TCM--The Welles Celebration - I am ashamed...

[Orson&Jazz]

I DO NOT have access to TCM!!! Here is a great opportunity to watch some of Welles' films for the first time, and I can't even do that!!


There are many on the list that they are going to be showing that I have not even seen. Out of that impressive list of films, the only ones I have seen are, Citizen Kane, The Lady From Shanghai, Mr. Arkadin, and The Stranger. And this only because I own the DVD's.


I feel so lost. I feel like I can't even call myself a Welles fan until I see those other movies. And I have a great opportunity to enjoy a month of Welles and I can't even do that. I am ashamed.



It's like every one was invited to the party, but my invitation got lost in the mail.

[tony williams]

I add my sympathies. TCM is not available on the Mediacom. cable service in this area. But I'm sure there are many members on this site who will generously make copies of the films you wish to see and supply them to you. :angry:

[Tony]

Orson and Jazz:

Please consider yourself temporarily lucky!

Until the 80's and the advent of the home video-cassette player, I had to wait sometimes YEARS to see a Welles picture- and I miss those days terribly. Now I have everything, either on cassette or dvd, and it's sooooo.....BORING!!!! Actually, I hardly ever watch them- they're too accessible!

I used to scour the tv guide every week for a Welles pic, and stay up late to watch it. I would pour over the indie theatres to see an Orson flic- and go and devour it greedily. Once at university, they showed the Trial... in a large classroom! The room was packed with perhaps 150 students, packed to the gills, standing at the sides, pushed up against the walls! And everyone knew that this might be the ONLY time they would EVER see the picture! Writers had to write whole books on films, sometimes in the dark of theatres, before home technology took over. And the funny thing is, I enjoyed the pictures MORE, because they were so rare, hard to come by, so prescious- you might never get another chance...watching a picture, especially a welles picture, with an audience, is a very unique and intense experience, SOOO much more pleasurable than being alone in your living room...

As Plato observed, you can only truly desire that which you don't have, but which are in pursuit of. Once you get it...



God, I miss those days!

[Orson&Jazz]

Ok, I'll consider myself temporarily lucky. But only temporarily!! Frankly, I'd feel a lot better if I actually had the opportunity to enjoy the Welles celebration with the rest of you!


There are so many films I haven't seen of Welles, that I DESPERATELY want to see. For those of you that have the films collecting dust on your shelf, send them over my way so I can appreciate them!!! :p


And these films are RARE to me. I have never seen them before, and I live in an area where these movies are not at all accessible to me. Anything Welles is rare and inaccessible to me. You know how many Welles related books I had taken out using inter-library loan this year? There is no library here that carries anything Welles related. Everytime I show up to the library with a list, the librarian in exasperation says, "More Orson Welles books?"


When I laid my hands on that "Citizen Kane" DVD for the first time, I swear I heard a chorus of Hallelujah playing softly in the background! When I got home, I devouored it greedily. Same goes for, "Lady From Shanghai", "The Stranger", and "Mr. Arkadin". I had to specially order these last three movies, and I had to wait a whole month to watch them. But damn it, I was ecstatic when I did! I was even so glad when I got to take out "Macbeth" and "Jane Eyre" from my library. Granted I didn't want to return them, but unfortunately I had to. I didn't want to get fined!

But, yes, I can see your point that you crave for those things you don't have. But, I still want to see these films. I'm begining to wear out the ones I do have. I need new films to wear out from continual and repeated viewings!

[chente]

A coworker of mine with a DVR and access to TCM has graciously agreed to record 10 of these movies for me.

The only ones I've seen before are Amberson and Othello. He recorded everything shown last night but I haven't received them yet. I can't wait to check these out for the first time.

Magnificent Ambersons
Tomorrow is Forever
Man in the Shadow
The Tartars
Is Paris Burning?
Shadowing the Third Man
Othello
The Immortal Story
Journey Into Fear
The V.I.P.s

[Glenn Anders]

Tony may have come up with a metaphor for life, one Welles would have appreciated. It may underlie THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, if we ever get to see it.

