The fourth version is the Columbia Masterworks set from the Broadway show, basically just the radio version again, without Kaltenborn. #4 on this page: https://archive.org/details/Orson_Welle ... Caesar.mp3
The Twin Peaks Blu-Ray has about 5 hours of Lynch directing and telling his actors what the hell he meant for their characters to be doing in many of the scenes. Essential. I liked the insane number of scenes of actors staring at each other. Radical, even by Lynch standards.
Did you ever try ripping those CDs again now that the holidays are over?
Like Syd Barrett?
**************
Yeah, I like most things Pink Floyd-related. That’s a cool video, thanks. It made me watch several other Barrett videos too, including the shot of him older, bald and paunchy walking down the street. He really did turn his back on the music world.
Haven’t had a chance to try those CDs on the other Mac, but I’ll try this weekend.
Welles as Cassius was March, 1939, I believe. That March ’38 recording is valuable because that was done while the show was still playing.
Dawson CAM poster
Re: Dawson CAM poster
By RAY KELLY
Spanish film scholar Juan Cobos enjoyed a decades-long friendship with Orson Welles.
By all accounts, Welles considered Cobos a dear friend and welcomed him into his inner circle. He was among those present when Welles' ashes were interred in Ronda, Spain.
What began with an interview in 1964 led to Cobos serving as Welles' assistant on Chimes at Midnight. Considered by Welles to be his finest work, Chimes at Midnight is currently enjoying a successful revival through the efforts of Janus Films – 50 years after it won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1966.
In the years since the release of Chimes at Midnight, Cobos has directed more than a dozen projects and scripted two dozen films. He is the author of the book Orson Welles: Espana como obsesion (Orson Welles: Obsessed with Spain).
Now 83, Cobos looked back at his time with Welles in a recent interview with Wellesnet.
How did you come to meet Orson Welles and work on Chimes at Midnight?
I met Orson Welles for the first time in 1964 as editor of "Film Ideal." While editing the magazine with some friends, I studied to be a film director at Madrid Film School, where some of my colleagues and teachers were part of a new generation of film directors, such as Carlos Saura, Victor Erice, Mario Camus, Miguel Picazo. I worked part time as Luis Garcia Berlanga's secretary. And that´s how I was, until I was sent to Rome to work as a reporter for one of the three most important Spanish dailies. In the '50s, I wrote a daily report on politics and economy, but Rome was then a very special place for a film critic and in those days interviewed for "Film Ideal" directors like Antonioni, Rossellini, Luigi Zampa, Visconti.
In the '50s and '60s, in Spain, Italy, England and France, I taped conversations with Hitchcock, Marco Ferreri, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Jean Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Luis Berlanga, Jacques Demi, François Trufffaut and no less than three long talks with my friend Nicholas Ray.
Orson Welles, the greatest film director, lived for some years in Spain with Paola Mori, his wife, and their daughter, Beatrice, who 50 years later is still my best friend. I thought that Orson was the best interview we could do. I sent him a special issue of our magazine, devoted to his films, and asked him for an long interview.
In fact we spent several hours recording on a tape recorder in the garden of a house Orson had rented in a residential area distant from the city center in Madrid. He was very kind because it was May 6th. He was turning 49 years old that very day.
Since he dreamed about finishing his Don Quijote that he had started filming some years ago in Mexico, I asked him to let us print for some sequence of of his script in order to add them to our interview. The next week, I visited him to pick up those pages. The conversation was so nice that I asked him if I could work with him (when) his project, Chimes at Midnight, was finally made.
Two months later, when I came back from Paris where I met Marcel Ophuls, who was going to shoot an Eddie Constantine film in Spain and I would be his assistant. I got a call from Alessandro Tasca to meet Orson. He wanted me to be his personal assistant for Chimes at Midnight. Once I finished my translation into Spanish of his French script, we had a farewell meeting. Marcel told me, "Juan you have now a wonderful opportunity. If you don´t take it, tell Welles that I will quit my movie to be his assistant."
