not dissimilar from Brando hotness, actually!
― horseshoe, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:38 (5 years ago) Permalink
just jump in with 'kane'.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:40 (5 years ago) Permalink
Yes, Citizen Kane can be a bunch of fun if you're not spending all your time trying to focus and wrestle down "The Greatest Motion Picture Of All Time."
Naturally, I prefer The Magnificent Ambersons and Chimes at Midnight.
― Eric H., Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:41 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm intimidated by its Ultimate Status
Don't be. It's a gallumphcious romp, not a frowning brow-wrinkler.
― Aimless, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:41 (5 years ago) Permalink
Yeah, Kane's syntax is as far from insurmountable as The Wizard of Oz. It's not Resnais or anything.
― Eric H., Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:46 (5 years ago) Permalink
I've never seen a movie with or of Orson Welles.
-- Abbott, Saturday, December 15, 2007 6:28 PM
dude go for Touch of Evil. it's one of my like all time top ten way gr8er than Kane
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:47 (5 years ago) Permalink
maybe more fun than Kane, but not as good an introduction because way less iconic?
― gabbneb, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:52 (5 years ago) Permalink
This is all v reassuring, thx guys.
― Abbott, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:52 (5 years ago) Permalink
This is gonna turn into what my Spike Lee thread did, huh.
Touch of Evil, also fantastic.
I'm pretty sure there are Welles films to avoid. I'm just not the one to suggest them.
― Eric H., Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
-- gabbneb, Saturday, December 15, 2007 6:52 PM
def less iconic, plus you get charlton heston in brownface which is great for lolz, but i really love the shit out of that movie.
possibly cause i was mad lifted the first time i saw it in the utsa library.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:56 (5 years ago) Permalink
Welles is sooo fat in Touch of Evil, it's even more funny than de-gringoed Heston.
"Didn't you bring me any donuts or sweet rolls?"
― Eric H., Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:58 (5 years ago) Permalink
halfway into the movie i was entertaining the seriously baked suggestion that welles' casting of heston as a hispanic guy was some profound commentary on the social construction of race.
xp to self
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:58 (5 years ago) Permalink
i can't wait for morbs' disquisition on baked welles
― gabbneb, Saturday, 15 December 2007 18:59 (5 years ago) Permalink
just watch citizen kane, it really is awesome, you will love it, the end.
― s1ocki, Saturday, 15 December 2007 19:57 (5 years ago) Permalink
Abbott, you are talking silly nonsense or something.
Have you guys seen other films w/ Welles around that time? He wasn't THAT fat -- had to have been padded for Quinlan. Even the "I Love Lucy" he did wa sfrom maybe the year before, I think, and he was not mega-corpulent, just jowly.
The Ambersons Welles made might have been better than Kane, but the one that survives? No way.
(I think I like The Lady from Shanghai and Othello better than either.)
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 15 December 2007 22:11 (5 years ago) Permalink
abbott see them in this order:
1) kane (really entertaining; really, honest - there's a reason it's been parodied ad infinitum on the simpsons, and there's a reason pauline kael - much as i hate quoting her - called it "the most fun of any great movie ever") 2) f for fake (crazy fun, and gives a good sense of welles's sense of humor) 3) touch of evil (crazy, baroque) 4) chimes at midnight/falstaff (best movie ever) 5) macbeth (funniest shakespeare ever - othello is better objectively but i still prefer this one)
ambersons is wonderful but a very frustrating watch. it's still better than almost any movie ever even in its current form but maybe hold off on that til you see these.
― J.D., Saturday, 15 December 2007 23:10 (5 years ago) Permalink
this film has a lot more going on than most top-ten all-time classic snoozefests.
OTM, i think kane is a way deeper film than, say, the bicycle thief or potemkin or city lights or the seventh seal or the godfather, not to mention funner to watch (tho i like all those).
― J.D., Saturday, 15 December 2007 23:15 (5 years ago) Permalink
I saw CK for the first time just a few years ago, with all the attendant baggage, and it rocked me.
― wanko ergo sum, Saturday, 15 December 2007 23:18 (5 years ago) Permalink
he was hot back then, Abbott.