The TCM list, generous and interesting as it is, contains a couple of klinkers, in particular, IS PARIS BURNING?

Glenn

[Gus Moreno]

Is Paris Burning? is dullsville, but it looks like a masterpiece compared to The Tartars. Eegods what a cheesy stinker that is. I saw it for the first and hopefully last time last night. The Third Man documentary was pretty enjoyable though, even if it was not exactly flattering towards Welles's on-set behaviour. I also like TCM's commercial for the Welles fest, with a nice chess motif.

[Tony]

thanks for the compliment, Glenn, but:

According to plato, once we finally see "The Other side of the wind", our desire will abate- our deliscious fantasy and imagining will come to a halt, and we will see only a possibly great movie; it's the same with ambersons: can you imagine really seeing it? What if the critics in RKO were... right? Or Don Quixote finally edited in a reasonable way... ???

[Orson&Jazz]

Yes, I was told too that "Paris Is Burning", "The Tartars" and some others were not at all that great. And "Casino Royale" only has a little clip of Welles.


So, I can wait a long while before I even attempt to see this films.

[marcoshark]

Another good movie to view is John Houston's "The Kremlin Letter". Considering when it was made, it is ahead of it's time in a number of ways. And you get to see Orson chew up scenery as well.

[PT Caffey]

"The Tartars" is beyond dismal; it's only partially redeemed by the fact that Victor Mature forgets his pants in scene after scene. A better Welles festival would have included "Jane Eyre," "Moby Dick" and "Compulsion," but these must be in the hands of others.

[PT Caffey]

"Is Paris Burning" is interesting for its focus on the French--French Resistance, French generals, French tanks, French liberation of Paris, etc--oh, and a token American, Tony Perkins, wandering around Paris for about four minutes all goggle-eyed at the wine and high culture; then he's gunned down in the street. So, so sad. We do learn how well dressed the French Resistance managed to be; a Resistance messenger makes his way to the Front, and past German snipers, without wrinkling his tie.

I'm guessing it was a lot of fun sitting around the cafe with Gore Vidal, Orson, Charles Boyer and Leslie Caron--much more interesting than the movie itself, though Welles underplays his lines about saving Paris from destruction nicely.

[babus]

Yes i agree, although it's great to have a welles month on TCM, i think some of the film selection could have been better. I would have loved to see Jane Eyre, Compulsion and Long Hot summer. And why not the third man too. I had actually emailed TCM requesting Jane Eyre but it's still not on their schedule, who knows when it'll be. It's too bad they play movies like "it happened one night" up to twice a month sometimes (it's good but more obscure stuffs would be nice too), but i've never seen Jane Eyre on there yet.

[Glenn Anders]

I have nothing against the French Resistance. Most of them were sold down the river to the Gestapo by an early BBC Alert. There is a theory that it was done on purpose because so many of the original organization, the ones who did most of the sabotage, were Communists. That may admittedly be beside the point because those people would have all been tortured and shot by the time the Allies approached Paris. My point was that the distinguished Rene Clement simply made a very slow, dull picture of a great true story, one of marvelous potential.

I agree with you, marcoshark, that THE KREMLIN LETTER is underrated both as a movie, and as a Huston movie. The seemingly absurd machinations of the spymasters toward the end of the picture turned out later --certainly, from today's viewpoint, as you suggest -- to be close to stark realism.

It is possible that TCM has a great many movies, which they desire to alternate in various programs. Perhaps, throwing in klinkers like IS PARIS BURNING and (I also agree) THE TARTARS on this occasion -- rather than better ones like THE KREMLIN LETTER -- is a way of making use of the stock in trade.

Business is business, after all.

Glenn

[PT Caffey]

To be precise, I have nothing against the French Resistance either. My comments were directed at the movie "French Resistance." Finally, no one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.