Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Wellesnet is co-sponsoring Chris Welles Feder's first appearance for her intimate new book about Orson Welles, In My Father's Shadow at the Rafael Theatre, in San Rafael on Monday November 2.

Ms. Welles-Feder has long been a supporter of Wellesnet and we do return those duties back to her as are right fit...

The book is getting sensational reviews, and below you can read just a small sampling of them.

But best of all, Wellesnet will have an exclusive interview with Chris Welles Feder about her book after we talk to her on Monday afternoon...

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The first memoir on Orson Welles by a member of his family, Chris Welles Feder’s beautifully written book offers a fresh and insightful look at her loving but maddeningly elusive father, revealing the great filmmaker as we’ve never seen him before. Along with its compassionate, clear-eyed, and often surprising portrait of Welles in his most vulnerable moments, the book offers us a poignant self-portrait of a bright, lively girl struggling to find hers inner self as the neglected daughter of a famous man. Her triumphant journey to independence and her posthumous reconciliation with her father’s memory is the missing chapter in the story of Orson Welles, one only his first-born daughter can tell with such authority, grace, and wisdom.

--JOSEPH McBRIDE

You can read Mr. McBride's entire insightful review of Chris Welles book at BRIGHT LIGHTS Film JournalHERE.

*

Chris Welles Feder has come out of her father’s shadow to write an intimate, candid, yet very loving, very personal portrait of the loving, complicated, contradictory, mercurial and surprisingly brilliant man as she knew him. This is an Orson Welles we have never seen before–a warm, touching, occasionally bewildering side a multi-sided genius. That he was certainly not an ideal parent or husband in no way minimizes the good he gave to his child or how enriched she was by his precious time with him. Chris has shared all of this with us in a beautifully written and moving memoir which should have a most special place in the extraordinary world of Orson Welles.

--PETER BOGDANOVICH

*

Chris Welles Feder paints a beautifully personal memoir/biography that stars herself as much as her father. In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles (Algonquin. $24.95) is a portrait of the cigar-smoking, work-obsessed, well-intentioned but absent father as well as an exploration of a young girl's admiration and understanding (or misunderstanding) of family dynamics and love. Feder's narrative is one no detached biographer could fashion, and her perspective feels essential.

—ANNA KATTERJOHN, Library Journal.

*

Feder, the daughter of Orson Welles and his first wife, Virginia, tells the story of her search for a relationship with her famous father as well as creating an independent identity through a childhood and adolescence influenced by a list of affectionate guardians and brilliant but dysfunctional grownups. The latter category included her own parents: the author was still a child when they separated and her father married Rita Hayworth; her mother, meanwhile, went on to her own second and third marriages. Feder found affection at times, but it was her years in Illinois with her father's former headmaster and the headmaster's wife that provided her first experience of domestic stability. Her peripatetic life resumed, however, while her father arrived irregularly for extended one-on-one visits that shaped his daughter's budding intellect, but left her hungry for a deeper, more permanent connection. Her story conveys a powerful, intimate sense of Welles's creative struggles and her own part in preserving his artistic legacy.

--Publisher’s Weekly

*

Excerpt from Orson Welles final unfilmed script for KING LEAR:

CORDELIA: You have begot me, bred me, loved me.
I return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honor you.

Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.

*****

Jake Hinkson who frequently writes about Orson Welles at his blog, The Night Editor, has sent along this informative interview he conducted with Marguerite Rippy for Wellesnet readers to enjoy.

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ORSON WELLES AND THE UNFINISHED RKO PROJECTS

By Marguerite Rippy

Interviewed by Jake Hinkson

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Inttoduction by Jake Hinkson

Southern Illinois University Press has just released Orson Welles and The Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective by scholar Marguerite Rippy. In it, the author provides an in-depth look at the many projects Welles worked on but never brought to fruition during his tenure at RKO. There aren’t many filmmakers whose uncompleted films could sustain such a thorough investigation, but Rippy deftly demonstrates that Welles’s work during this period was intriguing both in terms of subject matter and proposed execution.

