Chimes at Midnight is Welles’s masterpiece, the fullest, most completely realized expression of everything he had been working toward since Citizen Kane, which itself was more an end than a beginning. –Joseph McBride, ORSON WELLES. _________________________________ Bonham’s Auction house will be selling an archive of rare production material on November 22 in London that belonged […]
Wellesnet members Craig Weinstein and Leigh Gordon attended the Dax Foundation screening of Falstaff on July 30th and provided some interesting news about the event. Leigh tells me that besides the original promotional material from Falstaff, the Dax Foundation also had the Academy Award Orson Welles won for Citizen Kane on display. You can see […]
On Thursday July 30 2009 The Dax Foundation is hosting a rare screening of Orson Welles masterpiece Chimes at Midnight at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The Dax Foundation has provided Wellesnet with a limited number of tickets for this very special showing, which will be introduced by Dave Weisman, the executive director of the […]
WELLES FILM IS HELD UP IN DISPUTE By WILLIAM GRIMES The New York Times – June 23, 1992 The Joseph Papp Public Theater has halted a scheduled two-week showing of Orson Welles’s “Chimes at Midnight” after discovering that rights to distribute the film are in dispute. The program director of the theater, Fabiano Canosa, said […]
Back in March of 1967, when Falstaff was first released in New York, it was a time of great social upheaval in America. Protests against the war in Viet Nam were about to reach critical mass. LSD made the cover of Life Magazine. Hippies and flower children were preparing for the “Summer of Love” in […]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Working with Orson Welles, he re-invented you for the purpose of his picture. From then on you became “God” and what you gave him was whatever he needed. This made you a real musician. —Angelo Francesco Lavagnino in Roseabella ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Italian composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino first worked with Welles right at the start […]
In these excerpts from Sir John Gielgud’s wonderful book, A Life in Letters, which covers his entire career from 1930 to 1999, we get to see how his view of Orson Welles changed, starting from when he first saw Citizen Kane in 1941, to his being somewhat put off by Welles’s antics at their first […]
After recently viewing the Movies Unlimited DVD-R of Falstaff, I was impressed (yet again) by Orson Welles’s Shakespearian masterpiece, and all the many details it contains—which I had either forgotten about or never even noticed before. As Welles remarked, “I think a film should be full of things, details that one does not see the […]
Reading Simon Callow’s perceptive two books on King Henry IV, Part One and Part Two made me want to revisit Welles masterpiece, Chimes at Midnight. In doing so, I also looked at one of the best interviews Welles ever gave about a single movie, his long talk with Juan Cobos and Miguel Rubio that was […]
Simon Callow, who is a great friend of Wellesnet, has sent along the biggest contribution I’ve yet to receive towards helping keep the site active and alive on the web. I know I’ve mentioned to everyone who has contributed to Wellesnet that we hope to add more pictures to the site in the future. Well, […]
On the day when Hollywood gives out it’s esteemed Academy Awards, I came across an ad for Falstaff that quotes all the excellent reviews it received when it opened in March of 1967. Of course, the most important review for an art house movie at that time, was the verdict from The New York Times. […]
Producer Greg Boozell has sent along this link for Wellesnet viewers to preview a very informative interview with Jonathan Rosenbaum condcted by Mara Tapp, which concentrates on four of Orson Welles lesser viewed films: MR. ARKADIN, DON QUIXOTE, FALSTAFF and F FOR FAKE. It also goes into some detail about Welles pioneering work with Afro-Americans and Afro-Brazilians, which really seems to be the smoking […]
(Wellesnet correspondent Leslie Weisman attended the screening of Chimes at Midnight at the AFI Wednesday night, which featured star Keith Baxter in attendance. Baxter spoke at length after the film about his experiences with Welles and on the film. Despite the occasional factual error on Mr Baxter’s part, this is a warmly remembered series of […]
Here is a letter Darryl Zanuck, the President of 20th Century Fox and a great friend of Welles wrote to himafter first seeing”Chimes At Midnight”. Forwhatever reasons,Zanuck and Fox were not able to secure the rights to “Chimes” which was rather unfortunate, since had Fox acquired the film itmight have done far better in the […]
I’ve just returned from a fabulous�two week vacation in Spain, which�by sheer accident has turned out to be a�wonderful�source of Welles information – �inparticular on Chimes At Midnight, which was�Welles own favorite movie, as well as mine. Chimes�of course, was shot in Spain, which was�Welles� favorite country in Europe, as can be seen in this […]
