The Seven Arkadins

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, Tony.

Jeff: I've posted the review information here before, but if you think that it might make a small contribution, certainly send along to Criterion my Epinion on MR. ARKADIN/CONFIDENTIAL REPORT with our other materials gathered. My memory of the film I saw in the summer of 1955 certainly does seem to conform with what Stefan Droessler is doing in Munich.

Here is the URL:

http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-7A1 ... 153E-prod3

Would it not be great if we might help turn Criterion around?

Glenn

[L French]

The first time I saw MR. ARKADIN was in San Francisco at the Pagoda Palace theater in North Beach sometime in the mid-eighties, which strangely enough, might have been the very theater where Orson and Rita watched a Chinese stage show in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI forty years earlier.

Anyway, after seeing MR. ARKADIN for the first time, my initial impression was that this was a big mess - obviously the worse Welles film that he'd ever made. But like most of Welles's movies, the complex structure and unorthodox editing (certainly for 1955) where perhaps simply way ahead of their time... since only three years later Resnais would make HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR - whose radical editing style wouldn't be taken up by mainstream Hollywood cinema until the mid-sixties in films like Boorman's POINT BLANK and Richard Lester's PETULIA.

Needless to say, I've changed my mind since then about MR. ARKADIN, but I've come to realize a rather important fact about why Welles's movies have never been successful: they are are simply far too advanced for the majority of the general public to appreciate - and I certainly include myself in that category, because now that I think about it, I realize that on first viewings, I didn't like any of Welles films (except for THE STRANGER). This would include CITIZEN KANE, AMBERSONS, MACBETH, LADY FROM SHANGHAI, OTHELLO, TOUCH OF EVIL, THE TRIAL and FALSTAFF. It was only on subsequent viewings, that I came to realize what great films Welles had made. As an example, I remember the first time I saw FALSTAFF. I was tired, and I knew nothing about it or the Shakespearian plays it was adapted from. As a result, I fell asleep through half of the movie. Later, after reading HENRY IV, when I saw FALSTAFF again, I realized this was certainly one of the greatest movies ever made - and it's certainly far and away Welles best movie. So I learned that when seeing a Welles film, you must go not as a passive viewer, but as a viewer expecting to be engaged and enthralled, and be able to meet the filmmaker at least halfway.

So my point is that Welles was such a great artist, whose work was so dense with ideas, that in many cases a mere single viewing of his films might sometimes yield quite an unsatisfactory opinion in the viewer, especially for a viewer who was unfamilar with Welles work - or for a general audience who was simply out for a typical night's entertainment, but might have read a good review of a Welles film.

Obviously, students of film would be much more inclined to go back and look at Welles's films again - which I certainly did, and of course, with each further viewing of a Welles film one becomes much more attuned to his intentions - Welles ideas suddenly become clearer, richer and more succinct. But, needless to say, most audiences do not want to concentrate and have "to work" when they go to see a movie. They want to enjoy themselves, which obviously is why Welles has never had a commercial success in the cinema.

So for those of you who found F FOR FAKE to be less than exciting on your first viewing, I suggest giving it a a second chance...

[Glenn Anders]

I agree with your last points fully, Larry. I believe someone has said here recently that Welles told an editor (quite reasonablly, I should think) that the person's job was to remove dead spots from the footage. When that process worked, or was not sabotaged, a Welles' film often conveys both a viseral emotional experience and an array of philosophical, social or political ideas. The latter, mostly in a subliminal fashion. Audiences aren't used to that, not these days.

By all means, give F FOR FAKE a chance. To me, it is his second best theatrical feature, conceived, shot and edited as he wished it to be. And as "a personal film essay," it is far ahead of its time.

Glenn

[Knowles Noel Shane]

Very true about the necessity of subsequent viewings. All of the films Welles was able to edit himself (or supervise) were the best. These would be Kane, Othello, The Fountain of Youth, The Trial, Chimes at Midnight, The Immortal Story, F for Fake and to a lesser extent Filming Othello and The Orson Welles Show. The reconstruced films (Magnificent Ambersons, Macbeth, Touch of Evil) are better than the release versions (notice I don't include the Beatrice Othello.) Someone needs to do a restoration on The Lady from Shanghai. Orson didn't object too much to the editing - but he hated the soundtrack - the overuse of the Please Don't Kiss Me theme, the lack of sound effects, the absurd musical punctuation for things such as Rita's dive, Grisby's line "I want you to kill me - So long, fella," the shoot-out in the maze of mirrors. It shouldn't be too hard to fix the sound the way Welles wanted. Not too expensive, either, since there's no film to rearrange. Are you listening, Rick Schmidlin? Go for it!