Rippy begins with an examination of Welles’s often overlooked innovations in theater and radio and seeks to explain their impact on his novice forays in film. Drawing on archival materials from the Welles Manuscripts housed at the Lilly Library in Bloomington and the Richard Wilson collection at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, she investigates the origins of Welles’s attempts to film a subjective camera version of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, his plan to film a version of the gospels set in the Old West, and his proposed adaptation of Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers with W.C. Fields. She also provides an interesting look at the way in which Welles’s burgeoning interests in documentary film and South American culture created the perfect storm of It’s All True. What The Unfinished RKO Projects makes strikingly clear is that Welles used his time at RKO as a kind of laboratory training period. Throughout his career Welles was a constant experimenter. With her new book, Rippy has given us a valuable look at his first experiments.

I recently had a chance to discuss Orson Welles and The Unfinished RKO Projects with its author, Marguerite Rippy.

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JH: What was the impetus for this book? Why Welles, and specifically, why Welles during his relatively brief tenure at RKO?

MR: Originally, I was working on a project regarding Welles and his 1938 radio adaptations of Charles Dickens—I was interested in Welles’s experiments with mass media adaptation and his techniques of interacting with a broadcast audience. While working in the archives of Indiana University’s Lilly Library on that project, I was overwhelmed by the amount of previously unstudied archival material on Welles during this formative phase of his career. Welles’s first interactions with Hollywood reveal his struggle to translate his performance theories from radio and theater onto the screen, and this struggle is key to understanding his later cinematic styles and themes. I think people tend to privilege Welles’s work in cinema over his stage and radio work, even at this early stage when he was clearly working with all three media simultaneously. It’s fascinating to watch his ideas regarding mass media and performance evolve during this period in his career.

JH: The subtitle of your book is “A Postmodern Perspective.” Do you consider Welles a modernist or a postmodernist?

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When you have a great figure of myth like Don Quixote, like Falstaff, it is a silhouette against the sky of all time…

—Orson Welles to Juan Cobos.

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A beautifully written and moving memoir which should have a most special place in the extraordinary world of Orson Welles.

--Peter Bogdanovich

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Orson Welles's eldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder has written an intimate memoir about Orson Welles that is due out on November 3rd. In her book, she describes the Orson Welles she knew from her earliest childhood, until the day he died.

Chris Welles Feder has long been a friend and supporter of Wellesnet, and in 2006 she allowed Wellesnet to sell the last 12 copies of her privately printed book of poems, The Movie Director.

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Here is the complete itinerary for Chris Welles Feder's tour supporting the release of IN MY FATHER'S SHADOW:

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November 2, 2009 -- 7:00 PM
San Rafael Film Center
1118 Fourth St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
415-454-1222

There will be a screening of Orson Welles's film noir masterpiece co-starring Rita Hayworth, The Lady From Shanghai, shot in San Francisco and Marin County, which Chris Welles will introduce. After the screening, Chris will participate in a Q & A with the audience and a book signing.

*

November 3, 2009 - 7:00 PM
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069
310-659-3110

Chris Welles will participate in a talk and reading event.

*

November 5, 2009 -- 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
2289 Broadway (at 82nd Street)
New York NY 10021
212-632-2285

Chris Welles will participate in a talk and reading event.

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November 14, 2009 -- 1:00 PM
Clinton Bookshop
33 Main Street
Clinton, NJ 08809
908-735-8811

*

November 15, 2009 -- 5:30 PM
Darien Public Library
1441 Post Road
Darien, CT 06820
203-655-1234

Chris Welles will participate in a talk and reading event. A wine and cheese reception will follow the presentation.

*

December 2, 2009 -- 7:30 PM
Cinema Arts Center
423 Park Avenue
Huntington, Long Island, NY 11743
631-423-7611

Chris Welles will introduce a film screening of The Lady From Shanghai. After the screening, there will be a discussion with Chris, followed by an on-site reception and book signing.

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(more...)

