Paris honors Orson Welles

[Wellesnet]

Paris honors Orson Welles with showings of 90 film, TV works:
https://wellesnet.com/paris-screenings/

Welles's sheer size couldn't be contained by an ordinary retrospective: the one accompanying our exhibition is gargantuan and the most comprehensive ever organized, featuring not only his feature films but also all the scattered pieces that mark his prolific and multifaceted career. Experiments, unfinished or mutilated films, trailers, and magic shows, as well as a wide selection of films in which Orson Welles appears as an actor. All the wild exuberance of this visionary filmmaker gathered on the giant screen for two months!

[Wellesnet]

Catherine Benamou to speak on ‘It’s All True’ at Paris event:
https://wellesnet.com/catherine-benamou-paris/

[Wellesnet]

The impressive contents of the new French language book MY NAME IS ORSON WELLES edited by Frédéric Bonnaud (Les Éditions de la Table Ronde), which accompanies the upcoming Welles exhibition at the Cinémathèque Française.
This book is fully illustrated with great photos and rare archival materials.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=108 ... 0927513174

[RubyWriter]

Heading there next week in time.for the Callow round tables. I'll be attending Thurs through Saturday. Looking forward to meeting some of you there perhaps. If you see a tall English woman with dark hair, do say hi. Shall report back as it goes on.

[RubyWriter]

Looking forward to seeing his sculptures.

[Wellesnet]

‘My Name is Orson Welles’ opens at Cinematheque francaise:
https://wellesnet.com/my-name-is-orson- ... LMV73nbu1Q

Orson Welles died on October 10, 1985, at the age of 70. He left behind twelve completed feature films, including the most famous first film in the history of cinema: Citizen Kane (1941), made when he was 25. A prolific innovator of cinematic forms, brilliantly reinventing the use of the long take, deep focus, and rapid editing, Welles constantly surprised audiences with the multifaceted nature of his work. This exhibition aims to be an introduction to this extraordinary body of work. It will pay tribute to Orson Welles's eventful career through a scenographic journey that blends chronology with an exploration of the major themes of his films. A filmmaker and intellectual with a particularly rich and worldly culture, Orson Welles was also a showman and a familiar and popular figure.

Across the exhibition's five sections, 400 works will help the public better understand the unique style and creative process of Orson Welles: photographs (by Xavier Lambours, Alexandre Trauner, Nicolas Tikhomiroff, Roger Corbeau, Irving Penn, and Cecil Beaton), archival materials, drawings, audiovisual loops, and installations. In addition to generous excerpts from his films, the exhibition brings together some forty works showcasing Orson Welles's work as a draftsman and sculptor.

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Ruby. Please do.

[RubyWriter]

I've written an informal blog for my Orson-related activities. The first few posts will cover the Paris retrospective. There's only one up so far. Stress on the informal! The design is terribly rudimentary until I can get a tech-savvy person to improve it but I've got a few interesting bits to share over a few posts. Find it at ruby-wellesresearch.com

[JasonH]

Thanks for the write-up. The first thing I looked for was an update from Simon Callow on his progress on Vol. 4. Guess I should prepare for a long wait still:

Callow then said he should explain to everyone that the Big Brass Ring is this screenplay that was made into a not very good film…etc. He also said he hasn’t read it properly as he’s not up to that part of writing his fourth book yet.

[Le Chiffre]

https://fbcreativecb57ef194f-ftmnj.word ... 0/21/ctf1/

Thanks Ruby; well written, with nice pics. The link you provided didn't work for some reason, but I was able to cut and paste it OK. That is exciting news about the early stories by the teenage Welles. I look forward to reading them when they become available.

[RubyWriter]

Thank you. I've got three more posts to come on the retrospective. Because I'm writing about a couple of other aspects of my Paris visit, though metaphorically linked to Welles, I'll highlight the more pertinent parts for you in a different colour so you can skip to those!

[RubyWriter]

New one's up. Monday seems to be posting day for me. This one covers his sculpture and the first part of the exhibition.

[Le Chiffre]

Very nice writeup Ruby, thank you. Wow, sounds like a great exhibit they've got going over there. The revelations about Welles' unbounded talent just keep coming: theater, radio, film, magic, political activism, TV, literature, painting & sketching, and now sculpture!

Welles often used his cigar boxes for his art. Painting on their lids as gifts...what brand did he smoke? What blend?
Ha. Under Lear, under his feet…the name on the box. Macanudo.

Cigar boxes? Another example Welles' ingenious resourcefulness! You can't go wrong with Macanudo, although I've heard his favorite cigar was Romeo and Juliet.

A curtained-off area with the single take moving through the ballroom in Ambersons. Utterly gorgeous.

?!? Not sure I understand this, but it sounds mightily interesting.

[tonyw]

Thank you for these contributions from those of us who can not be there as well as your other interesting posts.

[Le Chiffre]

And lastly, the one that appears to be gaslighting me…A novel about Cagliostro or set around the filming of it. It had a black cover. I didn’t buy it, thinking I’d look up an English version later on, but I neglected to photograph it and the next day, it had sold out. I now cannot find any proof of its existence; Google and AI have failed me. If anyone knows of a novel about Welles and Cagliostro, please let me know by comment or by email.

Could be FADE TO BLACK by Davide Ferrario, which takes place in Italy while Welles was making CAGLIOSTRO (aka BLACK MAGIC in America). It was made into a movie with Danny Huston as Welles.

Thanks for the 4-part series, Ruby. Good job!