Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Woodstock Opera House

It is a poorly kept secret that Wellesnet.com is smitten with Woodstock Celebrates Inc., a non-profit Illinois group organizing major events to mark the 80th anniversary next year of the 1934 Todd Theatre Festival at the historic Woodstock Opera House, as well as the 100th anniversary in 2015 of Orson Welles' birth.

This charming community will honor a theatrical and cinematic giant, who spent in his formative years there and attended the Todd School for Boys. They are bringing respected scholars to Woodstock to mark these important anniversaries.

Celebration plans are already coming together. Here is a tentative look at what to expect:  (more...)

Richard Frances's play Obediently Yours, Orson Welles was published by Oberon Books earlier this year in a volume entitled Hollywood Legends: 'Live' on stage.

Besides the Welles show, it features two additional plays, one on Marlene Dietrich, the other about James Dean, along with an introduction by Simon Callow.  Dr. France has graciously given his permission for Wellesnet to post his preface to the play here.  In addition, Glenn Anders has alerted us to an audio interview with Richard France you can listen to Here.  It includes comments about Richard France's two books on Welles, The Theatre of  Orson Welles (sadly, still out of print) and Orson Welles on Shakespeare.

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INTRODUCTION TO OBEDIENTLY YOURS, ORSON WELLES

By Richard France

Orson Welles was rightfully contemptuous of academics, refusing all the honorary degrees that he was offered and heaping scorn on those of his “learned “bee-ographers” who dared to base our writings about his life and  accomplishments on anything other than the charming fairy-tales that he had so skillfully crafted over the years.

Frankly, it’s hard to fault him on either count. These, after all, were the same fairy-tales that sustained him long after the “pigeons” (as he called potential investors) stopped returning his phone calls. And had he lived long enough to witness the birth of nano-technology, there can be no doubt that he, too, would have recognized it as the only known substance on the face of this earth smaller than the mind of an academic.

I was living on a small farm in southern Maine at the time, annotating the third and final play-script – the enormous crazy-quilt known as “Five Kings”  -- for “Orson Welles on Shakespeare,” when I received an offer from the University of  Southern California to spend a year as visiting associate professor with their (so-called) Theatre Division, now even more pretentiously known as its School of Theatre.  “Stay put,” I was told, especially by the very few academics whom I respected. “That place is known on campus as USC’s own little gulag..”

I’d been eking out a living by doing voice-overs in Boston, a two-hour drive from my home. And while debt-free, there were no wind-falls awaiting me in Maine. So, the opportunity to triple my average income for a year, plus a $2500 stipend to pay for the visuals and to index the “Welles on Shakespeare” book, plus a subsidized apartment above the smog line in Laurel Canyon proved irresistible. I was also able to convince myself that since we’d be  parting company in such short order, even the vilest and most insecure of my colleagues would realize  that I was no threat to them.  Silly me !

Some years earlier, the Asian-American company, East West Players, had produced “Station J,” my epic about the evacuation and internment of our Japanese population during World War Two. So, when I alerted my good friend, Mako that I’d be in Los Angeles, he invited me to return to East West as his dramaturg. In addition, a number of my voice-over clients in Boston apprised me of a recording studio in L.A. where, through a process known as phone-patching, we could continue working together.

Did I say triple my income? Mako introduced me to an L. A. agent, and I was soon recording promos and commercials for clients out there, as well. From the outset, it was agreed to that none of these outside activities were to interfere with my primary responsibility, which was to my students. Even so, I soon found myself in the cross-hairs of a particularly venomous assistant professor.

“I don’t see how Dr. France can continue doing everything he’s doing,” she hissed at one of our faculty meetings, prompting two of the deadest of the department’s dead-wood to bob their hollowed-out heads in agreement.

“Eventually, something has to suffer.”

“Such as?” I asked.

“We hope it won’t be your classes, Richard,” the older, and even dumber, of the two dead-woods chimed in.

My assurances that I would never allow that to happen, and it never did, seemed to put the matter at rest. Or so I imagined. In fact, the poison has only just begun to spread.  When the time came, and my student evaluations far surpassed my “bitch noir,” she merely dismissed these results as “gender distinction,” and intensified her campaign to discredit me.