OTM! the picture james naremore uses on the cover of "the magic world of orson welles" is quite fetching
JD's list is pretty solid except 1) falstaff/CoM is very hard to find (tho it rules), and 2) i'm not crazy about his othello
― impudent harlot, Saturday, 15 December 2007 23:56 (5 years ago) Permalink
also, the third man, for some more great welles/joseph cotten fun, even tho it ain't a welles film as such
― kingfish, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
Why do I feel that
the bicycle thief or potemkin or city lights or the seventh seal or the godfather
weren't the "top-ten all-time classic snoozefests" enrique was referring to?
― Eric H., Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:18 (5 years ago) Permalink
funny, that's exactly what i thought he had in mind.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:21 (5 years ago) Permalink
Maybe Potemkin, but I figured he was talking about Bresson and Antonioni and Godard.
― Eric H., Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:22 (5 years ago) Permalink
D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Soporific"
― Abbott, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:24 (5 years ago) Permalink
yeah it basically is, except 'the godfather'.
not bresson/antonioni/godard. well, maybe bresson -- but the pre-1960 canon. maybe early antonioni.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:24 (5 years ago) Permalink
ie griffith, chaplin, stroheim, lubitsch, murnau, lang, pabst, eisenstein, pudovkin, dreyer, carne, rossellini, de sica, bergman, fellini.
'kane' was like the one american sound film permissible back then -- a couple of fords, maybe, but not the westerns, that kind of thing.
changed end of the 50s -- discovery of 'regle du jeu', french new wave, rediscovery of hollywood genre cinema, blah blah.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:27 (5 years ago) Permalink
'ambersons' would be the best if done right, and it's still yoga flame as is, but the more you see it, the more the ending just betrays the whole thing, and i say that without being able to remember how it 'should' end.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:29 (5 years ago) Permalink
I think I like The Lady from Shanghai
Madness! I saw it again recently and it gets my vote as his worst: mannered, coy.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:38 (5 years ago) Permalink
the stranger's kinda weak i think, at the very least it's a waste of edward g. robinson in a boring part
― impudent harlot, Sunday, 16 December 2007 01:14 (5 years ago) Permalink
-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, December 16, 2007 12:38 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
look who's talking!
― s1ocki, Sunday, 16 December 2007 02:04 (5 years ago) Permalink
ANyone seen this?
― Crêpe, Sunday, 16 December 2007 03:05 (5 years ago) Permalink
Ouch!
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 16 December 2007 04:32 (5 years ago) Permalink
Don't forget The Trial!
― C0L1N B..., Sunday, 16 December 2007 06:24 (5 years ago) Permalink
I wish I could forget the Jess Franco edit of the Don Quixote material though.
This film actually lives up to its reputation!
― Tape Store, Sunday, 16 December 2007 07:36 (5 years ago) Permalink
-- s1ocki, Sunday, 16 December 2007 02:04 (7 hours ago) Link
Now!
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 16 December 2007 09:24 (5 years ago) Permalink
Shanghai is, um, FUNNY.
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 17 December 2007 14:26 (5 years ago) Permalink
Is is the animals that talk in this movie? Must rescreen this.
― wanko ergo sum, Monday, 17 December 2007 14:30 (5 years ago) Permalink
I saw <i>Journey Into Fear</i> the other night - 40s noir, starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Wells, how could it be bad? But it was bad. Or at least pretty uncompelling.
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 17 December 2007 14:38 (5 years ago) Permalink
Wells = Welles
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 17 December 2007 14:39 (5 years ago) Permalink
you didn't like Welles' fez?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 December 2007 14:40 (5 years ago) Permalink
Welles was a pretty silly caricature in the movie, even by the standards of the times I think... For a noirish movie, there was something fundamentally wrong with the plot, there just wasn't any tension.
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 17 December 2007 15:03 (5 years ago) Permalink
don't think much of his shakepeares (except 'chimes') or noirs (except 'touch of evil').
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 17 December 2007 17:15 (5 years ago) Permalink
― mookieproof, Monday, 17 December 2007 17:22 (5 years ago) Permalink
YOU NEED A MORTICIAN! YOU NEED A MORTICIAN!
― impudent harlot, Monday, 17 December 2007 17:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
I love how great Welles looks as an old man, and how he nails how old people move and think -- their habit of sharing curdled witticisms and phony insights -- without condescension. The newsreel section, for example, where a young reporter interviews Kane after he returns from speaking to "the great powers of Europe."
