Best Orson Welles film (as director)

Yeah, no perfection in this filmography, thankfully.

I don't mind Holt much anymore. His awkwardness helps the character, and he does look chastened at the end.

Other Kane weaknesses: the chronology of the first marriage and meeting Suzie is muddled; "What would you like to have been?" "Everything you hate!"; and Thompson's last speech.

Tim Holt is fine

but he's the wrong kind of (cowboy) actor! Not a persuasive silver-spoon Hoosier brat.

He persuaded me. I wanted to smack the shit out of him.

Seth Rogen for the remake, then.

I bet Holt could have pulled off Mozart in Amadeus.

He's much more in his element in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, sure.

I don't know if F For Fake is all that great a film, but the section with Welles's monologue on Chartres cathedral is one of my favourite things in all cinema.

i've decided to celebrate the new year by rewatching all of OW's films in order. anyone with me?

I don't know if F For Fake is all that great a film, but the section with Welles's monologue on Chartres cathedral is one of my favourite things in all cinema.

― Alba, Thursday, 7 August 2008 16:21 (1 year ago)

pretty much came here to post this

F For Fake is an awesome and compelling mindfuck and OW is like some sort of sly jovial God lumbering with Iberian aspect throughout a maze of artistic deflections

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.