La Cinematheque francaise has made an extraordinary interview with Orson Welles available online.
The 90-minute interview is part of the Henri platform put in place by Cinémathèque francaise, which has been closed since March 13. Film lessons and conferences, sites and articles devoted to its exhibitions and retrospectives, not to mention treasures from its collections, have been made available online.
It is unknown how long the video, transferred from the original 16mm film, will be available online. (And no, it cannot be downloaded or embedded.)
On February 24, 1982, Welles was in Paris to be decorated with the Legion of Honor by François Mitterrand, and to preside over the Cesars ceremony,
Seated with Henri Behar, Welles fielded questions from Parisian cinema school students in the crowded hall of Chaillot.
He covers topics ranging from his preference for black and white over color to his take on directors Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred Hitchcock.
Sorbonne Paris III professor Francois Thomas has written notes on the program, which accompanies the video on the official website.
“In the temple of cinephilia, Welles advises against immersing yourself in movies, listening to teachers endlessly talk about Eisenstein or Griffith,” Thomas writes.
The video can be found at cinematheque.fr/henri/film/125173-orson-welles-a-la-cinematheque-francaise-pierre-andre-boutang-guy-seligmann-1983
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