That is how I began to work with Welles, whose project was to do, back to back, Chimes at Midnight and Treasure Island. He was afraid that Chimes wouldn't be a very appealing film at the box office and he proposed a remake of Treasure Island to the pack. It was a way to cover the money deficit of Chimes with a more popular film based on Stevenson´s classical novel.
In fact, for financial reasons, he suggested that Treasure Island would get a good subsidy as a Spanish movie shot in this country – but a Spanish director and most of the technicians were needed as part of the deal. At a meeting with the Spanish producers, Orson Welles suggested a director for Treasure Island with whom I had written a couple of scripts, Jesus Franco. The producers became rather startled because Franco never was a prestigious director in Spain. (Emiliano) Piedra and (Angel) Escolano wanted a more famous Spanish director. At that working meeting, Orson didn't mention it was my suggestion and he invented his own lie. He said that he had been told in Paris that young Jesus Franco was a very talented director.
I didn't start well my relations with Emiliano Piedra as a producer but later we became good friends. I even translated, at Orson´s request, the dialogues of Chimes, and was a supervisor of the dubbing into Spanish. Some years later, I did the same job for (F For) Fake that had Piedra bought at Berlin Festival.
When the decision was made to start shooting, in October 1964, we were still a minimum team. Since I was fluent in French and Italian, I sometimes accompanied Alessando Tasca, the executive producer, to get some permissions, and then made a trip to Barcelona in late August with the French director of photography of The Trial, Edmond Richard, to spot possible locations in the Gothic quarter in Barcelona and a village where Welles had heard of an interesting old church in an old castle: Cardona. With Richard, we took photographs for Orson and back in Barcelona, just ready to return to Madrid,
Orson phoned me early in the morning to congratulate me for the birth of my first daughter, Laura, and asking for an after lunch meeting at his home.
As soon as we left the Madrid airport, I ran to meet my first daughter. There I saw a big flower bouquet with a beautiful card from Welles and another from Nicholas Ray, whose bar in Madrid, "Nicca's," where you could find sometimes John Wayne when shooting in Madrid, was two blocks from the clinic where Laura was born.
What were some of your other duties on Chimes?
I always had to be as close to Welles as possible. He was rather fluent in Spanish but I usually had to translate his orders to the film technicians, to the extras... The assistant director on the first part of the shooting of Chimes was very brave on his job, but he was not very good in English. I usually had to translate to European actors. When the first assistant was very busy in the crowd scenes, the battle scenes, as well as in the interior scenes in the King's castle or in Mistress Quickly tavern, I was there to help a little.
Once this assistant left (because he was) angry with Welles, I was for three or four days the only assistant. We were filming the duel in the battle between Prince Hal and the young Percy. They asked me to keep this job but I preferred to work essentially for Orson. They put under contract a young Mexican, Tony Fuentes, who was brilliant as an assistant and spoke American English. Last I knew, he was working in Hollywood.
Once the filming was over, Orson asked me to be with him in the editing room. Sometimes I would go with him to the sound studios where he made the dubbing of some speeches by Falstaff (after) he had found the sound for technical reasons was not as good as he liked.
When the final sound mixing was being done in a Paris studio, the producer thought my work on Chimes was over and I remained in Spain. Two days later, Welles asked Emiliano Piedra, the producer, to bring me back by plane to Paris, as he wanted me to be there... He wanted me to see by his side the definitive mixing of the long battle scene, now praised all over the world, between the armies of Prince Hal and Henry Percy.
Also, he would ask me to find some special music records as I knew the city quite well and our sound studio was far from Paris. And, if possible, to find for him his Havana cigars (De Gaulle had put some strict measures on Cuban trade) and other errands on my trip, as I had done sometimes in Spain when he was editing his film.
You were close with not only Welles, but his wife, Paola Mori. Little is known about her. What was she like?
I usually spoke Italian to her. In the '50s, I had lived and studied in Rome and Naples for two years.