Simon Callow had mentioned some time ago that he originally hoped to finish the third volume of his massive biography on Orson Welles by his 60th birthday. So I thought that today, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, I'd take the opportunity to wish him a very happy birthday on behalf of everyone at Wellesnet, and also wish him well as he continues his monumental task of research and writing on volume three.

Of course, Mr. Callow has not yet finished his work on the last volume, but with the wealth of new information that has come to light about Welles, in just the last year, that is all for the best. I for one think it would be very foolish to rush such an important book into print, before it is actually ready, based on artificial deadlines. Of course, when dealing with Orson Welles's life and career (from 1948 until his death and beyond), there are a great many things Mr. Callow may still be exploring.

However, the final volume is now scheduled to be titled:

Orson Welles volume 3: One Man Band.

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While looking through the lavish and quite fabulous new Taschen book, THE INGMAR BERGMAN ARCHIVES, edited by Paul Duncan, I was astonished to see how much of Bergman's career outside of his movies I was totally unaware of.

I daresay that most people in America probably know as little about Bergman's work on the Swedish stage as I did. However, like Orson Welles, Bergman's theatrical productions encompassed Shakespeare to Shaw.

It also took in Ibsen, Lorca, Brecht and Strindberg, and included several lauded productions of works by America's two greatest playwrights, Eugene O' Neill and Tennessee Williams.

In fact, Bergman's debut as a stage director in Sweden was in 1938 with a production of Sutton Vane's Outward Bound, which was revived that same year on Broadway, in a production directed by Otto Preminger and starring Mercury alumni Vincent Price. Of course, at the time Welles was at the height of his own theatrical career, before heading to Hollywood.

In the 40's Bergman, like Welles, went on to stage productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice (I've included more information about this wonderful book, that I highly recommend, at the end of this article).

However, Orson Welles was not exactly a great admirer of the Swedish director, at least according to his published remarks. Here are two of Welles's statements about Mr. Bergman:

*****

I don't condemn that very northern, very Protestant world of artists like Bergman; it's just not where I live. The Sweden I like to visit is a lot of fun. But Bergman's Sweden always reminds me of something Henry James said about Ibsen's Norway—that it was full of “the odor of spiritual paraffin.” How I sympathize with that! I share neither Bergman’s interests nor his obsessions. He's far more foreign to me than the Japanese.

—Orson Welles to Kenneth Tynan, 1967

*****

You could write all the ideas of all the movies, mine included, on the head of a pin. It’s not a form in which ideas are very fecund. It’s a form that may grip you or take you into a world or involve you emotionally—but ideas are not the subject of films. I have this terrible sense that film is dead, that it's a piece of film in a machine that will be run off and shown to people. That is why, I think, my films are theatrical, and strongly stated, because I can't believe that anybody won’t fall asleep unless they are. There’s an awful lot of Bergman and Antonioni that I'd rather be dead than sit through.

For myself, unless a film is hallucinatory, unless it becomes that kind of an experience, it doesn't come alive. I know that directors find serious and sensitive audiences for films where people sit around peeling potatoes in the peasant houses—but I can't read that kind of novel either. Somebody has to be knocking at the door—I figure that is the way Shakespeare thought, so I can’t be in bad company!

—Orson Welles to Barbara Leaming, 1983

*****

Now, given those kind of hostile remarks, it's no surprise that towards the end of his life, Bergman was not very complimentary about Welles's work as a director. Here are Bergman's comments about Welles when he spoke to a Swedish newspaper in 2002:

*****

INGMAR BERGMAN: For me (Orson Welles) is just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of, is the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie has is absolutely unbelievable!

JAN AGHED: What about The Magnificent Ambersons?

INGMAR BERGMAN: Also terribly boring. And I've never liked Welles as an actor, because he's not really an actor. In Hollywood you have two categories: you talk about actors and personalities. Welles was an enormous personality, but when he plays Othello, everything goes down the drain, you see, that's when he croaks. In my eyes he's an infinitely overrated filmmaker.

—Jan Aghed, När Bergman går på bio, from the Swedish daily newspaper, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, May 12, 2002.