[dkovacev]

I had the opportunity to see the rare Spanish version of Mr.Arkadin last month. Essentialy, it follows the identical flashback structure of Corinth version, and about 70% of editing is same as Corinth. The main difference is in two Spanish actresses used for this version. Amparo Rivelles plays Baroness Nagel instead of Suzanne Flon, and Irene Lopez Heredia is Sophie (who was played by Katina Paxinou in english language version). All scenes involving these two characters have been completely redone. Every other cast member is same in both versions, only dubbed in Spanish.
Also, there are some subtle editing differences through the whole movie, and occasionally some alternate takes or different shots have been used. Some takes are longer in Spanish version, while the're interrupted with close-ups in Corinth version. Also, Spanish version has plenty of short bits missing, compared to Corinth (it is shorter by three or four minutes).
It is an interesting version, but I'm somewhat disappointed because I expected something more radically different than any other Arkadin. There was lot of talk about this hypotetical Spanish version that opens with dead woman on the beach, and has lot of scenes unseen anywhere else.
Does anybody have more info about Spanish Arkadin? I don't have Rosenbaum's "Seven Arkadins" essay or Video Watchdog article to check... Perhaps there are two Spanish versions, to add to the general confusion that surrounds this film.

[Harvey Chartrand]

It would be great if Tim Lucas would grant Wellesnet access to the Video Watchdog story on the Seven Arkadins.
That is one thorough magazine! No base is ever left uncovered.

[colwood]

Thanks dkovacev, it great to finally learn about the Spanish Arkadin which many people have heard of but few have seen.

With regards to many of the posts early in this thread as well as the last one, in Jonathan Rosembaum's article "seven arkadins" he explains all seven versions of the story. BUT only four of them are on film. There are not seven versions of the movie. (I only read the article once in the anthology, Film as Politics, and don't own it but I'm sure somebody else here who has it could confirm I'm not dreaming this.)

Version 1 - the public domain print of Mr. Arkadin. I believe it begins with Van Stratten's narration on the docks.

Version 2 - Confidential Report, the European cut of Mr. Arkadin. Also has bats and two party stories.

Version 3 - Corinth Mr. Arkadin, begins with Van Stratten and Zouk before going into Van Stratten on the docks.

Version 4 - the Spanish Arkadin described above.

Version 5 - the book, Mr. Arkadin

Version 6 - an early unfilmed screenplay of Arkadin

Version 7 - the "Greek meets Greek" episode of Harry Lime.

I believe those are the Seven Arkadins and hopefully somebody who has the article can confirm.

[DexyMan]

Wow! That's awesome to hear from someone who has actually seen the Spanish Arkadin. I must admit though that I am happy that it isn't a revelation since there seems to be little chance of ever seeing it...

I would like to see the new version put together by Stefan, maybe he got rid of some of those pesky closeups in the Cornith version.

Is there any chance that you can say how you saw such a rare movie?

Thanks for the report!!!

Jeffrey

Oh, and yes those are the 7 versions that I recall but I can check the article tonight at home to confirm.

[NoFake]

Re: colwood's recollection of Rosenbaum's seven Arkadins, I have the book (a MUST-HAVE, imho) and can help clarify. Briefly -- Rosenbaum goes into extensive and illuminating detail on each -- the seven are:

1) "Greek Meets Greek," a half-hour episode of "The Adventures of Happy Lime" radio series (ca. 1951)
2) "Masquerade," an early version of Welles' script for Arkadin (1953)
3) The Corinth Arkadin
4) The book
5) The Spanish version
6) Confidential Report
7) The public domain version

NoFake

[colwood]

Larry, any word yet on what Criterion is planning to do regarding their release and Stefan's work?

I think in a ideal state, the release by Criterion would be a Mr. Arkadin box set (6 discs) titled Seven Arkadins.

Disc 1 - Mr. Arkadin - corinth version
Disc 2 - Mr. Arkadin - public domain version
Disc 3 - Confidential Report
Disc 4 - Spanish Arkadin
Disc 5 - Munich's Mr. Arkadin
Disc 6 - copy of the "Masquerade" script
- "Greek meets Greek" episode
- Filming mr. Arkadin, I know this isn't the title but the doc that was recently discussed.

How's that?

[Knowles Noel Shane]

To the best of my research, the episode featuring "Arkadian" is actually "Man of Mystery." That's the title announced during the intro of the copy I've got. "Greek Meets Greek" is a different episode. I guess there's a difference between the US and British titles for the shows.

Also, another episode features a lot of dialogue and narration reused for the film. This one was "Blackmail Is a Nasty Word." Maybe there are eight Arkadins. Plus, another episode seemed to feature Arkadin's castle and a tyrannical tycoon with a daughter as Lime's forbidden love interest (I can't recall the title.) Is that nine Arkadins, then? The list goes on...

[Gus Moreno]

That's very interesting, Knowles. If you can remember that episode title, please post it here. Reading the Arkadin novel not long ago made me realize the strange, almost fairy-tale aspect of the story, with a young man trying to rescue the beautiful princess imprisoned in a castle by a rich old ogre. I think I'll start searching for that episode myself.

An in-depth essay or analysis of the whole Harry Lime series would probably yield alot of fascinating information and insights, or at least clear up some of the confusion about different titles and versions. But what a job it would be, unless several people tackled it together.