Early in the second semester, I was in my office, with the door open, when one of my graduate students, an acting major from South Africa, appeared, crying hysterically. “My mother!” she blurted out. “She’s dead!”  All I could think of was trying to comfort her as I guided her to a chair. We sat across from each other, holding hands, as she revealed what happened. Not only was her mother’s death completely unexpected, by the time word of it reached my student it was too late for her to return to South Africa for the funeral.

The following week, I found myself in the provost’s office, charged with sexually harassing the student whom I had simply tried to comfort. Also present was my dean, the very person who had persuaded me to spend that year at USC, looking even more sanctimonious than usual. “What would you have done” I asked him, making no attempt to disguise my anger, “let her fall on the floor?” (He didn’t know it at the time but his days at USC were also numbered.)

Confronting one’s accuser is (supposedly) a corner-stone of American justice. It wasn’t my student, that I was sure of. But when I asked who then (as if I couldn’t guess), I was denied that information on the grounds that I might also get it into my head to harass my accuser. And given my angry reaction to the disgusting charges I was facing, both my dean and the provost considered this a real possibility.

(more...)

IN THE BELLY OF THE WHALE

Four artists respond to the 1955  stage play written and directed by Orson Welles, that Welles considered his greatest work in the Theatre.

Cartel Gallery
114-116 Amersham Vale (in the courtyard of the Old Police Station)
London SE14

Adam Chodzko / Côme Ciment / Anthea Hamilton / Jacopo Miliani

Curated by Ariella Yedgar and Rosie Cooper

28 May - 16 July 2011

Private View:  27 May 6:30pm -  till late

Wednesday - Saturday 12-4pm.
Late opening Friday 24 June 7-11pm.

Moby Dick inspired a lifelong obsession in Orson Welles.  So much so, that he directed and appeared in at least three different adaptations of the novel: once on stage and twice in film.

Welles's interpretations of Moby Dick included a 1955 play he wrote and directed about a theatre company's rehearsal of the Melville story, which featured newcomers Patrick McGoohan, Joan Plowright and Kenneth Williams, and starred the director himself as Captain Ahab.  It is said that Welles considered the theatre hall to be the belly of the whale, in which the actors are unwittingly trapped - much as, in the novel, the crew are caught on the ship.  Soon after the theatre production finished its run at the Duke of York's Theatre,  Welles shot a film version in two London theatres  that included additional cast members such as Sir Christopher Lee. It has long been presumed lost.  16 years later, Welles made another attempt at his own film version, in which he played all the major parts.  Some of this footage was edited together into a 22-minute short film,  but at this time the film is unavailable for public viewing.

In the Belly of the Whale is a response to Welles's unremitting and ultimately unfinished film project.  It considers the theme of rehearsal and its related notions of incompleteness, version and repetition.  The exhibition features new works by Adam Chodzko, Côme Ciment, Jacopo Miliani, and a recent piece by Anthea Hamilton, along with contextual material.

A rare contact sheet of Brian Brake's photos of  Welle's 1955 London stage production can be seen Here.

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Adam Chodzko has made a film for a damaged projector, set in a theatre, and objects for actors to use in rehearsal.  Côme Ciment has articulated elements from Moby Dick and the exhibition's premise with different gestures that appear throughout the exhibition space.

Anthea Hamilton's airy room divider Untitled (Rope Divider) (2009/2011) is made predominantly of knotted rope - the technique for which was inspired by John Huston's film Moby Dick.  A large metal ring acts as a portal between the real space of the exhibition and a possible space of fiction.

Working with found images of a theatrical origin, Jacopo Miliani imagines a casting for some of the secondary characters in Moby Dick.

In the Belly of the Whale will include  a programme of associated events, to be announced shortly.

Like Welles's play,  this show is itself a rehearsal for a larger event that the curators are developing in parallel.

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About the Artists:

Adam Chodzko
Chodzko works in a variety of media that have included performance, film, drawing and sculpture.  His work is conceptual, and often lyrical and fantastical.  Working directly with the people and places that surround him, Chodzko's art focuses on culture's edges, endings, displacements and disappearances.  He has exhibited extensively, most recently at venues and exhibitions including: Tate St Ives, Cornwall; Museum d'Arte Moderna, Bologna; Athens Foundation, Athens; PS1, New York; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland.  In 2002 he received awards from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, London, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art, New York.

