Orson Welles

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So noone loves the guy here?

Was listening to the Orson Welles radio spot from the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination the other day..
I was thinking of getting myself a Orson Welles ringtone, probably a 2 liner.. still trying to figure out what to use. any ideas?



I was thinking of getting myself a Orson Welles ringtone, probably a 2 liner...still trying to figure out what to use. Any ideas?

"I take directions from one person, under protest, but
from two I don't sit still. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU,
ANYWAY
?"



"There's no known way of saying an English sentence
in which you begin a sentence with 'in' and emphasize
it. Get me a jury and show me how you can say 'IN July'
and I'll go down on you. That's just idiotic, if you'll
forgive me by saying so. That's just stupid...Impossible,
meaningless."


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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



Those were some good ones... especially the GONK one.
I am looking more of a quote from a movie or a Radio show.

BTW I am sure many artists must have sampled Orson's voice in their music.
Alan Parsons Project just included a radio spot in a re-release I believe.



I had absolutely forgot Orson was in Casino Royale..
I haven't seen Compulsion, but from that trailer, I think i might, very soon.


I have seen only 4 Orson Welles movies as a director.
Citizen Kane
Touch Of Evil
The Trial
F For Fake


The Trial being a personal favourite.



will.15's Avatar
Semper Fooey
Orson Welles never should have started the Mercury Theater and made Citizen Kane. He should have played The Shadow forever, although I never understood why he gave Lamont Cranston an English accent. This episode has a better story than the Alec Baldwin movie.


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So many good movies, so little time.
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"You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Harry Lime - The Third Man
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planet news's Avatar
Registered User
The Trial being a personal favourite.
It was Welles' favorite too. I think I could also, as an enthusiast of Kafka's work, claim this as my favorite Welles film so far that I've seen... which is missing from The Stranger to Othello, The Fountain of Youth, and everything after The Trial save F for Fake, which is quite close to being my favorite: so far!

A few words on Kafka and The Trial. I haven't seen, well, any other Kafka adaptations that I can recall off the top of my head, save for this highly expressionistic anime based on his short story
. I think Welles does something right with "straighforwardness" of The Trial that a more expressionist director wouldn't have. This is not to say that The Trial is not filled with surreal set-pieces (enormous door mirroring the gate described in the intro) and odd lighting designs and the like; it's merely to say that the unease of Kafka's prose is not captured by these visuals but by Welles's decision to, like Kafka of course, make each scene in itself make sense but not with other scenes.

You can see how the director for "A Country Doctor" wanted so badly to convey the sense of oddness and unease that pervades so easily through Kafka's prose. I think the reason why it is so much easier for Kafka, besides knowing exactly what he's doing, are the ambiguities of language which open the mind to dark, undefined spaces we have no had time to map before coming on to the next sentence and the next dark, undefined space.

The mechanisms behind the workings of The Trial operate entirely in this dark, undefined space and what we see in the story are only the little peaks of comprehensible reality that escape through the world-bureaucracy's obfuscatory intent. It is not that the bureaucracy itself is a shifting monster. It's that it isn't; bureaucracy is a system that somehow works, and yet, it is system that is based on air---on nothing.

The genius of Welles' handling of the actual "courtroom" scenes and the other scenes with the various other clerks and middlemen is how procedural and grounding in reality all their procedures in fact are. There is a moment of uncanny trust we feel towards these people, which, as we all deep down know, is misplaced. This key---the idea that bureaucracy is most understandable at the surface only---is what Welles latched onto and what makes this adaptation so successful on a formal level.

Visually however, his choice of locations was astounding. From the desolate apartment complex K. lives in to his sprawling office complex (sadly replicated for one shot in 1982's Tron) to Hastler's house through the village he is marched through into the field at the end.

About the beginning and end... the introductory "slideshow" is a wonderful way to enter the story that only Welles could have thought up. When the story and the images from it are repeated again in the film, it is all that more powerful.

As for the end, I'm still not at all sure about why Welles decided to change it. It completely contradicts the despair and desolation at the end of the book where K. is slowly stabbed to death and claims it is "like a dog". Welles goes even so far as to replicate the figure in the window in the distance as in the book before shocking us all with the bomb. Maybe some kind of revolutionary sentiment... but I've written waaay too much already...
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will.15's Avatar
Semper Fooey
Welles didn't care for the Stranger, but it is the only movie he directed that was a commercial success. He probably felt a bit cramped working with a screenplay he didn't write, but although more conventional than his other films it is well enough done. Would have been better without the very overrated Loretta Young, a better looker than actress.

I like Touch of Evil much better than The Trial.



I enjoy Touch of Evil more than The Trial..
But there is something about The Trial that makes me want to see it again & again..

The way it's shot, its just so beautiful... Perkins is perfect for the role.
It's of the most beautiful Kafkaesque movies out there, saying that makes it sound odd.. doesn't it?

Most of the association with the term Kafkaesque nowadays has to be something related to Horror, Fear, dark mood, etc.. & it's more darker than what Kafka intended.
I haven't seen many Kafka's adaptations to make this statement, but I have seen some films termed as Kafkaesque...

Orson's adaptation is quite simple & light.. might not be the best adaptation of Kafka, but would have loved to see him experiment more with such themes.



will.15's Avatar
Semper Fooey
What the hell was that?

Did Welles know he was being interviewed by a puppet?



It was supposed to be on the DVD along with F For Fake.
It was from Unsold TV talk show Pilot.

The Orson Welles Show was an unsold television talk show pilot. It has never been broadcast or released. Filming began in September 1978 and the project was completed around February 1979. It ran 74 minutes and was intended for a 90 minute commercial time slot.
Directed by Welles, he was listed in the credits under the pseudonym "G. O. Spelvin." Cinematography was by Welles' long-time cameraman Gary Graver. Editing (and uncredited direction of some scenes) was by Stanley Sheff. Shot partly before a live audience, Welles interviewed Burt Reynolds (taking several questions from the audience,) Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and performed two magic tricks assisted by Angie Dickinson. Several of The Muppets were featured in taped segments, including Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great and Animal.



will.15's Avatar
Semper Fooey
It didn't have the Muppet Show vibe. it looked like the dialogue was improvised or not very well rehearsed.