Welles-Fellini Connection? - Did these guys ever meet?

[etimh]

Welles historians:

Does anyone know if Welles and Fellini ever communicated--in any way? Through correspondence, intermediaries, or actual meetings? I thought I read something somewhere but I can't immediately find any references to this.

I realize that Fellini had his own struggles with financing at various points in his career. But when times were good, and Fellini was riding his big critical success, doesn't he seem like a sympathetic comrade who might have offered Welles a hand up? I'm sure if Welles ran into him while cavorting around Italy and Europe that he would have hit him up for some backing, right?

I started thinking about this after watching The Trial and Arkadin again. If not so much in tone and subject matter, there are definite parallels in the visual aesthetic of some of Fellini's more expressionistic films.

Any thoughts?

Tim

[Bantock]

If I remember correctly, Welles and Fellini were both scheduled to work on the Edgar Allen Poe anthology film "Spirits of the Dead" in the late 1960s. Welles's contribution was to be an adaptation of "The Cask of Amontillado", but it never happened. However, the two great directors were photographed together alot, Welles said.

[jaime marzol]

welles and hitch:

don't ask me where because i don't remember, but i read somewhere that welles and hitch often had dinner together. somewhere else i read, and kodar did not want to say the name of the director, but welles said, "he's a real son of a bitch, but he sure can make movies." i always thought he was talking about hitch.

also, i remember reading somewhere that felini and welles knew each other from cinecita.

[M_Alian]

Thanks for the information abour Welles and Hitcg..interesting.

[Gordon]

On Welles and Hitchcock -Touch O'Psycho

[jaime marzol]

here are some other connections i have read here and there.

when welles was directing othello, lederer was hanging out, and so was viertel, and they were frinds with huston. when huston was directing beat the devil welles visited. capote was on that set. i remember welles saying he had not heard anything good about LADY FROM SHANGHAI till one night in a restaurant in europe truman capote quoted lines of dialogue. that was in 1952 that huston was filming beat the devil and capote was on the set as a writer. as always, huston is rewriting while filming. so welles also rubbed shoulders with bogie and bacall!

i remember getting the impression from what i read that the welles, hitch dinners were in the 70s. herrmann would be the connection there.

at the lilly library there is a letter from james roosevelt, on whitehouse stationary, the letter is an invitation to the inaugural party, and the private party the night before the inaugural. welles rubbed shoulders there too.

my friend said that welles knowing churchill is one of those welles lies. the other day i was watching the fdr documentary on history channel, and it said that churchill and fdr were long time friends that were always in contact. so this is probably from where welles knew churchill.

somewhere else i read that sinatra invested money into don q (probably knowing the money had very little chance of coming back)

anyone know what the missing john wayne text in TIOW contained? welles opinion on wayne? i would guess that welles viewed wayne as a facist, and i think wayne was a facist.

[Chirpy_Sabz]

interesting!

[catbuglah]

On Welles and Hitchcock -Touch O'Psycho

Nice article - he nailed it - I always sensed a rivalry between the two men, their dark thematic sensibilities inevitably evoking similiraties of direction - although I see Hitchcock more often taking facile, simplistic routes, making him less interesting to me - I see Welles as a director's director - limited commercial success but a trendsetter nonetheless - It's easy to imagine a small but influential pool of filmmakers who would jump at a new Welles release and the ensuing cannibalization process trickling into many a film....

Cheers,

Mark

[Glenn Anders]

David Thomson, a critic I often find unfair but discerning, quotes the great autobiographical director Welles in way that suggests knowledge of our subject's films but not necessarily the man himself: "[Fellini's] films are a small town boy's dream of the big city. His sophistication works because its the creation of someone who doesn't have it. But he shows dangerous signs of a superlative artist with little to say."

Welles, I must say, sounds a bit harsh towards a director who, in certain important ways, was rather like himself.

Glenn

[Bantock]

Yes, Welles could be harsh in his opinions of other great directors, including Hitchcock. He was also reportedly quoted as saying that he thought Fellini's "Satyricon" was "frightened in the crib by Vogue magazine". But he had high praise for early Fellini films like "I, Vitelloni" and "The White Shiek".

Welles also invoked Vogue when criticizing Visconti's "Le Terra Trema" (1950), which made Sight and Sound Magazine's 1952 poll of the greatest films ever made. Welles complained that Visconti shot poor fishermen "as if they were models in Vogue magazine". Perhaps he was jealous that Visconti had the financial means to finish his film about struggling fishermen, while Welles had his own "Four Men on a Raft" project aborted. Welles also said that he didn't like the classic Rio Carnivale film "Black Orpheus" (1959). He didn't say why, but one can reasonably guess that he felt that film was overly romanticized as well.

[Orson&Jazz]

Maybe Welles was harsh to Bergman in the past, judging by the "praise" Bergman had given Welles.

I had read this on the net some where, and I was wondering if it is legit, meaning straight from the horse's mouth so to speak??

From an interview Ingmar Bergman gave to a Swedish newspaper in 2002...

Bergman: For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of - is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.
Aghed: How about The Magnificent Ambersons?
Bergman: Nah. Also terribly boring. And I've never liked Welles as an actor, because he's not really an actor. In Hollywood you have two categories, you talk about actors and personalities. Welles was an enormous personality, but when he plays Othello, everything goes down the drain, you see, that's when he's croaks. In my eyes he's an infinitely overrated filmmaker."

Any one know what the relationship was like between Bergman and Welles?? Was it tenuous, so that is why Bergman would want to bash Welles? Or is it just a fabricated interview??

[Bantock]

I doubt it. I don't think Welles thought much of Bergman either. He told Peter Bogdanovich that he liked "The Seventh Seal", but said he'd rather die then sit through most of Bergman's films.

BTW, that Welles quote about Fellini being a "superlative artist with nothing to say" that Glenn posted reminds me of a quote Welles made about Josef Von Sternberg. Welles said Von Sternberg had an immense visual command over what was finally kitsch.

[Glenn Anders]

Thanks for that, Bantock.

I agree with Welles about Bergman. The first six or seven films which came to America were superb, but after that, they became oppressive and dull. He's been making the same film for the last twenty-five years. His latest (TV) movie, SARABAND, obsesses on the relationship established in SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. When the old hero's son laments that his 19 year-old daughter (the hero's grand daughter) will no longer sleep in the same bed with him, I didn't know whether weep or howl with frustration.

Actually, I just shook my head and chuckled at the absurdity. At least, the image kept me awake for a few minutes.

Glenn

[Wellesnet]

Here's another one that got passed us: the centennial of the great Italian director Federico Fellini, which was this past January. The New Yorker offered this nice tribute:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020 ... of-fellini