Côme Ciment
Côme Ciment is one of the many identities of artist Olivier Castel, who makes work under a variety of different names, often collaged from those of other artists.  Similarly, his art takes on - and re-imagines - a range of broad cultural references, including literature and art, with a characterisitic lightness of touch and humorous approach.  Previous exhibitions include 'Variety;, London (2011), and 'Ribbons: The Shape of an Exhibition', Auto Italia, London (2010), both solo shows; an intervention entitled 'The Fox is Concentrating, Trying to Make the Exhibition Disappear', for the Zabludowicz Collection, London (2011); 'Tableau Vivnat: A Wandering Retrospective', Prospect New Orleans, (2010); and 'How Large the World is in the Light of the Lamps', Curzon Soho Cinema, London (2008), in collaboration with Kazimierz Jankowski.

Anthea Hamilton
The physicality of bodies and objects are a source of pleasure for Anthea Hamilton.  She combines disparate elements (music, films, images from men's magazines, rope, the silhouette of a woman's leg, a melon, a rubber mask of Bart Simpson, etc.) to uncanny effect in her work, which takes different forms, including installations, mobiles, films and paintings.  Recent solo exhibitions include: 'Anthea Hamilton', IBID Projects, London (2009); 'Spaghetti Hoops', La Salle de bains, Lyon (2009); and Kusntverein Freiburg, Germany (2009).  Recent group exhibitions include: 'Savage Messiah', Rob Tufnell at Sutton Lane, London (2011); 'Newspeak: British Art Now', Saatchi Gallery, London (2010), 'Wunderkammer', me Collectors Room, Berlin (2010); and 'Small Collections', Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2009).

Jacopo Miliani
Through his interdisciplinary practice (installations, videos, collages, performances), Jacopo Miliani challenges the role of representation as a mimesis of reality and its placement in contemporary society.  Using the subjectivity of the viewer in relation to mass culture, Jacopo reflects upon image and audience, often using his personal archive of quotations and found images in ambiguous ways to create a work that can only be 'completed' in the audience's mind.  Recent exhibitions include 'Italian Wave', Artissima, Turin (2010); a screening in relation to the Derek Jarman retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2008).  In 2009, he was granted the Platform Garanti International Residence Programme in Istanbul.  He has also shown work at Villa Romana, Florence; FormContent, London; and has recently contributed to the International Performance Festival at Galeria Vermelho in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

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About The  Cartel Gallery:
Cartel is an independent not-for-profit platform for curators in South East London.  Launched in the summer of 2010, it showcases about six projects a year.  Housed in a black shipping container, Cartel's programme is decided by a flexible consortium of international members.

VOICE OF FREEDOM – recorded in June, 1947

The people is everybody. This grand, mind-staggering "we"—yes, it is all of us—all and every one of us. A government dedicated to the sanctity of the unpopular, a reputation thoughtfully attuned to the unimportant vote, which guards as national treasures the minorities.

We the people, where are we headed now?

Backwards.

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I interrupt Orson Welles to offer my own thoughts of what Mr. Welles wrote over 50 years ago:

"Jesus, the days I have seen..."

And how true Orson Welles words were -- way back in 1947!

Or William Shakespeare's against the Puritans in England, in 1598 when he wrote HENRY IV.

Just witness the recent rally in Washington, D.C.  held by Glenn Beck.

Now, I must ask how anyone who has actually read the American Constitution, (except for Glenn Beck) can possibly believe it condones in any way, shape or form what he said in his recent rally in our Nations Capitol?

Mr. Beck is nothing less than this era's Joesph McCarthy and Beck's so-called hero, Orson Welles would be the first person to call him the George Wallace of this era.

Likewise, the the founding fathers of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin (who Welles played) and all the others would certainly be happy to denounce the idiotic ideas of Mr. Beck and his notion of America as a "Christian Nation."

Maybe I'm wrong, but my own reading of the Constitution makes me feel that I can safely be of any any religion, or none at all, as I choose, in America.  But perhaps I'm wrong about this... Maybe Glenn Beck and I can fight it out in the Supreme Court.  But, seriously, everyone in there right mind knows America was a nation founded on the concept of religious freedom.  To call this country a "Christian Nation" makes me feel Mr. Beck is nothing less than what I think Orson Welles would call him: A FASCIST!  His thoughts go against everything that the founders  of the Constitution were against. Many of Mr. Beck's followers have suggested that to find God in the Constitution, all one has to do is read it and see how often the framers used the words "God," or "Creator," or "Jesus," or "Lord."