She was a very beautiful, nice and extremely friendly woman. When we were still a very small team, on the very start of the pre-production of Chimes, I sometimes would go shopping with Paola and Keith Baxter looking for some tissues Welles needed for a special custom. Weeks before the shooting started, Keith Baxter and I went scouting with Paola and Orson for possible shooting places for Chimes in a big quiet park park in the outskirts of Madrid.
Beatrice has the talent of Orson and the grace and beauty of Paola. Beatrice for more than 50 years is still my best friend. We – my wife, children and I – have spent some days with her throughout the years in Las Vegas, Morocco, Madrid and Ronda. I went with her to Ronda to leave Orson´s ashes in the estate of his friend , bullfighter Antonio Ordoñez.
The Welles family took part in the making of In The Land of Don Quixote. Were you involved in the shoot?
The filming of the Italian TV series was made before I got in touch with Orson. I have seen the Italian series and interviewed for hours the Spanish newsreel cameraman who used to work at the time for Franco's Spanish weekly newsreel projected every day in every Spanish cinema before the commercial feature films.
Orson is shown in those reels with Paola and Beatrice, who was very young, taking flamenco dancing lessons in Seville, travelling with his family in a car and then introducing some of the country places he really loved.
In one of our talks in the small moviola room where he was editing Chimes, he told me that In the Land of Don Quijote was just a travelogue series. But he wrote many pages on the places he filmed (Spanish historical places such as Granada, Seville, Madrid, Salamanca), local fairs, bullfighting, painters like Velazquez, Goya, landscapes. He deeply loved Cervantes and the country people in Spain.
I only took part in the talks about finishing the finishing Don Quijote in Spain with a brilliant and wealthy Spanish producer who had already funded some good films in the early sixties.
After Chimes at Midnight, I had some more meetings with Welles. He asked me to translate into Spanish his script The Full Moon, based on thee stories by Isaak Dinesen The Immortal Story, The Old Chevalier, and The Heroine)... Also the almost finished script of Don Quijote.
What was the extent of your involvement in Don Quixote?
At that time, Orson, Beatrice and Paola left Madrid for London for a couple of weeks for Christmas. He told me to get a Spanish film editor and work for a couple of weeks seeing a rough copy of Don Qiijote he had in the editing room on the basement of his villa. He wanted us to revise the reels of the rough copy with sound, and the majority majority, still silent, to be dubbed in a near future. It was about 75 minutes of rough copy.
When Welles on his Christmas holiday in London, he asked me to help the cutter repair some minor damages on the copy of the film, I (watched) several reels a day on the editing table. Francisco Reiguera and (Akim) Tamiroff were great as Quijote and Sancho Panza.
(When Orson) was filming in Hong Kong as an actor, (he was also) thinking about the best way to finish his Don Quijote. So he sent a letter to the director of the Italian Radio-Television (RAI) to co-produce several programs on Spain. RAI would show the series in Italy and Orson would deal the rights in some other countries.
What he really was thinking of a deal to finish Don Quijote. Akim Tamiroff was ready, but Welles needed Francisco Reiguera, a Spanish republican who had fled Spain when Franco´s armies won the Spanish Civil War in 1939. I even asked the opinion of a friend of mine in the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry, who had been attached to the Spanish diplomatic missions in India, Argentine and other countries, to know if Reiguera would possibly go to jail for his political ideas from 30 years past. My friend told me after a time that Reiguera might have no trouble, but still the actor was afraid. He was working in Mexico and we had seen him in small parts in several Buñuel Mexican films. So Reiguera flew to Italy, where Welles filmed some adventures of Don Qiojote and Sancho Panza.
Still, Orson aimed to finish his film in Spain and that was the reason for my translating his screenplay into Spanish, since the censorship was mandatory for any screenplay to be shot in Spain. It was astonishing to search in Cervantes prose, and see how deeply Welles understood the novel and how he took dialogues from distant pages to write his scenes with a very deep understanding of Cervantes prose.
What was it about Spain that Welles found so appealing?
