Best Orson Welles film (as director)

before Morbs leaps on me though I gotta say I need to see more Welles - only seen Othello aside from this

Why on earth are Chimes and Ambersons not available on DVD??? Very frustrating.

in the case of Chimes, rights disputes I'm sure.

it'd be sad to watch these on youtube but i guess that's what i'll have to do.

My copy of Ambersons is a PBS showing in the mid nineties. Good condition too.

Other Kane weaknesses: ... What would you like to have been?" "Everything you hate!"

of course alfred had to go and pick on my favorite line!

'ambersons' gets showed on TCM pretty often, i think. no idea why it isn't out on dvd, unless they're holding out for a 'metropolis'-style miracle. more and more i think it's his best film -- so many shots in there are like nothing else i've ever seen in a movie.

there was some shitty dvd of ambersons in spain or mexico or somewhere and it was rlsed on xvid years ago, only copy i've seen of it but still my favourite film of his

Saw Othello a few months ago in a theater — some audio sync problems but it's Welles at his sensory-overload baroquely excessive best.

Just watched "Black Magic" (aka "Cagliostro"). What a hoot. Probably the most 'fun' Welles prior to "F For Fake". Also, so obviously directed by him for the majority of the film that I'm surprised it's not considered his.

Didn't mean to put fun in quotes there.

i saw The Trial the other day. Great effort but kind of a mess. one of those things they shouldn't have tried to do in the first place

Nah, I love Anthony Perkins in the role, and the extra dialogue Welles wrote.

it's fine on its own

Poor Peter Bogdanovich couldn't understand how Kafka could be funny -- yet another example of the illiteracy of film directors.

feel bad saying this since OW is my favorite film guy for life but 'the trial' doesn't really work for me, the 'before the law' opening aside.

Certainly love the fact that Perkins was cast in the role, but it doesn't turn out to be as good as you think.

ppl who voted for Arkadin or F for Fake: banned from filmwatching
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, August 7, 2008 8:11 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Awarded a long-overdue SB for this comment.

oh, cmon

and remember, Starman is John Carpenter's best.

And there's another one.

I really don't think it works that way, Pope Eric

Rest assured: I SB'd you both.

I'd like to re-poll this one. Also S&S '12 if Kane takes that one.

wau, ya woulda made a "great dictator"

(based on an idea by Orson Welles)

And you would've made a great court jester.

(based on a genre of film by untalented hacks)

the vessel in yer pestle

I really think I may have been wrong about Jerry Lewis.

Rent/dl/steal and watch "Black Magic", fellow film geeks. Have fun!

havent seen The Trial since i was a kid, but i thot it was amazing then

yeah the trial is good. saw it first while stoned out of my head and really dug it: the soviet bloc style tower blocks, the weird frisson with the chix, the running around latticed mazes casting crazy shadows, the play on the psycho persona with the nervous repressed nice young man free of crime this time if still moved to temper, the bizarre variation on the kafka ending

Dennis Perrin on growing old w/ Ambersons:

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2012/05/lost-in-amber.html

well and beautifully said.

Yeah, Macbeth definitely not on the same playing field as Chimes at Midnight.

But still much better than I expected from a movie shot in 3 weeks in salt mines.

and much better than Othello.

fond memories of his Macbeth. I guess I should get around to seeing the Magnificent Ambersons one of these days

Didn't realize DVD was now available as a standalone.

I remember Roddy McDowall being kinda terrible in Macbeth... Othello all the way among Shakespeares.

Yeah, Roddy isn't going to make a great king.

Will get back to you to call you totally insane, Morbs, when I finally get around to Othello.

tsk tsk, you have become what I was merely rumored to be....

That's a throne you will never vacate.

Not only does Macbeth boast one of Welles' few good performances, the one by Jeanette Nolan is almost as good.

no, I do what's necessary and leave. xp

oh, you go envision Cary Grant as Titus Andronicus!

"one of Welles' few good performances"

Hah, OK, so that's what it looks like when I do that.

I get my jollies envisioning Archie as Rosalind.

Hah, OK, so that's what it looks like when I do that.

insightful?

i maintain that OW never made any bad films, but 'macbeth' is better than 'othello'

I, too, haven't seen a "bad" Orson Welles movie yet.

The Stranger probably.

Bad performances he's got, er, tons of.