By RAY KELLY
An ambitious plan to reconstruct The Magnificent Ambersons to better resemble Orson Welles’ original vision is underway with animation and voice actors set to approximate the scenes cut by RKO Radio Pictures before the film’s release in 1942.
Filmmaker Brian Rose recently shared with Wellesnet his nearly 132-minute rough draft, which has been in the works for nearly two years. Handsome backgrounds and fluid camera movements are in place on a digital scan from a film print he owns. There are hand-drawn placeholders for the yet-to-be-inserted animated characters and a temporary guide vocal for future voice actors.
Rose, whose documentary When I Last Saw Jesse was honored at the Kansas City FilmFest International two years ago, is using the March 12, 1942 cutting continuity of the Ambersons workprint previewed in Pomona as his guide. Following that disappointing preview, RKO drastically cut the film in Welles’ absence, filmed an upbeat new ending, and released it on July 10, 1942 at a running time of 88 minutes.
RKO sacked Welles and his reputation nosedived in Hollywood. “They destroyed Ambersons,” Welles lamented four decades later, “and the picture itself destroyed me; I didn’t get a job as a director for years afterwards.”
Welles’ original cut and related footage was destroyed by RKO — making the 132-minute preview version the Holy Grail of classic films.
“Many scenes could be recreated thanks to surviving frame enlargements,” Rose told Wellesnet. “For other scenes where more complex camera movements were involved, I relied upon stills, diagrams of camera movement and the layout of the sets which, when reconstructed in a 3D space allowed a greater degree of understanding as to how Welles filmed. This enabled a high degree of certainty in capturing what was lost in a way that will hopefully do justice to Welles’ original vision, so much so that it will be possible, for the first time, to see Ambersons in its entirety — all 132 minutes.”
Eugene Morgan arrives at the hospital to visit an injured George Minafer in an animated sequence included in a reconstruction of The Magnificent Ambersons. (Courtesy of Brian Rose)
He added, “The version I have created is now in exact synchronicity to the cutting documents of March 1942 and runs 131 minutes and 45 seconds. But the characters at this point are only the first sketches, what in animator terminology are called pencil tests. The task now is to fine tune the performances, aided by critical feedback by many individuals who have offered scholarly and artistic advice on this project. The film must next go through a period of revision, after which it will enter the ‘ink and paint’ stage where all the characters will be refined with added details, along with further details in the sets, background characters and so on.”
“The goal is not to create a photo-realistic recreation of the lost material, but rather something that will capture it artistically and subtly, in something not unlike the film’s original storyboards — a charcoal and pencil drawing come to life, so that the viewer is both aware of what is new, but also able to appreciate the film as a complete narrative. I compare this effort to the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which is a method of repairing damaged pottery that does not attempt to conceal the breaks, but rather highlights them, so that one can both appreciate the work as a whole, while also seeing the cracks that highlight its history as an object.”
Welles enthusiasts have attempted to honor his intention in the past using surviving still photographs and voice actors, most notably an effort by Mike Teal and Jaime Marzol and another by Roger Ryan. The latter was shown at the 58th Locarno Film Festival in 2005. However, Rose is the first to use animation to capture movement.
Rose said he was inspired by Ryan’s “masterful reconstruction of Ambersons,” which he first saw as a student of Wellesnet veteran Tony Williams at Southern Illinois University years ago.
“I consider Ryan’s efforts to be definitive in this regard, and my initial endeavor was to simply create an updated version in honor of his original,” Rose said. “But as I did further research, new possibilities became apparent thanks to the available technology, such as reconstructing the sets in a 3D environment to capture a fuller picture of Welles’ original vision. It then seemed only natural that these recreated sets should be populated, and what once began as a small project I could work [on] while in between productions, turned into a major project two years in the works and counting.”
George Minafer, aunt Fanny Minafer, and his mother, Isabel Amberson, talk about the rise of automobiles in an animated sequence from a reconstruction of The Magnificent Ambersons. (Courtesy of Brian Rose)
Rose believes he has another two years of animation work ahead of him, meaning the project could be completed shortly after The Magnificent Ambersons marks its 80th anniversary in 2022.
In preparation for his reconstruction, Rose studied the writings of noted film author Robert L. Carringer; the supplemental materials found on the Criterion Collection Blu-ray release; and Booth Tarkington’s original novel. Rose has consulted with fellow reconstructionist Roger Ryan and Joseph Egan, the creator of the comprehensive website themagnificentabersons.com. Rose also made use of the Welles collection archived at The Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington.
More recently, Rose showed his rough draft of the reconstruction to colleagues and various Welles scholars. He has sought their feedback to better decide the “next steps in polishing and refining the work.”
Welles fans will have to wait a bit longer before seeing Rose’s handiwork.
“If I have a regret it is that I cannot share it more widely, but at this stage it is very rough, like the first draft of a novel, full of typos and run-on sentences. And of course, I want to respect all those who have retained rights to this film,” Rose said. “It is my ultimate goal that, when ready, to be able to present this film in a way that is respectful and hopefully will help to enhance the renown and value of this most essential part of the oeuvre of a vital figure of American art and culture.”
He added, “This initially was conceived as a scholarly project, a personal undertaking not unlike the translation of an ancient Greek text. But as it grew in scope and ambition, it is now my hope that the finished effort will be of sufficient quality that it might be possible to make it widely available through a collaborative effort with the film’s rights holders.”
Top: Agnes Moorehead and Joseph Cotten in The Magnificent Amberson‘s lost boarding house scene. Below: Screen capture of early animation for a reconstruction of that scene. (Courtesy of Brian Rose)
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