32 years ago, in 1978 when I was the the chairman of The Cinema Guild at a New England College, we received a grant from the Johnson-Mellon foundation for $10,000 to bring important artistic speakers to our campus for a day of interaction with students. Early in our talks with the University “committee” for the […]
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 […]
Orson Welles: Genius and Innovator of the American Cinema is a short documentary written and directed by a 14-year old student, David La Rosa, as part of the National History Day Competition. It won third place out of all the finalists from New York State and can be viewed on YouTube HERE. I found it […]
A few months ago I found several old issues of Theatre Arts magazine in the tenderloin district of San Francisco, a few short blocks from where Wellesnet “legend” Glenn Anders lives. The mags were priced at a big 100% mark-up over their original price. Well, since the original price was only .50 cents, they were […]
Heart of Darkness is a story we came to Hollywood to make a movie of—we never did and maybe someday we will—but I think it’s particularly well suited to radio. Here it is, one of the best regarded and most typical of the works of Joseph Conrad. The Heart of Darkness could be described as […]
Bonham’s auction house in London recently sold items from the estate of Bernard Herrmann which included some truly fascinating items from Orson Welles, including this letter, which sold for 360£. ******************* Dearest Maestro: Your letter brought me more pleasure than I can say. Not the tone of it, which was a trifle severe, but the […]
This article is based on a piece by Jean-Pierre Berthome that appeared in French in The Unknown Orson Welles, the wonderful book edited by Stefan Drossler of the Filmmuseum Munchen. Special thanks to Francois Thomas, who graciously translated key portions of the text for me. All the sections below in bold type are taken from […]
Thanks to Lance Morrison for tallying up all the votes so far of Wellesnet members ongoing ranking of their favorite Orson Welles’ movies. I’ve taken the results Lance has posted on the message board and added in ten more votes, including my own, as well as people I’ve asked to send me their rankings, including […]
I recently received a letter from a 7th grade student in Mass. who asked me a series of interesting questions about Orson Welles. By a strange coincidence, I had just been talking with Joseph McBride about the upcoming group of younger Welles scholars. In any event, I was quite impressed by the intelligence of the […]
By exclusive arrangement with Nick Louras, the editor of PENNY BLOOD magazine, Wellesnet is able to provide these excerpts from Harvey Chartrand’s extensive and fascinating interview with Orson Welles late, great cinematographer Gary Graver. The full text of the article can be read in PENNY BLOOD magazine #11 featuring a cover story on the films […]
Art should never try to be popular; the public should try to make itself artistic. —Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man under Socialism ________________________________ Director Marc Forster has claimed in nearly every interview he’s given while promoting his new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, that since he had never made an action movie before […]
My real interest in life is education. I want to be a teacher. All this experience I’ve been piling up is equipping me for that future …I shall know how to dramatize the art of imparting knowledge. One day I shall leave all this behind me, go back (to Todd School) and give full rein […]
Q: Where is home for you? ORSON WELLES: I have lots of homes …I suppose its Woodstock, Illinois, if it’s anywhere. I went to school there for four years, and if I think of home, it’s there. It may be a tedious cliché to say that school days are the happiest days of your life, […]
For anyone with an interest in the University of Michigan’s two collections of Welles papers, here’s an update as to their status from Welles scholar/U of M professor Catherine Benamou: “Thanks to a special grant from a library donor, processing (the physical organization and labeling) of the Richard Wilson-Orson Welles archive at the Special Collections […]
Thanks to Sir Bygber Brown for posting the letters Orson Welles wrote that are currently for sale at www.abebooks.com You can visit the site to see more details about buying the letters, but since they are selling for $2,000 and up, I don’t imagine many people can afford them! However, because they are all quite […]
With the impending release of Warner Bros. last man on earth story, I Am Legend, I recently re-watched Charlton Heston in The Omega Man, the second abortive attempt at bringing Richard Matheson’s classic end of the world novel to the screen, and noted a few interesting similarities between it and Welles’ Touch of Evil, as they were both […]
Two prevailing and diametrically opposed attitudes seem to dictate the way most people currently think about Orson Welles. One attitude, predominantly American, sees his life and career chiefly in terms of failure and regards the key question to be why he never lived up to his promise—”his promise” almost invariably being tied up with […]
Greetings all, as noted below, the University of Michigan opened an exhibition based on their recently acquired Welles collections tonight. The displayed items will eventually change, but the display itself will continue through December, and the collection is available for research purposes now, though not all of it has yet been cataloged. Catherine Benamou […]
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 […]
Peter Tonguette’s book about Welles, Orson Welles Remembered, has just seen publication, and he sent along the following about the book and why he put it together. – Jeff Wilson _________ By PETER TONGUETTE My fascination with Orson Welles began when I saw the restored Touch of Evil in December 1998. I was 15 at […]
