WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

There was an interesting article in last week's Independent on Sunday "Arts, Books and Culture" section that's now available online. Although it's tied in to the new Howard Hughes biopic "The Aviator", a good 50% of the article is about Welles, Kane, and the Faustian aspects of his work and career. The description of the older Welles as "a grotesquely obese peddler of sherry" is a little churlish, but the article's still worth a read.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film....=596421

And a happy new year to all!

oops, and title should read "Independent", not "Indepent"...

Thank you, tadao. The article really does cover the waterfront.

To be fair to the writer, I suppose that the majority of his readers, as he points out, caught up to Welles late. For instance, relatively few people saw CITIZEN KANE in Europe until the 1950's. After being sent to England in 1954-55 by the Army, I saw it for only a second time myself, when it opened in Leichester Square. I remember the wonder expressed that "the movie had held up" being expressed by fans leaving the theater. In France, they hadn't seen it at all.

So for the young of Great Britain, at least, who came along afterwards, and after his prime of life appearances on the BBC, Welles may have been a grotesque figure on the mostly hated American wine commercials.

Thank you for posting the URL.

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

Yeah, I didn't really mean to to disparage the writing of the article, as I found it a very interesting perspective on Welles' career, but the phrase did strike me as a little unkind. The writer (Kevin Jackson) evidently seems to admire Welles' later works, if his comments on "F for Fake" are anything to go by, and this comment should probably be taken as another example of the sense of disappointment with which he speaks of Welles' final Moby Dick fragments- "a sad coda - [he] paid out of his own pocket for a small film crew to shoot sequences of him reading key passages from Melville's book". I suppose it's part of his argument of a (secular) Faustian pact - that to achieve "greatness" at a young age, one pays with bathetic under-achievement in later life, and that Welles' own career matched the Faustian characters he portrayed. Jackson's description of "The Overreacher" as "the tough, lonely, perfectionist hero-villain-martyr who dares much, achieves much and, prevailing over timid and earthbound friends as well as sworn enemies, eventually attains to glory - glory which is almost always short-lived, occasionally corrupt, and often sabotaged by some inner demon" would seem to be behind the comment; with the added element of physical or career self-destruction that overreaching would seem to result in in a secular sense. However, the quote from Bazin seems quite relevent, in his (Bazin's) assertion that "the Truly Great Man always deferred to some power higher than himself, be it the Law, or God, or Art". Welles, in spite of any self aggrandisement he may have been wont to, always seems to have held cinema and the public in the highest regard. His great regret seems to have been that the public weren't able to see his works as he had wished them, or at all.

I'm sure you're right about the perception of Welles by people who first became aware of him in bitparts or commercials. I'm very glad that the first time I came across Welles' work was with "Touch of Evil", on revival in a small cinema in Strasbourg. Before then Orson Welles was just an name; afterwards I was able to see both "Citizen Kane" and "The Third Man" for the first time on the big screen, and "The Trial" on TV. Next stop was the Mercury Theater and Campbell Playhouse shows online, so I guess I experienced some of the best of Welles first, without any prejudice of the characatured figure he may have become.

I wonder if you know of any special events or screenings to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Welles' birth, and the 20th of his death, in 2005? I'll have to email the BBC to see if they're planning on any special programs or reruns. Normally they reserve their specials and retrospectives for anniversaries, so I'm hoping for at least a couple of vintage Arena/Omnibus documentaries as well as Kane and probably "The Trial".

All the best for the coming year

Yes, tadao, I am largely in agreement with you about your Faust theory and Welles. He certainly seems to have had this legend on his mind his entire creative life. I might only add that from close study of his work and life, one may infer that Welles had considerable spiritual belief, largely gathered around cultural and literary works. He did not make a big show, however, of any sectarian beliefs.

At this point, as far as commemorations of Welles' 90th Birthday, on May 6, 1915, I know nothing specifically devoted to the event. As Jeff Wilson has pointed out, Clinton Heylin's Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios is due out at the end of February. It looks promising.