Well, go ahead. Give the Constitution a look. Orson Welles clearly knew what it contained when he recited it for a recording in the dark Watergate era of President Richard Nixon. Except for ONE notable instance, no "Christian" words ever appear in the U.S. Constitution.  In fact, the original Constitution bars any religious test to hold any federal office in the United States. Which means a Jew, a Catholic, a Buddist or a Muslim can serve as the President of the United States of America. So even if President Obama is a Muslim (which clearly, he is not), he could still serve as President.

Now,  I return you to the words of wisdom written by the great Orson Welles:

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We have become the pilots of suicide. Fearful, perversely fearful of our scheduled but rejected greatness: when the ideal dies so dies the civilization, which was supported by it. It may be that this ideal of ours is only hibernating. But there are no signs of a spring. The Roosevelt Democratic Party was not a political party—it was a way of life for most of us who work for a living—the good cheer for most Americans born into darkness.

...That way has become a conspiracy: we stand accused of every black brand of disloyalty. We are no longer spokesmen because we cannot speak. Not one of us is small or casual enough to escape attention.

Ours was an argument, which carried its own eloquence. They kicked us off the air, the old, old interests of aggregated wealth. It is radio and this strange new medium of radio silence that is the subject. The Truman doctrine was not handed down by some tablets of the law. FDR won his campaigns—all of them—on the air. Freedom of assembly: airtime was our meeting hall and we are now denied its use; a killing censorship or else collaborate (or else.) It was all very pleasant and urbane.

Free speech has been politely and unobtrusively murdered—we had nothing to lose but our microphones. Your obedient servant as a result of his efforts as a radio commentator has been successfully muffled now even in his old profession of radio actor. Not that he hasn't had some offers. The radio you know is always available if you'll promise never to use the radio to say anything. A big, big manufacturer of breakfast food, for instance, sent out a feeler lately. Five broadcasts a week at big, big money might be mine if I would undertake to deal exclusively with (what I must take to be unconscious irony) the 'human interest side' of the news. There was an even longer string than that attached to it. The proposed contract covered not only airtime, but also all my waking time. Every public utterance was to be checked for content with a special board of advertising agency ideologists. In a word, they were putting up a heap of dough to buy outright a man's long-term opinion!  …It’s more than possible that radio is happier without me, but I can speak for my fellow spokesmen and I do. They were most necessary debaters. The debate was most necessary. Now the debate is closed. It must be opened. And now thank you and until the next time—until our American radio is free again…

I remain as always — obediently yours,

ORSON WELLES

CHRIS WELLES FEDER: My father thought Chimes at Midnight was his masterpiece, and I think that, as well. Falstaff was a role that was really made for him and I think his playing of that part is probably his greatest moment on the screen as an actor. When Prince Hal says, “I know thee not old man,” it’s an extraordinary moment. I wish the film could be seen more in this country, but it’s almost never shown here. I believe it is still tied up in all kinds of legal red tape.

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So, wouldn't it be fitting if Cambridge could show CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, as Welles first brought it to Boston on the stage way back in 1938?

In any event, Boston and Cambridge, Mass. are obviously very important to the cinematic legacy of Orson Welles, as not only did FIVE KINGS open there, but so did AROUND THE WORLD, eight years later.

In fact, it is really due to the Welles fans at Universities across the county and in Europe that Orson Welles legacy is so vibrant. The Lilly Library at the Univ. of Indiana, The Univ. of Michigan, Yale, UCLA, USC, NYU, and of course the famous Univ. of Bridgeport. CT were Warren Bass and Michael Kerbel taught. These are just a few of the many colleges and universities, without whose work the legacy of Orson Welles would not be anywhere as rich as it is today.

Sadly the ORSON WELLES CINEMA in Cambridge, no longer exists. It was made especially famous in FILMING OTHELLO, thanks to Larry Jackson, who invited Welles to Cambridge on January 7, 1977, for the Boston premiere of F FOR FAKE. Welles came, and along with his cameraman, Gary Graver, they shot a long Q & A session with the audience that was used in FILMING OTHELLO. If Welles did the same thing today, we could see the video on YouTube within minutes after he had spoke.

