I’m happy to report that Chris Welles Feder, Orson Welles eldest daughter, has agreed to offer readers of Wellesnet a limited number of signed copies of her beautifully written book of poems about her father, ”The Movie Director.” The book was privately published in a limited edition in 2002, which is probably why most Welles fans may […]
Of course the producers hated me most, because if I could do all those things, than what is the need for a producer? � �Orson Welles��������� Without final cut an artist cannot function. � �Henry Jaglom��� ������������������� ��*��������������*�������������*� It�s insane that filmmakers have to play that game, and that�s why movies suck! � �Ed Burns� […]
While re-reading Jeanne Moreau’s poem on Welles, I began thinking about other poets who have written about Welles, and felt it might be interesting to post some of these poetic pieces as well. So upcoming will be pieces by Patti Smith and Welles own daughter, Chris Welles Feder, with any additional suggestions being most welcome. And as can be […]
To Orson where ever you are: I love you. I’m still with you, with all of my heart. —Jeanne Moreau in Durga Strana Wellesa (The Other Side of Orson Welles) A documentary film on Orson Welles career in Yugoslavia By Daniel Rafaelic and Leon Rizmaul +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Film historians Daniel Rafaelic and Leon Rizmaul have put together a very […]
Just received and watched “Brunnen”, a documentary on Welles’s years in Spain by Swedish filmaker Kristian Petri, and featuring interviews with Oja Kodar, director Jess Franco, author Peter Viertel ( screenwriter of several famous films and author of many books, the most famous of which is “White Hunter, Black Heart”) and several “unfamous” individuals who […]
To all you Welles aficionados down in Australia, Gary Graver will be showing his highly recommended program of rare Welles material at the “Celebration of Cinematography Festival” in Canberra this weekend. More details are in this article in the Sydney Morning Herald: No chance of this Welles running dry And here’s an excerpt from an […]
As you’ll have seen if you peruse the message board, a post linking to Tim Lucas’ Video Watchblog column about the new Criterion Collection Mr. Arkadin DVD set resulted in some less than adulatory (but hardly vicious) words being written about Lucas, which in turn resulted in him ripping those of us who dared to […]
At the Home Theater Forum chat with Warner Home Video tonight, the usual “when is Ambersons coming out” question was posed to the Warner reps present; the answer was the same old “we’re still looking for materials” bit, which is rather frustrating, to say the least. How long, exactly, does this process take? Surely there […]
Per DVD Times, Richard Fleischer’s Compulsion, which featured Welles as a Clarence Darrow-type attorney defending a pair of Leopold & Loeb style murderers, will be making its DVD debut on May 23, in an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Extras are basically nil, but for those who want the film, this is good news.
Warner Bros has announced an “aggressive” release plan in 2006 for their catalog titles, of which The Magnificent Ambersons is one; a preliminary list of many titles was posted over at the Digital Bits site today, and Ambersons (not surprisingly, at this point) was not among those titles listed. With 200 titles on the cards […]
I’ve only recently seen over on the Criterion Forum forum that the excellent UK label Masters of Cinema will be releasing F for Fake, and that this release will include an interview with critic/Welles scholar Jonathan Rosenbaum; no date was given. Considering their usual high standard of work, this should be a very good release. […]
A few days ago I suggested voting for the unreleased Welles titles listed in Turner Classic Movies’ database (see below). How has the voting been going since? Not too bad, thanks in part to threads on several other sites as well as this one (he said modestly). Ambersons is up to 90 votes (from 31), […]
Per a couple other sources, the Criterion Collection’s release of Mr. Arkadin has been removed from their “Coming Soon” section, but remains on the site, listed on its own page simply as “Coming Soon,” with no given date.
If you visit the Turner Classic Movies Database, you can look up titles they hold and vote to see them on DVD. I have no idea if it will make any difference to the powers that be (probably not, the cynic in me says), but why not go and vote for the unreleased Welles titles […]
I think if you’re a filmmaker, one fate you must avoid is having your work fall into the public domain. Because you will then be subject to an endless parade of shoddy cash-in video releases from every guy with a dream of being a high roller in the home video field. That’s a generalization of […]
An essay on the making of Orson Welles “The Other Side of the Wind” can be found on the Legacy portion of Wellesnet. Please visit the “TOSOTW” page here.
