A realization (and a confession) about Arkadin

[Kevin Loy]

...or, more specifically, the deluxe set from Criterion chronicling Arkadin.

Before it was released, the only version of Arkadin that I had was the crappy public domain DVD (one of several available here in the states). The picture was awful, and the sound was almost incomprehensible at times...but I found myself often going back to it. I just thought that the characters were fascinating, and I found the tightly-wound editing (which is even more tightly wound in the public domain version, as it features all of those cross-cuts to replace the attic scenes) to be intriguing.

As was the case with F For Fake, I pre-ordered the Criterion set, and relished the fact that the film had been beautifully restored AND was available in three different versions...but yet, I've found that I almost never watch it anymore.

Part of this is because I've been pretty immersed in the work of Cassavetes for quite some time, but I still spend quite a bit of time with Welles' films, particularly "Chimes at Midnight" and "F For Fake"...but not Arkadin. Just a little while ago, I pulled out the Criterion set and was about to watch Arkadin, when I decided to shelve it, and I realized that my interest in the film has seriously waned since getting the Criterion set.

Don't misunderstand me, I do think that the Corinth and Comprehensive versions are vast improvements in terms of plot development, especially since I can actually *understand* what is being said a lot of the time...but I do somewhat miss the tension of the incredibly brisk (in comparison) hacked version.

I know it is heresy to make such a comment, but...has anybody else felt this way? I know Arkadin isn't a particularly popular film amongst many fans anyway, so I thought I would ask.

[Roger Ryan]

A brave confession, Kevin! I'm afraid my experience with "Arkadin" is the more traditional one in that I found the public domain atrocity unwatchable, felt a little better about viewing "Confidential Report", but now realize that the "Corinth Version" and, especially, the "Comprehensive Version" have elevated this admittedly minor Welles effort as something that can stand alongside his other work without embarassment. In the end, "Mr. Arkadin" is never going to compete with "Chimes At Midnight" or "F For Fake", but the "Comprehensive Version" goes a long way in adding a resonance to some of the film's ideas that brings me back for repeated viewings.

One thing I can commend for the public domain version is that by removing the flashback structure the film holds a little more mystery and suspense in that we're not told at the outset that Arkadin himself is responsible for murder. A similar effect is achieved in the novelization that gives no warning to the reader that Arkadin is unhinged enough to personally kill his imagined blackmailers. At the same time, without this knowledge, the novel seems to plod along without much direction during its first half. Ultimately I guess it just makes for a better hook to establish the danger of the story right at the beginning of the film to grab the viewer's attention. In the "Comprehensive Version" anyway, this is done four times (dead body on beach, empty airplane above Spain, "He's going to have you killed" speech to Zouk and Bracco arriving on the dock with a knife in his back) before we learn that Van Stratten is setting out on a quest to learn about Arkadin. That's a fairly audacious example of front-loading a mystery film!

[Tony]

Kevin: I think every Wellesian feels at least a little guilty about Arkadin: it's Welles's worst movie, by far. In fact, I've often fantasized about what would have happened if, instead of going into Arkadin after Othello, Welles had begun, and completed, Quixote: we would have had a much improved canon, with no embarrassments save The Stranger, which Welles pretty much disowned anyway:

1. Kane
2. Ambersons
3. Shanghai
4. Macbeth
5. Othello
6. Quixote
7. Evil
8. Trial
9. Chimes
10. Immortal
11. Fake
12. Wind

Now that's a small but very powerful canon: not a weak sibling in the lot, and nothing to be embarrassed about (I'm betting on Wind being, at the least, of Trial quality). And some might still criticize the Trial, but who could claim it is weak? No, Arkadin has always been the weak one, and it is a terrible movie; however, as it's by a master, it's a fascinating failure.

Just don't try to show it to any non-Wellesians! My step-mother (who is Austrian, and sophisticated in film, opera, literature, etc.) suffered through it, then turned to me and said: " I'm sorry, because I know how you feel about Orson Welles, but that's one of the worst movies I've ever seen!"

And I knew she was right.

So don't feel guilty! I haven't looked at the box since it was released either; I wonder how many have?

:;):

[Glenn Anders]

Well, here I go again!

I disagree, tony, of course. I think THE TRIAL (at least in the copy I've seen once) is his "worst." [Lot's of people used to say F FOR FAKE was his "worst"; that he had sold out. From the gitgo, I knew that F FOR FAKE was a shimmering little masterpiece, a new kind of film for its time, a standard now.