The 416 page book is actually due out on February 28, 2005. The hardcover copy lists at $37.95, but will probably sell at some discount.

I expect that Jeff will have more details shortly, but meanwhile here is a synopsis from The Independent Publishers Group, which also contains the jpg for an interesting still from the famous lost "funhouse" footage cut from THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI:

http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=1556525478

I hope this is helpful.

Glenn

Clinton Heylin's Welles book is out now. I saw it at the bookstore yesterday. Peter Bogdonavich gave it a great review which is quoted on the back cover. Also, Scorcese's new Hughes movie is very good. Hopefully, there'll be a sequel dealing with the last part of Hughes's life, when things started to get really nutty.

Hi Glenn,

Yeah, I do get a sense of Welles' spirituality from some of the Mercury broadcasts, most notably in "The Man Who Was Thursday". I guess both the selection and the treatment of it portray a certain warmly humanistic, yet non-denominationally theological side. I also seem to recall from what I've heard of "Ceiling Unlimited" that he shows quite a pensive, spiritual side there, too. I'd be interested to know of any particular instances you've come across that exemplify his spiritual side. I suppose I'm aware of the totemic power he attached to Moby Dick (as mentioned in the Independent article) and Don Quixote, but I'd be fascinated to hear about any specifics.

Ruth Warrick briefly mentions her sense of Welles' spirituality this on the easter egg on the North American/Australian version of the Kane DVD. She doesn't go into much detail, but she mentions that although it may seem surprising, she found Welles to be a very spiritual person, and quoted him saying that if one really knows Shakespeare and The Bible, it's all one really needs (I'm paraphrasing, as I don't have the disc on hand).

When Welles has been mentioned lately in arts broadcasts and articles over here, it's generally with the same sense of grandiosity and ultimate underachievement, sometimes tinged with intrigue into his unfinished or unreleased films - he's usually portrayed as the great filmmaker who could never finish anything. But I feel that with just a slightly greater familiarity with Welles' work, the sense of spirituality, good humour and human warmth, temper completely the sense of grandiosity - he always seems to have been aware of his talent and achievements, but always aware of particular mistakes and shortcomings. I find him one of the most warm and likeable of directors, much more so than (for instance), Lang, Hitchcock or Preminger.

I tend to feel that that Welles' later work is in some ways his most personal. I suppose many filmmakers move towards making more personal, autobiographical films in later life, but I feel Welles, through necessity as much as anything, touches on a very direct, human element in some of his later work and fragments, with the same mastery that he displays in his earlier, studio films. Those 1970s "Moby Dick" extracts show so much warmth, so much humanity, and I find them extremely poignant; in the way that such a master of the cinematic form has become able to convey so much even in such a stripped down manner - transcending cinema convention and returning to a most personal form of direct address. Perhaps that's why I find difficulty with the Faustian analogy of underachievement - rather than Birdseye commercials and the Transformers movie, for me Welles' later years represent some of his finest work - "F for Fake", "Filming Othello", and those poignant readings of American literature for the Japanese market in the early/mid eighties.

I'll make sure to look out for Clinton Heylin's book. Incidentally, and in response to MR, Bogdanovich gave a 25 minute interview this week on the BBC News 24 programme "Hard Talk Extra". He spoke only in passing of Welles- in response to a question from the interviewer asking if there was any of Welles in him, his response was that he was flattered by the comparison, as he loved Welles dearly; and contrasted them in the sense that "...the advantage I had, that Orson didn't have, was that I did make three pictures that were successful. Orson had the bad misfortune of not making any films that were "box office". And so they [the studios] were just basically uninterested in him". The more I see of Bogdanovich and his work, the better I like him. He's equally well aware of his own talents, failings, achievements, and mistakes; and I find his candour quite endearing. There's a link to a synopsis of the interview here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/4149215.stm

The page includes a link to a RealMedia stream of the entire interview, but I haven't been able to get it to work, maybe the link is broken.