*****

My own guess is both directors were probably over reacting. Bergman admits he owned a print of Citizen Kane, and Welles certainly must have found plenty to admire in Bergman's work, even if he wouldn't admit it in interviews. Which brings up an interesting point where the two men must have agreed: The Cathedral at Chartres. Here is an excerpt from Bergman's introduction to his published screenplays:

(more...)

I just recently received a copy of a poem Gary Graver wrote that was printed for his memorial service.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to include it in Gary's memoir, Making Movies With Orson Welles, so I thought I would reproduce it here.

I'll also add this thought, since I've now had the opportunity to see a rough cut of The Other Side of the Wind:

I've no doubt Gary might easily have been nominated for an Academy Award if the film had been released in 1975, or maybe he could still be, if the film were to be released in say, 2012.

One scene that stands out in my mind: a beautiful series of panning telephoto shots of Bob Random, as he is walking through various different locations on the back lot at MGM, including what appears to be a field of tall grass. Welles cuts on these panning shots about five times, so the effect is almost as if the camera move is one continuous pan, except each time he cuts, the background changes, as Random moves from left to right across the screen (think of the similar cutting Alain Resnais did in La Guerre Est Finie)

It's also one of the few scenes in the rough cut that had a temp. music track, in this case a nice piece of Spanish guitar (if I recall correctly), which adds immeasurably to the poetic effect of the scene.

Needless to say, as shot by Gary Graver, the sequence is only one of many that looks quite beautiful in what is clearly Gary's masterpiece of cinematography. No wonder Welles called Gary "Rembrandt."

***********

And the hand scooped up a fist full of dirt
And this was life and it fell back through fingers
Earth to earth
And a foot stepped on it
And this was still life.
From the womb to the grave from lip to lip
From night to night from the touch of fingertip to fingertip
And this was beauty,
The beauty of your loved one's hair
And fresh face caught aglow in an anxious wind,
And the morning frost and smell of dew
And a fallen lonely flower petal and the smile of love
And the strength of the gift of young ambition and heroism
And from the blue crib to the naked grave
This was life

***********

In Celebration of the life of Gary Graver

July 20, 1938 - November 16, 2006

***********

One of the highlight's of Gary Graver's memoir, Making Movies with ORSON WELLES is the inside view it gives us on the making of The Other Side of the Wind. Perhaps the book may finally help to sweep aside the last remaining obstacles and get the Showtime deal to finish the movie back on track.

Here's how Gary Graver sums up The Other Side of the Wind in his book:

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Orson viewed The Other Side of the Wind as a bookend to Citizen Kane. It's an interesting film that needs to be completed so it can be viewed alongside Orson's classic films. I think it will shed new light on Orson's artistic legacy. It's quite different from anything else he ever did. It's a marvelous film. Its structure--the movie-within-a-movie--and all of Orson's ideas were so fresh. The dialogue and the visuals are terrific.

I think it's Orson's finest film since Touch of Evil, and I think the public deserves the opportunity to see the film and decide for themselves where it ranks in the canon of Welles films. I think it will enjoy a long shelf life and make millions for whoever ends up finishing it. Today Orson is bigger than ever. He has fans in countries all around the world. What bigger market could you want for such a film?

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The book also offers us a true insider's portrait of Orson Welles, which could only be written by somebody who worked with Welles intimately over a period of 15 years. We even get a sense of the despair Welles must have felt when, by 1977, it became apparent that The Other Side of the Wind was doomed to join the ranks of Welles other unfinished projects.

In a poignant hand-written note reproduced in the book, dated Aug. 24, 1977, Welles writes the following plea to Graver:

________________________

Gary:

This is a real cry for help -- Please, please call me!

Orson

________________________

That same year, Welles stopped active work on The Other Side of the Wind, for reasons that are explained in this excerpt from an 11-page letter Welles wrote in 1977 to Mehdi Boushehri, the primary Iranian backer of The Other Side of the Wind:

(more...)

To celebrate Gary Graver's wonderful new memoir, Making Movies with ORSON WELLES, I thought I'd offer a sample of the delights it has to offer.