The problem with MR. ARKADIN, THE STRANGER, JOURNEY INTO FEAR, even THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS or THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, has is that there are alternate versions, either extant, or rumored. may be that only one CITIZEN KANE, one CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, one F FOR FAKE exists. These are films made as he wanted them edited and "finished." That's the way it was 'spposed to be" in the Good Old Days. All the rest of the major Welles' works have been butchered, put out in a couple of editions, have rumored copies in the jungles of Brazil.

It is a problem that will multiply for current films, as we have theatrical versions, TV editions, Director's cuts, and now interactive editing by the consumer. [Oliver Stone included a number of out-takes for JFK, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and NIXON in his Director's Cut DVD's. They didn't improve on the virtues of JFK or NATURAL BORN KILLERS, but five of the six out-takes for NIXON make a superb film even better.] We tend to like or dislike (in the case of a MR.ARKADIN) the film we first saw.

And so, what I think is happening with Welles' films (and others now) is that one group of people say "The Comprehensive Version" of MR. ARKADIN" is the best. No, says another, it's "The Corinth Edition"! No, says a third . . . .

I know people here that have the same problem with the versions of BLADE RUNNER out there.

What's more, looking through "threads" on movies I want to review, I find a vast audience now seems to judge a film by its "preview," as we used to say in Ohio, its "Trailer." If they didn't like the trailer: "This movie stinks. They gave everything away in the trailer, fergodssake!"

Even I who saw what I believe was the perfect cut of MR. ARKADIN admire what Stefan Droessler did in "The Comprehensive Version," but I scratch my head over the foolish ending, which is illogical, out of balance, almost like Porter's having the desperado fire a pistol at the movie audience at the end of THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. It ruins the proper denoument that "the original" had.

To me, MR. ARKADIN should end as I remember it, with Raina Arkadin being driven off to an unhappy future with the kind of man her father would have chosen for her.

That first innocence of vision cannot be reclaimed.

Glenn

[Kevin Loy]

Well, at least I don't feel as bad about my disposition, though I should point out that I don't think that I have ever seen anybody else defend this particular version of Arkadin.

I do think, as Roger pointed out, that front-loading the other versions of Arkadin does create a better 'hook' for the film, but as he also pointed out (at least regarding the novelization, though I do think that it extends to the film as well), it mutes the suspense of the story. The characters are an interesting band of rogues (mostly), but they aren't fleshed out as much as, say, Charles Foster Kane, so knowing the ending before we get there makes going through the rest of the "Comprehensive" and "Corinth" versions a bit of a...waste, for lack of a better word. For some reason, writing that has reminded me of a scene in the movie "Throw Momma From The Train" where Billy Crystal berates Danny DeVito for writing a murder mystery using only two characters, with one dying after a few paragraphs.

I do like Glenn's take on the ending in the "Comprehensive" version (I assume you're referring to the plane crash as being the "foolish ending"). I thought that the idea of using the plane crash was an interesting one...but what would you have thought if the plane crash had been inserted *after* the final credits, thereby giving it some distance from that final scene with Raina and the Marquis (and the rest of the film as well)?

My feelings towards F For Fake, actually, are a bit of a recent development. I used to think it was interesting, if somewhat insubstantial. Over time, though, I've come to appreciate the depth of the film (though I do still have some minor issues with the Kodar/Picasso segment). I'm still not quite of the opinion that it is a true masterpiece, but the best stuff in the film is incredibly good.

Back to Arkadin, I can't say that it is truly terrible...no, "Jail Bait" (for example) is truly, truly terrible...but it just feels less interesting to me when most of the story is resolved at the beginning. It made for an audacious beginning to Citizen Kane and Othello, but I don't feel that it adds anything here.

I do appreciate the fact that there are several versions of Arkadin out there, and that three of them have been restored by Criterion...though I do think it would have been nice if Criterion had considered including the US version of Arkadin as well, since the straight-forward narrative does give it a much different feel than the other three versions they released.

[Tony]

I hate to be a spoil-sport, but I would nominate the final scene in Arkadin as the single worst-acted scene in all of Welles's films, with the scene in the lobby with Arden and Medina as a close #2. This is truly atrocious stuff- real B movie acting. There's something very wrong with Arkadin...

But I know you have a soft spot in your heart for it, Glenn, so I'll forthwith cease and desist.

[Glenn Anders]

True, Tony, I do have a soft spot for the MR. ARKADIN I saw in London that summer, over fifty years ago, but only because of the way all the elements and major characters in the film (but Mori/Raina) were presented like themes to be explored in the first five to ten minutes of the film: The body of the Medina/Mily on the beach with Arden/Van Stratten's introduction, the plane flying forelornly with Welles/Arkadin's introduction in voice over, folding into Arden/Van Stratten entering the German slum which introduces Tamiroff/Zouk brought out of one jail into another, folding into Van Stratten's narration of his and Mily's encounter with the dying Aslan/Bracco's and their learning of Arkadin and Zouk. And then, we're off to the races, as they used to say.

