who of all people, defends Orson Welles from that absurd question that seems to have plagued him ever since the fiasco of It’s All True: “What went wrong?” In 1962, Houseman had […]
Given the recent discussion surrounding the New Yorker magazine’s attacks against Orson Welles, whether in 1945, or most famously in 1971, by Pauline Kael, it’s somewhat bizarre that today I should stumble across the May, 1972 issue of Films and Filming, right outside my house, at the Alamo Square flea market where I saw an […]
To celebrate the 93rd birthday of ORSON WELLES – May 6, 1915 – here are some fond memories from members of the cast and crew of CITIZEN KANE. I’m sure they all would be wishing Orson a very happy birthday today… PAUL STEWART – Raymond, the butler The telephone rang and I heard the unmistakable […]
Fred Camper, who writes on movies for The Chicago Reader, has posted a fascinating article by Erich von Stroheim on Citizen Kane at his website. Although it appeared in an obsure magazine called “Decision, a review of free culture” it seems amazing to me it has apparently never been reprinted or, as far as I know, even been […]
In revisiting Frank Brady’s excellent biography, CITIZEN WELLES, I came across this statement that Welles issued to the press in January, 1941, to basically counter the growing impression that Citizen Kane was based on a certain well known newspaper publisher. Given Welles own reluctance to talk about Citizen Kane in any great detail in his later years, it seems […]
I’ve known only one great cameraman: Gregg Toland, who photographed Citizen Kane. —Orson Welles, 1967 Photographing Citizen Kane was indeed the most exciting professional adventure of my career. —Gregg Toland _______________ Given the fact that Citizen Kane has long been considered the greatest film ever made, here is a wonderful piece about the cinematography for Kane, written only a […]
People always tell me how difficult Orson Welles is. The only people I’ve ever met worth working for were difficult people—because they’re interested in achieving something. Just spare me the charmers. Welles in every other way might be difficult, but when it comes to making artistic decisions he’s like the Rock of Gibraltar. —Bernard […]
The ever witty, brilliant friend of Orson Welles, writer Gore Vidal, wrote a review in 1989 of Frank Brady’s Citizen Welles and Welles own script for The Big Brass Ring. The article itself is fairly well known (it was reprinted in Interviews with Welles), but if you haven’t read it, it can be accessed here: […]
In February of 1941, just three months before Orson Welles first film as a director would be universally acclaimed as a masterpiece, Welles, who was only 26, had the gall, the nerve and the temerity to write a piece that was extremely critical about what he felt was wrong with the Hollywood system. This brilliant […]
� There is a fascinating article on the Citizen Kane trailer in the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Volume 15, No. 2. The article runs from pages 96 to 113, and is the first article to my knowledge to�focus on�a Welles trailer. The author remarks that only recently are trailers becoming understood as works of […]