To start, here is the text for an incredibly detailed memo Welles wrote to Gary Graver which appears to have been written around 1972, when Welles was in the midst of editing F For Fake at the Antigor studios in Paris. As Graver explains it below, Welles sent him to Seville to shoot some second-unit scenes for Don Quixote during the holy week processions, similar to those we see in Mr. Arkadin. At this point Graver had only been working with Welles for two or three years, but it appears that Welles already had total confidence in Gary's abilities. Of course, Welles also gave him extremely detailed instructions, which seemingly take every possibility into account. Even more amazingly, this memo concerns only Gary's travel plans from Paris to Seville! One only wonders what kind of instructions Welles wrote for what he actually wanted him to photograph during the holy week festivities!

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GARY GRAVER: I first read about Orson making Don Quixote when I was in High School, and I ended up doing second-unit on it. It was quite a time span. But as time went on, Orson kept getting new ideas on how he could finish Don Quixote. I shot some material for the film, but it was never actually put into the picture, because it was stolen. I shot a holy week procession in Seville and some inserts of windmills, second-unit things like that. Orson's idea was to shoot wraparound color segments to finish the picture, because he always intended to finish it, its just that he kept coming up with new angles on how to wrap it all up.

(more...)

I can hardly be called an unbiased reviewer when it comes to this book, since I contributed an interview with Gary Graver and Oja Kodar that serves as an afterward, but I must say in all candor, I was absolutely delighted when I received a copy of it today. First of all, having talked with Gary Graver extensively, I was wondering what more I could possibly find out about Gary's work with Welles in a volume devoted to that subject.

Well, as it turns out, quite a bit!

I'll offer some more detailed comments about the book after I've read it through completely, but just from my first impressions, this is obviously a must-have book for anyone with even the slightest interest in Welles later career (1970- 1985), and especially The Other Side of The Wind. I happen to think this is when Welles did some of his greatest work.

If you are interested in ordering a copy, it should be shipping shortly, as it has been printed and is on its way to retail outlets. Barnes and Noble appears to have the current lowest price for it on the Net, at $28.00.

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Making Movies with ORSON WELLES: A Memoir
By Gary Graver with Andrew J. Rausch
Foreword by Joseph McBride
Afterword (an Interview with Gary Graver and Oja Kodar) by Lawrence French

The Scarecrow Press
Pub Date: September 30, 2008
192 pages, Hardcover
List Price: $35.00

In 1958, Gary Graver moved from his hometown of Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles, California with dreams of an acting career in Hollywood. Soon after his arrival, he caught a double bill in a small theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the lower half of which was the recently released Touch of Evil. Upon viewing this noir classic, Graver decided he wanted to be a director and spent many years honing his craft, as both a cinematographer and a director, not to mention writer, actor, and producer--much like his idol, Orson Welles.

In 1970, when Graver learned that Welles was in town, he impulsively called up the director and offered him his services as a cameraman. It was only the second time in Welles' career that he had received such an offer from a cinematographer, the other time being from Gregg Toland, who worked on one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane.

In Making Movies with Orson Welles, Gary Graver recounts the highs and lows of the moviemaking business as he and one of the most important and influential directors of all time struggled to get films produced. The two men collaborated on more than a dozen projects, including F for Fake, Filming Othello, Moby Dick-Rehearsed, The Dreamers and their magnum opus, the still unreleased The Other Side of the Wind. Their close friendship and creative filmmaking partnership would endure for 15 years, until Welles' death in October, 1985.

The book also includes an extensive filmography of Welles and Graver's work together, much of which remains unavailable for viewing, along with 20 rare photos from Gary Graver's personal collection. This fascinating memoir recalls what it was like to work with the legendary Orson Welles and offers advice and tales of caution for future filmmakers.

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Gary Graver, one of Orson Welles’ closest collaborators, has written a superb book on Welles. It is a captivating and insightful look at their extraordinary relationship, a must-have for Welles fans and academians alike.