I take it by "the last scene," Tony, you don't mean the plane crashing but the traumatized Raina getting in the car, then Watley/The Marquis of Rutleigh imperiously telling her, "I'll do the driving." In other words, he is claiming his possession. And then they drive off toward one of Welles' typically ominous dark clouds of smoke. Todd Baesen has pointed out somewhere that this cloud cannot be the crashed plane, which I had always assumed, because we see it when the car drives up to the airport tower. But the scene does provide the necessary denouement or "tag" as Welles liked to call them, for a good film. All of his classic films have them, and evidently the one thing he was denied before JOURNEY INTO FEAR was butchered was to add an ironic tag. [That request seemed to enrage the new regime at RKO.] In this case, the denouement would have been tragically muted, as the one for CITIZEN KANE, or what he might have hoped for to end THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS.

I believe such a denouement works better than simply crashing the plane into the ground.

That's the problem, too, Kevin with putting the crash after the titles. There are shots with Raina alarmed after the radio shorts out, shots of Van Stratten with Raina, shots with Van Stratten and the Marquis, shots of Raina sitting inconsolate in the roadster, shots ofthe Marquis coming down and their driving away -- the titles, then the crash you say? That, it seems to me, would compound the problem.

It might have been better for "The Comprehensive Version" to crash the plane after the first scene in the picture.

No, if I remember correctly, the original had a reaction shot of Arkadin realizing he had inadvertently lost the game, Raina calling to her father, the speakers humming, the sound of the engine failing, and then, a fade to black for a moment, before ham-handed, pig-tongued Van Stratten trys to console Raina, the daughter of Arkadin, who has just lost her father, after all, telling her that it's okay, he'll take care of her.

That would have led to the proper ending, I think: another rosebud sacrificed.

Glenn

[RayKelly]

Here's real heresy: I like The Stranger much, much more than Mr. Arkadin or The Trial. (In fact, I don't hate The Stranger as much as others here).
The comprehensive version of Arkadin is a vast improvement over the public domain print, but it is just not a film I would return to again and again.
Glad it was restored, kudos to Criterion and I am happy to support them, but it is lesser Welles.

[Tony]

RayKelly:

The scene where Kindler murders the reformed nazi in the forest is a great long shot, and very intense; you're right: Stranger for Welles is like Spartacus for Kubrick: they both kind of disowned the films, but did some interesting work in spite of themselves. Both films have a special place in their canons. In fact, Evil is similar to Stanger, but more successful: a project he took on, but made completely his own. Arkadin remains a mystery: think of the films just before and just after it: Macbeth, Othello, Quixote, and Evil: who knows what happened to Arkadin? No matter what Welles said about editing, nothing could have helped it become a great film. It remains...strange, almost stillborn.

I should add that I have the rather eccentric view that if Welles had not worn that silly makup and just done the role as a variation on Lime, he might have had a modest hit merely by the force of his archangel charisma , instead of the box-office poison the film became (imagine not being able to get an American distrbutor for 7 years!); of course, if he'd hired good actors instead of his girlfriend and Arden, that would've helped too.

(Sorry Glenn: couldn't help myself!)

[RayKelly]

Tony:
The murder in the forest is my favorite scene too. I think there are great bits of dialogue in The Stranger (as there are in Arkadin).
Welles' makeup in Arkadin detracts from the film. I am not sure if replacements for Mori and Arden would have helped the film. I am baffled by that Welles interview (BBC, I think) where he claimed Arkadin had tremendous commerical potential before it was butchered in the editing.

[Kevin Loy]

Glenn,

I realize that you are pretty attached to that closing moment with Raina and the Marquis as being the final moment, but I do feel that her plight was well-established before that scene, so I don't think that putting the plane crash after the end of the credits would have caused any problems with the effectiveness of their final scene (though, admittedly, I would think something like that would be successful *only* if it were kept short: just a matter of two or three seconds). The scene with Raina and the Marquis, however, does put the "final nail in the coffin", but I feel this was established all the way back in the hotel scene where Arkadin claims that she can do anything with her life (which is obviously not the way that he feels), if not sooner (like, for example, the bit between Van Stratten and the Marquis when he mentions avoiding Arkadin after taking Raina out without official permission).

[Glenn Anders]

Tony: You give me a perfect opening there to quote Arkadin's famous parable of the Frog and the Scorpion, but I shall not take advantage of it because I don't think it applies to you. :p

I think I've said that the answer to the makeup problem would have been a scene were Arkadin removes his disguise!