So, on June 6, 2010 I imagine there will be a lot more documentation of Chris Welles visit to Cambridge than was ever possible than when Orson Welles visited in 1977!

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Chris Welles Feder will be in Cambridge, Mass. at the Brattle Theatre on June 6 to introduce a 1:15 pm screening of THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and will answer questions and sign copies of her marvelous book about ORSON WELLES, In My Father's Shadow.

Following the screening, Chris will answer questions from the audience and autograph copies of her book, before the screening of TOUCH OF EVIL.

The Brattle Theatre is located at 40 Brattle Street, near Harvard Square. For full details, check out their web site: www.brattlefilm.org

The Italian online multi-language film magazine LA FURIA UMANA (The Human Fury or WHITE HEAT) edited by Toni D’Angela has just come out with their fourth issue, devoted to the work of that great genius of the cinema, ORSON WELLES.

Their past three issues have featured detailed examinations on the films of Raoul Walsh, Andy Warhol and John Ford.

Given the sorry state of today's print magazines on the cinema, including the once great Film Comment, it is quite heartening to be able to turn to the internet and find far more interesting writing on motion pictures for free.

As LA FURIA UMANA #4 has just appeared (it will be online from April 1st to May 1st and then archived), I've only had time to read two of the extensive articles, and both have been excellent: The poet Richard Hell on The Lady From Shanghai, and Richard Naremore on Welles's unfilmed script for Heart of Darkness, which I found exceptionally interesting, as I only recently read Welles's fascinating screenplay for Heart of Darkness.

I am also honored that two of my own articles on The Other Side of the Wind and Filming Othello are included!

One problem for English speaking readers is that many of the articles appear in the writers native tongues, but I've found that by using the Google translation helper, you will get a slightly distorted but still readable version of the articles that are in Italian or other languages.

Below is the link and the contents page for the special ORSON WELLES issue of LA FURIA UMANA.

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CONFIDENTIAL REPORT
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The Other Side of the Wind (started in 1970) / Lawrence French

Infinity: The Cinema of Orson Welles / Toni D’Angela

Orson Welles Today (1966) / Gianni Rondolino

Orson Welles's Dracula on the radio / Ross Wilbanks

Heart of Darkness: Joseph Conrad and Orson Welles / James Naremore

Hearts of Age (1934) / Rinaldo Censi

Citizen Kane (1941) / Denis Lévy

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) / Giulia Carluccio

It’s All True (1942) / Alessandro Cappabianca

Journey Into Fear (1942) / Renzo Pellizzari

The Stranger (1946) / Marzio Pieri

The Lady from Shanghai (1946) / Richard Hell

Macbeth (1948) / Michele Goni

Othello (1952) / Chris Fujiwara

Don Quixote (begun in 1955) / Elena Dagrada and Sigismondo Sciortino

Mr. Arkadin (1955) / A. S. Hamrah

Touch of Evil (1958) / Alfonso Cariolato and Sergio Wolf

The Trial (1962) / Marzio Pieri and Alessandro Cappabianca

Chimes at Midnight (1966) / Giona A. Nazzaro

The Deep (started in 1967) / Renato Zorzin

The Immortal Story (1968) / Sigismondo Sciortino

F for Fake (1973) / Jonathan Rosenbaum

Filming Othello (1978) / Lawrence French

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Thanks to Todd Clark for posting the information about a Welles retrospective in Omaha, Nebraska, on the Wellesnet Facebook page.

Personally, I find it very encouraging that Omaha has a theatre that is willing to devote a whole series of films to Orson Welles. This is even more amazing to me, since a few years ago I couldn't get the people in charge of the San Francisco Film Festival to devote any kind of retrospective program to Orson Welles. The reason, while not explicitly stated to me, seemed to be quite obvious: Such a program would not make any money!

Unfortunately, I must agree. Just look at the box-office returns for Me and Orson Welles.

Which is why I have to commend Film Streams in Omaha for mounting such a series.

Let's face it, if a Orson Welles retrospective can't sell out theatres in San Francisco and Los Angeles, just imagine the financial risks a small theatre in Omaha will be taking!

So, anyone reading this in Omaha, please support the program of Welles Films!