—Frank Marshall, Producer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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About the authors

Gary Graver (1938-2006) was a respected cinematographer who worked on nearly 200 films. He served as cameraman on films by such diverse filmmakers as Paul Bartel, Budd Boetticher, John Cassavetes, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, and Orson Welles.

Andrew J. Rausch is the author of several books on film including Turning Points in Film History and Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian.

The question is not whether we are to support art, but rather whether we are to bear it, bear the existence of the artist. It is not we who have the right to demand something from the artists; the right to demand is entirely on their side.

–Dr. Werner Schmalenbach

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Sequence of stills highlighting the diverse cast of THE TRIAL

From ORSON WELLES AT WORK

_______________________________

Dr. Schmalenbach is a noted art historian who wrote books on Kurt Schwitters and Amedeo Modigliani, so I’m sure he would agree that filmmaking is among the most commercial of artistic mediums. Certainly studio heads like Harry Cohn (Columbia), Edward Muhl (Universal) and Charles Koerner (RKO) didn’t fund an artistic director like Orson Welles because they wanted him to create a work of art, but rather to make a movie that would hopefully turn a profit for the studio. Of course, if the film happened to be considered artistic by critics and also made a slight profit, that would usually be enough to keep the director working. Ah... but therein lies the rub, for all of Orson Welles movies (except The Stranger) never turned a profit on their initial release. So depending on your point of view, Welles was either unwilling to compromise his artistic vision enough to make a picture that would appeal to the great masses, or, in the words of that “noted Welles biographer,” David Thompson, “Welles fed on failure, like a Shakespearean actor thriving on tragedy!”

Now, with those two very divergent views in mind, it’s my pleasure to report that Jean-Pierre Berthomé and François Thomas have delivered a wonderfully even-handed treatment of the great director. It focuses solely on Orson Welles at Work. Of course, the title of their new book is also the key to their approach. Unlike many past books on Welles, their volume contains little speculative writing on what went either right or wrong in Welles career. That has already been done to death in several other Welles biographies, chiefly those written by authors who got their facts confused or did little original research. In fact, those books about Welles might easily be titled Orson Welles at Play. And to be fair, Welles unofficial motto could easily have been, “Work hard, play hard.” But in the life of an artist, whether you are Pablo Picasso or Orson Welles, what really matters is the final piece of art. So while it may be fun to read about the many tabloid escapades Welles may (or may not) have participated in during his sojourns across four continents, I’m happy to say that Prof. Thomas and Prof. Berthomé sidestep those sometimes dubious reports and focus solely on the process of artistic creation. As the noted art collector and actor Vincent Price (who worked with Welles), told me once: “I really find the revelation of people’s personal life, unless it has to do with their art, to be boring. Like Shelly’s Winter’s autobiography. For that you just get a large bed!”

So in place of all that "boring" personal information on Welles, the authors have gone for the meat of Welles career, done some meticulous research, and go through all of Welles films in vivid detail. The result is an extremely readable and very interesting “making of” story about each and every one of Welles movies, including the major unfinished projects, such as Don Quixote and The Deep.

(more...)

Orson Welles at Work is a stunning new collection of rare and beautiful images from the films of Orson Welles, as collected by co-authors Jean-Pierre Berthome and Francois Thomas. To put it simply, this is the Welles book I've been hoping to see for quite some time. It's certainly a must have volume for anyone interested in the cinema of Orson Welles.

Despite the misgivings the authors Francois and Jean-Pierre have detailed in their letter to Tony, posted below, I do not quite agree with their assessment. The Phaidon Press, as they have done in their previous stand-out volumes, Magnum Cinema and Bill Krohn's Hitchcock at Work, deliver us another sumptuous visual treat.  So for all true Welles aficionados, I think you'll easily find this to be the best visual compilation of Welles work that has yet to see print.

Contained within it's 320 large size pages are nearly 400 black and white illustrations and 40 eye-popping color frame enlargement and stills.  Given the vast number of books on Welles that have already appeared, I would have expected that about half of these stills might be retreads of what has already been widely seen, but to my great surprise, we are given a huge wealth of images and studio documents I've never seen before! What is more, they are all so beautifully reproduced (many in full page format), that even if you have seen them elsewhere, it's quite unlikely you've ever seen them in such rich detail.