As for Paula Mori and Robert Arden, I believe Welles selected them for just the qualities that they display. Mori's Raina had a traumatized quality in the film, which would fit perfectly with the character of a young woman dominated and at least psychologically abused by her father. (Look into her glazed eyes before she meets Van Stratten and after he betrays her.) Arden's Van Stratten is the cold-hearted American counterpart to Arkadin. Both have lived with disguises all their lives. The difference is that Van Stratten had to change his name several times, but he did not resort to makeup.

Ray: Welles saw the same picture I saw. It was mesmerizing, and by that time, in my early twenties, I was losing my ability to lose myself in a movie. I was gone in MR. ARKADIN, or CONFIDENTIAL REPORT as it was called in its Leicester Square Odeon (?) showing, from the first shot of Mily's body on the beach, the sound of the waves, and then Van Stratten's voice, to the car driving off, the dark cloud rising in the distance at "Fin."

Kevin: I'll grant you your ending. We can't do anything more about it than we've done anyway. But I don't think you understand quite how, in MR. ARKADIN, Raina is a bored little Paris Hilton until she meets Van Stratten, who reminds her psychologically of her father. She falls in love with him and is happy for just that brief sequence under the castle wall. Her eyes lose that glazed look and they sparkle when she laughs. For the rest of the film, Van Stratten places himself in her father's power, as she fears he will, dooming any chance of her escape. Then, Van Stratten commits his final transgression by causing her Arkadin's death, out of the same sense of vengeance and desire to control that had driven her father. Raina's life is over as she drives away with the Marquis.

That's how the triangle worked out in the perfect movie within my mind's eye, but we can still see the same mechanism in two of the versions in the Criterion set.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

I should point out here that I believe one of the Spanish versions of the film ended with the plane crash which is how Stefan Droessler and Claude Bertemes came to include it in the "Comprehensive Version" (that, and Welles' claim that he wanted the film to end with the plane crashing in the ocean). In the rough cut I saw last summer, the plane crash footage was positioned before the scene where the Marquis drives Raina away which seemed awkward. Placing this footage after the Marquis and Raina drive away was a big improvement and the excitement of the crash is a better lead-in to the initial jauntiness of the credit sequence (which, again, Welles wanted at the end).

I know we've discussed this previously on another thread, but I think the plane going down is the perfect visual metaphor for Arkadin's (and Van Stratten's) life spiraling out of control and doesn't distract from the conclusion of the Raina/Van Stratten relationship in the previous scene (the sound effect of the plane crashing over the intercom in the other versions is unnecessary and illogical in my opinion). If given the choice, I might have simply removed the crash sound effect from the "Comprehensive Version" and end the film with the sound of the engine cutting out followed by that dramatic silence and eventual cut to black. "The End" fades in and out in silence, then the music starts as "The Cast In Order Of Appearance" fades in.

Personally, I think the "Comprehensive Version" puts "Arkadin" on equal footing with "The Stranger". While it lacks some of the grace of that 1946 release, "Arkadin" makes up for it with its weirdness and its very Wellesian preoccupation with lost opportunities and hidden guilt. Perhaps more shockingly, I think it's a better film than both "The Immortal Story" (as much as I admire the concept of what Welles wanted for this short piece, I find the execution is lacking and the acting listless) and "Journey Into Fear" (since Welles co-wrote the screenplay, produced it and directed certain sequences, I consider this one of his films, just not one of the better ones).

[Terry]

Arkadin has always been one of my favourite Welles efforts, even back in the PD crap days. Since such ideals as "best" and "worst" always lead to knife-wielding, I refrain from thinking in such terms. For my taste, Stranger seems to be his slightest accomplishment (at least among his features; Filming Othello doesn't do much for me either.) Arkadin, resplendent with crappily acted scenes, has a lot more depth and texture than either of those from my particular point of view; it's also one I enjoy watching again and again and again. How does the vague notion of the "fun factor' enter into such appraisals? For me it means a lot. I have no fun watching Macbeth, Trial, or even Kane (at least after the Bernstein sequence.) But Arkadin and Fake are an absolute blast for me to watch - hence they're favourites, crappy acting and strange editing notwithstanding.

[Le Chiffre]

I like all of Welles's movies, Arkadin included, even though I still think it's his messiest, most flawed film. I haven't referred to the Criterion set that much since going through all of it when it was first released, but I'm still more then happy to have it in my collection.

There's a good discussion of the set at the Criterion Forum.The opinions vary wildly, but my favorite was the guy who complained that he paid $30 for three different versions of a really bad movie.