I must also say, I had the most delicious Filet Mignon steaks I've ever tasted, that came from Omaha Steaks, of Nebraska, when I got them sent to me as a Christmas gift about ten years ago. I found they were much better than the $50. Fillet Minion's I had eaten at Ernie's here in San Francisco (famous from Vertigo), or at The House of Prime Rib. Whether Orson Welles himself would have endorsed them over his nightly meal at Ma Maison, I have no idea, but my educated guess is that, after tasting them, and getting a free supply, he would have been happy to do a commercial for Omaha Steaks. I also think another actor-gourmet, Vincent Price would have been up for an endorsement of Omaha Steaks, as well, since like Welles, he was from the midwest (St. Louis).

While not a complete Welles's retrospective, the Film Streams Program include both The Trial and F For Fake. So let me once again thank the programmers at Film Streams for taking such a bold step.

Not that The Trial or F For Fake are anything less than cinematic masterpieces, but having run a repertory theater myself, you still want to break even, or at least have a few people in the audience!

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The Omaha Film Streams Series is generously sponsored by:

OMAHA STEAKS

THE SEVEN ORSON WELLES FILMS IN THE RETROSPECTIVE INCLUDE:

*****

CITIZEN KANE
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
THE STRANGER
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
TOUCH OF EVIL
THE TRIAL
F FOR FAKE

*****

Touch of Evil will be screened at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Friday, January 29 at 7:00 and director Peter Bogdanovich will be on hand to introduce the film and talk about working with Welles. After the screening Bogdanovich will be joined by James Naremore, the author of The Magic World of Orson Welles, to answer questions from the audience.

In an interview with Nuvo, the Indianapolis alternative newspaper, Scott Shoger asks Mr. Bogdanovich mostly Welles related questions, including when he thinks The Other Side of the Wind might be free from the many legal entanglements that have surrounded it for over 35 years.

NUVO: Do you think we’ll see The Other Side of the Wind this year?

PETER BOGDANOVICH: It’s so complicated I don’t even know where to begin. But to put it in a nutshell, (more...)

England's BBC Four has launched it's celebration of Orson Welles this holiday season by showing episodes from the 1955 BBC program Orson Welles Sketchbook.

Although only viewers in the UK will be able to see the 15-minute episodes, here is a link to Wellesnet's written transcripts of the shows, as recorded by Jeff Wilson, as well as audio versions of the shows hosted by The Museum of Orson Welles. Antony in Dublin tells me that the first Sketchbook shown on December 18 was indeed the rare episode that is missing from our transcription and audio files. Terry's report from the message board states, "Welles talks about props, a fortuitous and apocryphal Californian earthquake, his audition at the Gate Theatre and subsequent premiere (with sketches of the characters he played,) the malevolent pranks of Opening Night gremlins, and the revelation that he began his professional career by falling on his head."

Another highlight of the BBC Four series will no doubt be the debut of a new documentary Orson Welles Over Europe hosted and written by Welles biographer Simon Callow. The hour long show will concentrate on Welles career in Europe after he left Hollywood in 1948 and went to Italy to make Black Magic for producer Edward Small. This was famously followed by the frenetic off-and-on again shooting of Othello which went on across many countries in Europe and Africa for several years, before the film was finally completed and shown at the the 1952 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prize.

Orson Welles Over Europe is directed by Hans Petch and produced by Alan Campbell, assisted by Lesley Smith-Glasgow. It will debut on the BBC Four in the UK on December 27 at 9:30 pm.

Leslie Megahey's wonderful Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story will also be shown in two installments on BBC Four, but it appears this will be the 165 minute version, rather than the more complete 210 minute version.

John Hodson quotes Leslie Magahey talking about interviewing Welles in Las Vegas at The Film Journal, and has a complete rundown the the BBC schedule of Welles films.

Ambrose Heron at Film Detail also provides a round up of the five Welles films that will be shown, including video and trailers from Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Journey Into Fear and The Third Man.

Christian McKay and Richard Linklater spent one-and-a-half days in San Francisco to talk about their new film Me and Orson Welles and dazzled the preview audience at the Embarcadero Center Cinemas.

