Orson Welles: Interviews

Jeff Wilson · Post by **Jeff Wilson** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:15 am

The book Orson Welles: Interviews, has been published by the University of Mississippi, as part of their ongoing series of interview collections with filmmakers. The books can be hit or miss due to what's available, but usually cover a wide span of the artist's career. Mine is on the way, so I can't comment on content yet, but you can go to the publisher's page for the book, linked below.

Interviews bk

Cole · Post by **Cole** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:50 pm

Thanks for the tip, Jeff. And I was just trying to think of a second item to order from Barnes and Noble to get free shipping. The book sounds interesting - a good excuse to save a couple bucks in shipping costs.

jaime marzol · Post by **jaime marzol** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 3:10 am

wonder if this is the same interview book that a year ago i read about that was wrestling with the estate.

the estate was trying to rape it for 90% of the profits. if it is the same book, good for the writer, glad the book came out.
hope he didn't have to sign over to the estate his first born male child.

Steeler1 · Post by **Steeler1** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:10 pm

You could understand the estates' claim if they were actively releasing material. They just sit on the stuff!

Jeff Wilson · Post by **Jeff Wilson** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 11:16 pm

The Interviews book is a nice piece of work; here is the table of contents:

-"The Shadow Talks" 1938, New York Times

-"The War of the Worlds Press Conference: FCC to Scan Script of the Broadcast" 1938, New York Times

-"How to Raise a Child: The Education of Orson Welles, Who Didn't Need It" 1940, Sat. Evening Post

-"Dedicated Wunderkind" 1945, New Yorker

-"Welles Hits Old Stride Again" 1946, New York Times

-"Interview With Welles" 1950, Sight & Sound

-"Interview With Orson Welles (I)" 1958, Cahiers du Cinema

-"Interview With Orson Welles (II)" 1958, Cahiers du Cinema

-"The BBC Monitor Interview" 1960

-"A Trip to Don Quixoteland: Conversations With Orson Welles" Cahiers du Cinema in English, 1964

-Playboy Interview: Orson Welles" 1967, w/Kenneth Tynan

-"Orson Welles: Shakespeare, Welles, and Moles" 1974, from a French TV series

-"Five Days in the Life of Commander Welles" 1982, L'Avant-Scene Cinema

-"Interview from The Orson Welles Story" 1982, BBC

-"Remembering Orson Welles" 1989, Gore Vidal

Some here may have some of the individual articles, but as a collection, the book collects work from the span of Welles' career and presents a wide range of pieces. Worth getting.

jaime marzol · Post by **jaime marzol** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 12:00 am

-"Five Days in the Life of Commander Welles" 1982, L'Avant-Scene Cinema

i beleive this artricle is from mag that did the whole issue and OW issue. i remember it because about 3 years ago when i spoke to graver, he said welles had seen and enjoyed this issue. have tried to get parts of it through public library but no go.

- is the interview from the bbc's orson welles story anything that is not on the show? if there is stuff that is not on the show, there is hope that some of the 9 hrs they taped to make that show survived.

Jeff Wilson · Post by **Jeff Wilson** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 12:25 am

The BBC interview transcript doesn't appear to have anything from the unused footage, but I only skimmed it a moment ago.

Le Chiffre · Post by **Le Chiffre** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 12:57 am

That's an impressive lineup of articles. I've read the Playboy interview and the Gore Vidal essay and they're both terrific.

sergio · Post by **sergio** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 5:48 am

Thanks for referring to the contents list Jeff - I was intrigued by the book but wasn't sure whether it would be worth getting - they're also doing a new one on Brian De Palma which also looks very good.

jaime marzol · Post by **jaime marzol** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 5:43 pm

in my humble opinion, the 2 cashiers articles, and the gore vidal piece alone are worth the price of purchase, anything else you get is just extra gravy.

Le Chiffre · Post by **Le Chiffre** » Mon Apr 15, 2002 8:18 am

Picked up the book at one of my local Borders stores. I haven't had time to do more then a couple hours of skimming, but I can see already that this book has a much wider scope of discussion then the Bogdanovich/Welles interviews, which concentrated mainly on movies. I think the two books will complent each other very nicely. There is much to be mined from both.

Welles seems like he was regarded by many in a way similar to people like Noam Chomsky and Joseph Campbell. Possessing such an immense amount of knowledge and insight that one could just turn a tape recorder on and let 'em talk. Then just publish the transcripts. I wonder how many other interview transcripts could or will eventually be published. With all the interviews Welles did, and the numerous books and magazine articles about Welles, and with all the unpublished and unfilmed screenplays he wrote, print seems to me to be a Welles medium almost as important as Film, Radio, and Theatre.