I'd estimate I had only seen about one-quarter of the images before this, and I'd certainly never seen most of them in anywhere near this kind of high quality resolution.

I had hoped to talk to Francois and Jean-Pierre in more detail about putting the book together, but sadly they have boycotted their own work, because of the way their intentions were totally ignored by the original French publisher.

In the meantime,  I've only had a chance to glance at the text of the book, so here is the table of contents, along with the introduction, to give you some idea of the treats that are in store for you, should you decide to purchase the book.

ORSON WELLES AT WORK - Table of Contents

____________________________________________

First Steps in Theatre and Radio

Conquering Hollywood

Citizen Kane (Mercury-RKO) 1941

Three Films on Two Continents

The Magnificent Ambersons (Mercury-RKO) 1942

Journey Into Fear (Mercury-RKO) 1943

It's All True (RKO) 1943

The Struggle to Remain a producer

The Stranger (International-RKO) 1945

The Lady from Shanghai (Columbia) 1947

Macbeth (Mercury-Republic) 1948

The First European Period

Othello (Mercury-UA) 1952

Mr. Arkadin (WB) 1955

Discovering Television (The Fountain of Youth)

Touch of Evil (Universal-International) 1958

Don Quixote (Welles Enterprises) Unreleased

The Second European Period

The Trial (Astor Pictures) 1962

Falstaff (Peppercorn-Wormser) 1966

The Immortal Story (Albina Films) 1968

The Heroine, The Deep & Orson's Bag

The Last Years

Rough Sketches & Last Unfinished Works (The Other Side of the Wind )

F for Fake & Filming Othello

(more...)

Jonathan Rosenbaum’s new book, Discovering Orson Welles arrived in stores earlier this month, via the UC Press, and is highly recommended. Here is the table of contents:

1. I Missed It at the Movies: Objections to "Raising KANE"
2. The Voice and the Eye: A Commentary on the HEART OF DARKNESS Script
3. Notes on a Conversation with Welles
4. First Impressions of F FOR FAKE
5. The Butterfly and the Whale: Orson Welles's F FOR FAKE
6. Prime Cut (The 107-Minute TOUCH OF EVIL)
7. André Bazin and the Politics of Sound in TOUCH OF EVIL
8. The Invisible Orson Welles: A First Inventory
9. Review of Biographies by Barbara Leaming and Charles Higham and a Critical Edition of TOUCH OF EVIL
10. Afterword to THE BIG BRASS RING, a Screenplay by Orson Welles (with Oja Kodar)
11. Wellesian: Quixote in a Trashcan (New York University Welles Conference)
12. Reviews of Citizen Welles and a Critical Edition of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
13. Review of Orson Welles: A Bio-Bibliography
14. Orson Welles's Essay Films and Documentary Fictions: A Two-Part Speculation
15. The Seven ARKADINs
16. OTHELLO Goes Hollywood
17. Truth and Consequence: On IT'S ALL TRUE: BASED ON AN UNFINISHED FILM BY ORSON WELLES
18. Afterword to THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, an Original Screenplay by Orson Welles
19. Orson Welles in the U.S.: An Exchange with Bill Krohn
20. The Battle over Orson Welles
21. TOUCH OF EVIL Retouched
22. Excerpt from "Problems of Access: On the Trail of Some Festival Films and Filmmakers" (On TOUCH OF EVIL)
23. Welles in the Lime Light: THE THIRD MAN
24. Orson Welles as Ideological Challenge
25. Orson Welles's Purloined Letter: F FOR FAKE
26. When Will--and How Can--We Finish Orson Welles's DON QUIXOTE?

Appendix: The Present State of the Welles Film Legacy

Index

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Wellesnet’s interview with Jonathan Rosenbaum can be read here:

www.wellesnet.com/rosenbaum_interview.htm