Having arrived in SF from the Austin premiere the night before, the San Francisco event was a much more low-key affair, since teen heart-throb Zac Efron had dropped off the promo tour for their stop in San Francisco. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since it made for a much more casual and intimate screening, where people in the audience could actually talk with both Richard and Christian after their long Q & A session. In fact, many Wellesnet members who attended the screening where able to chat one on one with Richard Linklater and Christian McKay when they adjourned to The Holding Company, next to the theatre for drinks after the show. Just imagine if Zac Efron tried to do that!

Earlier in the day, Mr. Linklater and Mr. McKay had done a Q & A after a matinee screening of the movie at George Lucas's Premiere Theatre in the Presidio, before they faced the press for a long afternoon of interviews at the Prescott Hotel near Union Square. I spoke to them for my allotted 30 minutes, but to my delight, Christian McKay happily agreed to a much longer tête-à-tête during the showing of the movie. The resulting interview, which I will be posting shortly, should prove to be a real delight to Wellesnet readers across the globe, as Mr. McKay has throughly immersed himself in researching Orson Welles, to the point of watching many of the terrible movies Welles appeared in, such as The Witching, Butterfly and Ferry To Hong Kong.

I'd also like to give a special thanks to Karen Larsen and her associates, Leo Wong and Kelda McKinney for doing such a splendid job in handling the movie's publicity in San Francisco.

It was also nice that Christian McKay told me he had just received word that he had been nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" in the independent "Spirit Award" nominations. I told him I thought he would also probably garner an Oscar nomination, but noted he will be facing some stiff competition from actors like Christoph Waltz, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Plummer and Alfred Molina.

Here is a short preview of our talk, which centers on an idea which would make a great extra for the DVD that Warner Bros Home Video will eventually release next year.

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CHRISTIAN McKAY: When I had lunch with Norman Lloyd in Los Angeles just before I spoke with you, we had talked about maybe going on the stage together and doing a talk show about the Mercury Theatre, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir, Charlie Chaplin and all the other people Norman has worked with. You would get some of the greatest stories that you would ever hear! Norman said to me, “Well, I haven’t been on the stage in a while, it’s been at least four years,” and I thought, “that would have made him 91!”

RICHARD LINKLATER: An evening with Christian and Norman Lloyd on the stage in LA would be amazing!

CHRISTIAN McKAY: Yes, wouldn’t that be great -- and if we could get it recorded so people could watch it, that would be fabulous, because there is nobody left alive who has met all these personalities and worked with them.

RICHARD LINKLATER: And you guys are two of the few people who could ask him all of the right questions.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Well, I’d love to go to Los Angeles to talk to Norman Lloyd. In fact, perhaps Warner Bros. might want to do something like that as a supplement for the DVD release of the film. I think it would be fabulous if you directed Christian and Norman Lloyd in an evening of movie and stage memories at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood! Tim Burton did something similar when he did a interview with Vincent Price on film, but it was never finished.

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Richard Linklater and Christian McKay talked about their new film Me and Orson Welles for nearly an hour after a preview screening in San Francisco on December 2.

In the excerpt below they recall some details of Welles's production of Julius Caesar, related to them by the only two cast members of the play who are still alive, Norman Lloyd and Arthur Anderson. Mr. Anderson was the inspiration for the character played by Zac Efron in the movie and his memories of working with Orson Welles, taken from his introduction to The Best of the Old Time Radio Starring Orson Welles, follows.

In addition, Matt Enlow has posted a recent interview with Arthur Anderson at his Atom Blog where Mr. Anderson praises Me and Orson Welles, noting it "portrays Orson very well. He was charming, he was a damn good actor, but he wanted things his own way. Usually he knew what was right… what was creative."

Mr. Anderson also reveals he has an autobiography coming out early in 2010 titled An Actor’s Odyssey: From Orson Welles to Lucky the Leprechaun.

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RICHARD LINKLATER: Zac Efron’s character, Richard Samuels is loosely based on Arthur Anderson. He’s about 86 now and still lives in New York City. He’s one of two people still alive who appeared in the original production. Norman Lloyd who played Cinna the poet is also still with us. Christian has talked with Norman and now they are best friends. I talked with Arthur a couple of times on the phone. We don’t know if they have seen the movie or not, but it must be bizarre for them. I think they may have a weird relationship to it, because just imagine somebody doing a movie about your life from 72 years before! I hope we have captured the spirit of the show. That’s all you can do, is try your best.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: Norman Lloyd said to me, “Did you have a red wall (for the back of the stage), and I said, “yes… did you remember the smell of the paint?” – and I could see Norman going back 72 years, remembering and he said, “The Smell? The theatre Stank!!”

