Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Here is Orson Welles on Hollywood, that appeared in Esquire Magazine, in March, 1959.  Strangely, even though Welles hadn't been in Hollywood for over ten years, he feels that he needed to point out that fact, even though he had left Los Angeles for Europe in 1948.  

Twilight in the Smog

Solemn suburbia crowds out the raucous old circus

By Orson Welles

It used to be easy to hate Hollywood. For me it was no trouble at all. But that was years ago. I don't think either of us have mellowed very much since then; but we are getting on a bit and our feelings for each other are scarcely as passionate as they were. For one thing, I no longer live there; I'm not just saying this—I really don't. Formerly this claim was the purest affectation; now it's a fact. It was my melancholy pretense that I was a transient, temporarily employed. There was nothing original about this self-deception. In the film colony a good half of the working population, including many of the oldest inhabitants, keep up their spirits by means of the same ruse. People buy houses and spend half their lives in them without unpacking all their bags. By now, however, I think it's safe to announce that I am one of those who got away. I chose freedom—and that was quite a while ago. Nowadays, if I do venture back behind the chromium curtain, it's never without a return ticket to the outside world. Also, I'm very careful about sitting down. This is important. In that peculiar climate one is haunted with the possibility that standing up again might suddenly exceed one's aspirations. Hollywood is a place where a youngish man is ill-advised to indulge in a siesta. Leaving a call for four-thirty won't do him any good. The likelihood remains that when he wakes up he'll be sixty-five.

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What promises to be the definitive book on Orson Welles IT'S ALL TRUE will be arriving in March, 2007 from the UC California Press. Here are some advance details:

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It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey
�

By Catherine L. Benamou
�

U.C. Berkeley Press - 416 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 39 b/w photographs, 2 maps.

Publication Date:�March, 2007

Described as a work of genius, a pretentious wreck, a crucially important film, a victim of its director's ego, and much more, It's All True, shot in Mexico and Brazil between 1941 and 1942, is the legendary movie that Orson Welles never got to finish. In this book, the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of It's All True available, Catherine Benamou synthesizes a wealth of new and little-known source material gathered on two continents, including interviews with key participants, to present a compelling original view of the film and its historical significance. Breaking with the auteur-destroyed-by-Hollywood clich�, Benamou locates the premature termination of this cross-cultural project in the complex mix of American foreign policy, Brazilian and Mexican national interests, Welles' own desire for ethnographic authenticity, a Hollywood system looking for a conventional picture, and the political stakes of a host of players. Definitively debunking many of the myths surrounding It's All True, this groundbreaking book will challenge much received wisdom about Orson Welles, one of the most important figures in the history of cinema, and illuminate the unique place he occupies in American culture, broadly defined.

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Introduction: Locating Orson Welles's It's All TrueChapter 1: In Production, 1941-1942
Chapter 2: Toward the Text of It's All True, Based on the Work in Progress
Chapter 3: Postproduction: The Trajectory of the Film Object,
and That of Critical Discourse
Chapter 4: Almofala: A Wellesian Text
Chapter 5: Labirinto: The Politics and Poetics of a Text-in-the-Making
Chapter 6: Zoom, Pan, and Rack Focus: The Film's Suspension Examined
Chapter 7: The Legacy of a Phantom Film, 1945-2003
Conclusion: It's All True, Orson Welles, and Hemispheric History
Appendix 1: Pages from a Research Scrapbook: Jacar�'s Family Remembers
Appendix 2: Fact Sheets for Filmed Episodes of It's All True, 1941-1942
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Juan Cobos was the editor of the fabulous Spanish film magazine NICKEL ODEON which I had never heard of until I visited Spain, and while the magazine is now defunct,� I can safely say this is easily the best issue of any magazine I've�seen to date devoted to the films and work of Orson Welles.�Measuring an astonishing 13 x 9 inches, and containing� 400 huge pages, this special Welles issue, while totally in Spanish, is still something for Welles fans to dream about,�simply for the�incredibly rare pictures it contains. Included are many rare scenes from DON�QUIXOTE and THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND which I had never seen before.� Of course, there are also many rare shots from all of Welles released movies, with a heavy emphasis on Welles masterpiece�"CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT."Since Juan Cobos knew Welles quite well, he was also able to include many�of Welles own sketches and costumes designs from "CHIMES"� among all the other treasures he has amassed here. The letter Darryl Zanuck wrote to Welles regarding "CHIMES" is but one of the many treats in the issue.

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Here is a letter Darryl Zanuck, the President of 20th Century Fox and a great friend of Welles wrote to him�after first seeing�"Chimes At Midnight".� For�whatever reasons,�Zanuck and Fox were not able to secure the rights to "Chimes" which was rather unfortunate, since had Fox acquired the film it�might have done far better in the U.S. marketplace, both critically and commercially. It might even have�made it easier for Welles to complete a few more of his projects�in the seventies. �

___________ �

�

August 10, 1965

Mr. Orson Welles�Trianon Palace Hotel�

Versailles����

My Dear Orson:�

I was deeply moved and emotionally thrilled by your film �CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT�. It is far and away the best film in this category that I have seen.