Welcome to the first installment of the Wellesnet NewsBlog. I like this format for its ease of updating, which also means I can do it from anywhere. It will hopefully mean more frequent updates. Everything else about Wellesnet remains the same, and the old News page is exactly where it always has been, if you’re looking for older news and links. I will be changing all the other links on the site to reflect this link as the main news page, however. All the same links can be found on this page, including the Amazon affiliate links. I will also finally be adding some outside links to other sites of interest, not just Welles-related, but film-related, something I’ve been meaning to do for some time. Without further ado then, on to some bits and bobs of news:
The French DVD edition of Macbeth is due on December 5, and looks to be excellent, which hopefully portends a similar release from Paramount in 2006. The package is comprised of three discs: the theatrical cut, which was shortened to 88 minutes and removed the Scottish accents, the original Welles cut, length and accents intact, and a third disc of extra materials. Those are slated to include analysis by Welles scholars Francois Thomas and Jean-Pierre Barthome(13 min), a comparison of the two versions (26 min), the Voodoo Macbeth footage from the WPA short (4 min), the Mercury Records version of the play (already available on CD; 78 min), and analysis of the various elements of the film (image, sound, design, etc). All that and an 80 page book are included.
Also in France, Youssef Ishaghpour, three-volume set on Welles has been re-issued, and a new title, by Fabien Gaffez and titled simply Orson Welles, is also available. The Gaffez, given its less than three-Euro price, is presumably an introductory work of some kind. In US book news, Amazon lists Simon Callow’s second bio volume as coming out in June 2006. A May 2006 release is scheduled for the UK. Joseph McBride’s forthcoming book on Welles is similarly scheduled for a 2006 release, but no new date has been posted as yet.
As added to the bibliographies section of the Resources section, here are this year’s scholarly articles on Welles:
Damisch, Hubert. “Montage du desastre.” Cahiers du Cinema, 599 (2005 Mar), pp. 72-78.
Melnikoff, Kirk (ed. and introd.). “Orson Welles and Shakespeare on Film.” Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship, 23:1 (2005 Spring), pp. 5-136. Special issue.
Jones, Nicholas. “A Bogus Hero: Welles’s Othello and the Construction of Race.” Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship, 23:1 (2005 Spring), pp. 9-28.
Newstok, Scott L. “Touch of Shakespeare: Welles Unmoors Othello.” Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship, 23:1 (2005 Spring), pp. 29-86.
Hoffman, Dean A. “‘Bypaths and Indirect Crooked Ways’: Mise-en-Scene in Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight.” Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship, 23:1 (2005 Spring), pp. 87-112.
Diaz Fernandez, Jose Ramon. “Orson Welles’s Shakespeare Films: An Annotated Checklist.” Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship, 23:1 (2005 Spring), pp. 113-36.