[ToddBaesen]

I've just watched the comprehensive new 105 minute version of Mr. Arkadin on the 3 DVD Criterion set and I'm happy to report it's a real knock out... among the many treats are a brand new opening - even if it's only one shot of Mily's dead body washing up on the beach (and by a strange coincidence I just saw Hitchcock's "Young and Innocent" the other day, which also opens with a similar shot of a woman's body washing ashore.) And there's also a new ending -- a nice series of POV shots of Arkadin's plane falling towards the earth that were apparently only in the Spanish version. And in between there are many little bits and pieces, making this one of the most important Welles restorations to date. And what is most astounding is the incredibly beautiful cinematography that has been hidden for so many years by the poor quality of the prints. That, no doubt has been a big factor for the films poor reputation... In fact, I remember the first time a saw Mr. Akadin, it was a badly beaten up and scratchy old 35mm print, and I thought "this is a pretty bad movie." I also probably saw the 93 minute New Yorker films version. But how can you possibly evaluate something when it's only a shadow of what was intended? Obviously, you can't, but because of the poor quality of all the previous versions -- in which I include the Criterion laserdisc -- we were placed in the position of trying to guess what the film might have looked and sounded like if it were possible to see it in a gloriously high contrast black and white print. Well, now we can, so even if there were absolutely no new footage on the DVD, the near pristine image quality should go a long way in bringing Mr. Arkadin's reputation way up in Welles overall oveure.

So many thanks to both Stefan Drossler and Claude B. for their dedicated hard work in making this comprehensive restored version happen and for Criterion for actually bringing it out and spending the money on restoring it.
I still shudder to think of that brief period of insanity when they seemed ready to pull the plug and let this new version almost slip away from us!

[Hannaford]

I just saw some great info on a blog site which seems to be dedicated to the upcoming DVD release of MR. Arkadin.

http://orsonology.blogspot.com/

It has a long interview interview with Orson Welles on Mr. Arkadin, and some quotes from reviews of Confidential Report.

[ToddBaesen]

It's quite interesting that Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore note in their DVD commentary track the exact same thing that Herman G. Weinberg noted in this interview excerpt below, and Welles agreed with it completely:

Namely, all of Welles films are so dense and so fully packed that it's almost impossible to figure out the plot and all their secrets on the basis of only a single viewing. That of course, becomes even more difficult when the films were taken away from Welles and re-edited by others. This is something that becomes especially apparent when you look at the three different versions of Mr. Arkadin on the Criterion set.

If you haven't liked it before, or haven't seen it before, you might not like or appreciate the movie after only one viewing. But assuming you have enough interest to view versions two and three, I can pretty much guarantee you'll find that it's a much more rewarding experience, and I'd bet by the time you sit through version three, you'll be singing it's praises.

Here's a perfect example: I didn't realize that Mr. Arkadin does all the murders himself! I'd completely spaced out on the fact that everyone in the movie who is killed is murdered very specifically by a knive in the back... and in fact, none of the victims are ever shown being killed on screen, but only talked about after the fact (Lily, Oskar & Sophie) or else are seen with a knive sticking in their back (Bracco & Jacob Zouk). But I had never thought Arkadin actually did the killings himself. I assumed he had them done by his cronies... But at Arkadin's Christmas Party sequence in Munich, (a scene that somehow escaped me before), it's quite clear that Arkadin does all the killings himself: He brandishes and throws a large knive at Van Stratten, and it hits the dartboard behind him, foreshadowing Van Stratten as Arkadin's next victim.

But somehow, (blame it on the terrible re-editing) I never realized that it was a mere red-herring that Bracco is assumed by the Italian police to be the one who kills the Peg-legged man on the dock in Naples. In reality, Bracco is killed by the knive throwing skills of Mr. Arkadin and the Peg-legged man was actually a partner with Bracco in blackmailing Arkadin. This of course, is what makes Bracco's dying words to Mily worth so much. And Bracco's real killer only starts to become clear much later in the movie (and if you are paying attention), when Sophie asks Van Stratten why the peg-legged man didn't simply shoot Bracco if he had a gun!

____


CAHIERS: While speaking of Mr. Arkadin Herman G. Weinberg said, "In Orson Welles' films, the spectator may not sit back in his seat and relax; on the contrary, he must meet the film at least half-way in order to decipher what is happening, practically every second; if not, everything is lost."

ORSON WELLES: All my films are like that. There are certain cineastes, excellent ones, who present everything so explicitly, so clearly, that in spite of the great visual power contained in their films one follows them effortlessly—I refer only to the narrative thread. I am fully aware that, in my films, I demand a very specific interest on the part of the public. Without that attention, it is lost.

CAHIERS: You said that Arkadin was not an especially detestable man. What is your conception of the character? Is he like Kane?

ORSON WELLES: No, Arkadin is closer to Harry Lime, because he is a profiteer, an opportunist, a person who lives off the decay of the world, a parasite that feeds off the universal corruption of things, but he doesn't attempt to justify himself, like Harry Lime, by thinking himself a sort of "superman." Arkadin is a Russian adventurer, a corsair.