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 02:23 (5 years ago) Permalink
Malpertuis
― remy bean, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 02:28 (5 years ago) Permalink
I read his credit as "Orson Welles (cassava)"
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 02:29 (5 years ago) Permalink
youtube of worst thing welles ever did
― remy bean, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 02:29 (5 years ago) Permalink
also, was it Kael who wrote that Sloane's Bernstein was thought to be a vocal impression of Bernard Herrmann? I've always delighted in imagining Sloane's accent when reading Herrmann's quote to Brian De Palma when scoring Sisters: "YAW NOT HITCHCOCK!"
― the gay bloggers are onto the faggot tweets (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 00:55 (2 years ago) Permalink
What are your favorite unremarked-on scenes? Mine: "Certainly we're speaking, Jedediah. You're fired."
― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 01:08 (2 years ago) Permalink
^CFK at his queeniest
I like it when old Leland refers to Xanadu as "Sloppy Joe's" (fave Hemingway bar in Key West)
― the gay bloggers are onto the faggot tweets (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 01:11 (2 years ago) Permalink
I love when Leland says "crimitism" instead of "criticism." Apparently, it was shot at the end of a loooooong day (or days) and Cotten was delirious with sleep deprivation. Welles just smiles at him.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 18 May 2011 01:44 (2 years ago) Permalink
Other movies that are fast moving and fun as all hell.
The Magnificent Ambersons
this is a joke, right?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 02:24 (2 years ago) Permalink
I think he's got it confused with "Meet the Fockers"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 18 May 2011 08:29 (2 years ago) Permalink
f for fake kinda bogs down towards the end. the picasso thing.
I've the same problem with F For Fake that I do with Zelig: the joke gets tired after twenty minutes.
i can't see how either of these hold water; i don't see any of the later sections as offering diminished returns, because they're different; the section on the cathedral is one of the most lyrical in cinema, to me, and the picasso section is playful and graceful in an entirely different way from the start of the film's more mad-cap, technological fun. sure f for fake is uneven, in that it veers, but i don't think it's that it tries one thing and then flags.
― mailbox of snakes (schlump), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 10:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
'f for fake' is great, but getting criterion treatment kinda overexposed it for a while. i enjoy it most because it really lets welles play the showman, which none of his other movies really did. it's a wonderfully unique film -- i can't think of anything else remotely like it. i'd happily shell out for a criterion that consisted of nothing but welles interviews, come to think of it.
the most remarkable thing about welles, for me, is that all of his movies are so different in style, tone, everything. it's almost impossible to believe the same guy made 'ambersons' AND 'f for fake' AND 'the trial.'
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 12:18 (2 years ago) Permalink
"you see, my mother died a long time ago, and her things were put in storage out west--there wasn't any other place to put them--i thought i'd send for them now, and tonight i was going to take a look at them. you know, a sort of sentimental journey. i run a couple of newspapers; what do you do?"
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 02:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
ever notice the dude on the Smart Puffs bag looks exactly like Peter Bogdanovich?
― David Allah Coal (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 02:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
missing the cravat, though
― David Allah Coal (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 03:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol!
― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 03:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
on the new release:
For the new Blu-ray, Ned Price and his team at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imagery scanned three different copies (or "film elements"): the MoMA print; a 35 mm fine-grain master that was found several years ago at a film lab in Brussels; and another 35 mm fine-grain master, discovered much more recently at a European film archive. (For a purely technical caveat, click here.)
"The three film elements had different strengths and weaknesses," Price explained. "For instance, one of them had less flicker in one reel but coarser grain in another reel. So we put together the best bits and pieces of all three." (Even so, Price and his team had to clean up, frame by frame, a lot of dirt and misalignments, especially in all those opticals and dissolves. The restoration project took over a year to complete.)
http://www.slate.com/id/2303638/pagenum/all/
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 September 2011 20:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
Had never seen this. Now I have. Wow!
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 10:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
:D
― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 11:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's great no matter how much people want to rearrange the canonical furniture.
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 13:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
Citizen Kane = Magnificent Ambersons = Chimes at Midnight = F for Fake = Touch of Evil
― jungleous butterflies strange birds (Eric H.), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 14:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
You'd need a big room for all that furniture.
esp if Orson is living there
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 14:24 (1 year ago) Permalink