RICHARD LINKLATER: We were trying to be faithful to people's memories, even though Norman remembered the Mercury theatre with a curtain, but it famously didn’t have a curtain. He remembers his scene (Cinna being killed) as the pivotal scene in the play, and Welles cut it out of the play and then he put it back in, so we honored his memory of the event and we tried to do that with everyone who wrote about it.

Arthur told me he really did set off the sprinklers in the theatre. That really did happen. He was like a little Gremlin kid, who was only 15 at the time. He was also the only one who had his name changed. In the novel Robert Kaplow changed Arthur's name to Richard and he fictionalized him, so he was loosely based on himself and his father. Arthur also didn’t get fired on opening night. That was part of the fiction. He actually finished the run of the play and was in a lot of additional Mercury Theatre radio shows. Whenever they needed a kid, they would call him up. He ended up having a really long career in radio and voice work. He also had a long gig doing the little Leprechaun in the Lucky Charms cereal commercials.

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RECALLING ORSON WELLES

By ARTHUR ANDERSON
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"Go home, dear boy."

It was November 1937, close to two o'clock in the morning. The Mercury Theatre actors had been wearily rehearsing over and over some fine points in the new modern-dress production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, ignoring Actors' Equity overtime rules in order to satisfy Orson Welles, their 22-year-old director. I was the youngest member of the Mercury, and when Orson by chance noticed me, yawning in one of the theatre's orchestra seats, he at once dismissed me until the following day. Whatever truth there may be in descriptions of George Orson Welles as self-absorbed, autocratic, skittish, undependable and unreasonable, it is also true that he showed only kindness to me.

My first encounter with Orson (I called him "Mr. Welles" in those days, as children were taught to address adults) had been in 1936 on Peter Absolute, aired Sunday afternoons on NBC's Red Network. I had the title role of a little orphan boy in the days of the Erie Canal. Orson played Rex Dakolar, an English actor with a waspish temper who despised the hardships of touring in the American provinces. He was excellent, and very amusing. I was thirteen years old.

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Wellesnet is pleased to be able to share this exclusive report from Chris Welles Feder, who attended the New York premiere and after party of Richard Linklater's new movie, Me and Orson Welles, due to the efforts of your obedient servant.

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ME AND ORSON WELLES premiere

By Chris Welles Feder
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The premiere was held at the Clearview Theater at 260 West 23rd Street in Manhattan on Monday evening, November 23rd. I arrived a few minutes before Zac Efron who was greeted by the media like a megastar. Photographers lined up five deep to take his picture, and the flashbulbs going off in his face and all around him must have been blinding. Zac looked like a dazed deer caught in a car’s headlights, and it took a team of body guards to hold back the ravenous press and usher him safely inside the theater.

Before the movie began, Christian McKay had heard that I was in the audience. He came bounding down the aisle, practically leapfrogging over people to get to my seat. Then, pumping my hand, he told me how much it meant to him that I was there. “This makes my evening!” he declared. We made plans to meet later at the party.

I enjoyed the movie and found it well-paced and entertaining. Zac Efron is most appealing and gives a sensitive and convincing performance. I felt the movie worked best as a coming-of-age story involving Zac’s character and Clare Danes’ (both entirely fictional as I am sure you know). I was also fascinated by the reconstruction of the Mercury’s Julius Caesar in modern dess, which I found well done. (Zac told me later that there had originally been a lot more footage of Julius Caesar, but it was cut, unfortunately, in the final version.)

As I am sure you will understand, it is difficult for me to be objective about a portrayal of my father in a fictional movie, especially when the Orson Welles character is presented as a sacré monstre (holy monster). Director Richard Linklater was equal to the task of telling a coming-of-age story but not, I feel, of delving into the Orson Welles character and helping us better understand what makes him tick. As a result, we end up with a caricature. Instead of taking the novel on which the movie is based at face value, as well as buying into the prevailing myths surrounding Orson Welles, Linklater might have gone deeper into his subject and given us a more complex and substantive portrait of a theatrical genius.

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