WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Here are the lyrics to the musical oddity 'I Know What It Is To Be Young', "sung" by Orson Welles and arranged by the late bandleader and composer Ray Conniff. Does anyone know why Orson agreed to record this song with Conniff in the early eighties?

I KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE YOUNG
When we are young, age has no meaning.
I never gave it a second thought
Until one day, along came this old man
And this is what he said to me,
Yes, this is what he said to me:
“I know what it is to be young
But you, you don’t know what it is to be old.
Someday, you’ll be saying the same thing.
Time takes away, so the story is told.
I have so many questions
For the wise man I met,
Couldn’t find all the answers
No one has theirs as yet .
There’ll be days to remember
Full of laughter and tears
After summer comes winter
So go the years.
So my friend, let’s make music together!
I’ll play the old while you sing me the new .
In time, when your young days are over
There’ll be someone sharing their time with you.”

I would imagine the same reasons he did Transformers: The Movie: $$. It is a terrible song, in my own opinion. I said my piece about it on the site in the Audio section, though.

A moment of appreciation for Katherine Hepburn, who died a couple days ago. Her connection to Welles comes through radio, where she appeared with Welles in an early Campbell Playhouse production of "A Farewell to Arms," which is now sadly lost. Welles pursued Hepburn for a Campbell production of "The Philadelphia Story," but this eventually fell through. Given that Joseph Cotten starred in the stage production, one can easily imagine Welles in the Dexter-Haven role, with Hepburn and Cotten as the other leads.

Hepburn had a few other, less tangible, connections to Welles than just the radio program. She also signed her first contract in movies with RKO, was something of a rebel while she was there, collaborated in an adaptation of a Tarkington novel, and was eventually swept out of the studio (albeit after a longer stay and under more mutual circumstances) as a flop whom they were glad to be rid of. Although the studio was run by Pandro Berman during her tenure, the box office failures that marked Hepburn's latter '30s output were part of a continuing trend which kept RKO financially precarious and its executives -- Berman and those after him -- wary of risk-taking. As it turned out, Katherine left RKO and Hollywood just months before Welles would arrive.

From the CBC's web site:

CBC Link

an excerpt:
"The Ottawa-born Cloutier played her most famous role - Desdemona - opposite Orson Welles in 1952's Othello. She later worked with Welles on the Paris stage and became involved in helping him gather financing for The Other Side of the Wind in 1972 and the never-completed Don Quixote."

Cloutier was featured in a quite interesting documentary on the filming of Othello, with much of the doc's theme based on her relationship with Welles at the time. She suggested that their relationship did briefly flourish before she found herself in the arms of Peter Ustinov.
Curiously enough, the often useful imdb.com lists Welles as Cloutier's husband, along with Ustinov. I don't know where they got that info, but I found it amusing...

ROGERIO SGANZERLA Died Jan. 9, 2004

Award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Rogerio Sganzerla died of brain cancer at age 57. Mr. Sganzerla directed features, documentaries and shorts. Mr. Sganzerla was a fan of the late Orson Welles. His 1990 documentary "A Linguagem de Orson Welles" dealt with Orson Welles love for the art and culture of Brazil. John Huston was one of the interviewees for that film. The documentary also shed light on Mr. Welles attempt to film a movie in Brazil during the 1940s. Mr. Sganzerla revisited this subject in his last film "O Signo do Caos." "O Signo do Caos" was a dramatization of Welles battles to make his unfinished film "It’s All True." Mr. Sganzerla’s 1986 feature "It’s Not All True" also dealt with Welles’ unfinished film! Mr. Sganzerla’s documentary "HQ" was a 9-minute short covering the history of comic books from the early 1900s through 1969. Mr. Sganzerla’s best known film was "The Red Light Bandit," which dealt with a Brazilian criminal similar to the executed California rapist Caryl Chessman.

I saw this the other day, and I'm curious to see Sign of Chaos. I've seen his quasi-documentary ALL IS BRAZIL, which I wrote briefly about in a thread here ages ago. Very odd film, using audio and video clips of Welles from the early 40s to illustrate Welles' time in Brazil.

This post is dedicated to an online friend with whom I've had many Welles discussions over the past year. His name was Roland Kappeler and he succombed to a cardiac infarct on November 21st.

Although he lived an ocean and many miles away from me, I still feel a great loss to the world for having lost him. He was a spirited, sweet man with great knowledge and enthusiasm for life. Although I never met him face to face, I will miss him and the conversations we had.

Here's hoping that Roland is now sharing a drink with Orson in the afterlife...

JL


Darkness surrounds me,
rushing river, whispering wind,
I love to be alone and sing songs...

Darkness surrounds me,
forgotten people, forgotten world,
I love to be alone and sing songs...

RK

I was saddened to learn of his sudden passing and I would also like to make a dedication to Roland. Although I too only knew him via email, and for only two weeks right before he passed away, he was one of the of the nicest and most generous aquaintence that I have met via the net. I offer my condolences to his family and hope too that he's now sharing a drink with Orson.

m

Daniel O'Herlihy, who played Macduff in Welles' film version of Macbeth, passed away yesterday at the age of 85.

http://www.canada.com/news....d889ea2

That is so sad. I always liked Dan O'Herlihy, especially in FAIL SAFE. He and Welles also shared screen time in WATERLOO (1970).

SUZANNE FLON Died Jun. 15, 2005

Award-winning French actress died of gastroenteritis at age 87. Ms. Flon won two Best Supporting Actress Cesar awards for her work in Georges Wilson’s "La Vouivre" and Jean Becker’s "L ete Meurtrier." Ms. Flon appeared in over 70 films and TV shows during her career. Her many film credits include John Huston’s "Moulin Rouge," Orson Welles’ "The Trial," John Frankenheimer’s "The Train" and James Ivory’s "Quartet."

-- from Entertainment Insiders

And so ends a film career that spanned 58 years. Ms. Flon played Baroness Nagel in MR. ARKADIN and Miss Pittl in THE TRIAL (seen from a distance as she dragged a trunk across a vacant lot in Zagreb). Ms. Flon was working on FAUTEUILS D'ORCHESTRE at the time of her death.

Catching up here, gang, after putting my computer into the shop over a day . . . three weeks later --

Suzanne Flon, it might be noted, was also a good friend of John Huston's for many years. She got her start as an International Star in MOULIN ROUGE, and three years later, in MR. ARKADIN. She exuded everything that a French actress should, vivacity, worldliness, and intelligence. She was particularly good, I thought, in MR. ARKADIN.

She has a film due out in 2006!

Glenn

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Robert Wise, a four-time Academy Award winner whose epic 65-year career ranged from editing Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" to directing the quintessential 1960s musical "The Sound of Music" to launching the first "Star Trek" film, died Wednesday of heart failure. He was 91.

Wise, who was honored with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1998, enjoyed a longevity that few filmmakers achieve: His resume ranged from his early work as a sound editor on Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals like "The Gay Divorcee" to his collaboration as a film editor with Welles on "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons" to his emergence as a director, and later producer, of films as varied as "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "I Want to Live!" and "West Side Story," which he co-directed with Jerome Robbins. His filmography covers almost every genre except animation.