Orson loved the country, its landscapes and the people. He often said "Spain was not a country in its diversity, but a continent."
I never spoke to him about his decision, but his Spanish lawyer was working for some time on the Spanish official documents for Orson to become a Spanish citizen. That would have let him apply for the official state aid for filmmaking in Spain.
I think he deeply loved France and Spain, but in Paris he was in a much better position to make films not only in France but also in England and Italy... In a much more culturally developed country than Franco's fascist military government in Spain.
In my opinion, his deep fondness for bullfights was the main reason for living in Spain. Sometimes he talked about his trips from Hollywood to Mexico to attend great corridas, about his respect and deep admiration for the Spanish matador, Manolete, killed in the '50s by a bull in the south of Spain.
He told me he was really happy when, at a meeting of bullfighters, he could follow their views on the bulls, the fights on the arena, their opinions about an art he loved most.
When Dino De Laurentiis was going to produce The Bible, directed by some great filmmakers , Welles wrote the script for the Jacob episode and took a large number of locations photos for the Spanish locations he had chosen.
De Laurentiis chose the British dramatist Christopher Fry as the screenwriter for the whole project, but Welles wrote his own script of Abraham and he even wrote Luchino Visconti's episode of Joseph and His Brothers. Welles and De Laurentiis kept their secret. Orson let me know about this correspondence when I was by his side everyday cutting Chimes at Midnight.
People respected Orson very much, so he could attend corridas like a Spaniard, without being disturbed by several thousands of people attending the bullfights . Back in those days, the Spanish people were very respectful of foreigners and deeply moved to see Welles happy in their country, knowing that he was a world-famous actor and film director.
Sometimes we were working in his apartment very near his own home, where the moviolas and a lot of tin cases with the film were kept. We had no phone and I would go to a nearby bar to call the film lab. The TV bar was always on and one afternoon I suddenly caught a glimpse of Orson among the aficionados in a Madrid bullring at least 300 kilometers away. Orson had left the cutting job for the day and we thought he was at home writing, reading or calling to Paris, London or New York.
The next morning he was again early at the cutting room,
He enjoyed his daily, quiet life in Spain, the very fine lunches and the respect people had for him. There he could write. He was all his life an avid reader.
Nobody approached him as a film star, or as a great filmmaker. He was just an "Americano" who enjoyed living in a country he had first known and loved before his American successful days in the theatre, radio and movies.
Spanish film scholar Juan Cobos enjoyed a decades-long friendship with Orson Welles.
By all accounts, Welles considered Cobos a dear friend and welcomed him into his inner circle. He was among those present when Welles' ashes were interred in Ronda, Spain.
What began with an interview in 1964 led to Cobos serving as Welles' assistant on Chimes at Midnight. Considered by Welles to be his finest work, Chimes at Midnight is currently enjoying a successful revival through the efforts of Janus Films – 50 years after it won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1966.
In the years since the release of Chimes at Midnight, Cobos has directed more than a dozen projects and scripted two dozen films. He is the author of the book Orson Welles: Espana como obsesion (Orson Welles: Obsessed with Spain).
Now 83, Cobos looked back at his time with Welles in a recent interview with Wellesnet.
How did you come to meet Orson Welles and work on Chimes at Midnight?
I met Orson Welles for the first time in 1964 as editor of "Film Ideal." While editing the magazine with some friends, I studied to be a film director at Madrid Film School, where some of my colleagues and teachers were part of a new generation of film directors, such as Carlos Saura, Victor Erice, Mario Camus, Miguel Picazo. I worked part time as Luis Garcia Berlanga's secretary. And that´s how I was, until I was sent to Rome to work as a reporter for one of the three most important Spanish dailies. In the '50s, I wrote a daily report on politics and economy, but Rome was then a very special place for a film critic and in those days interviewed for "Film Ideal" directors like Antonioni, Rossellini, Luigi Zampa, Visconti.
In the '50s and '60s, in Spain, Italy, England and France, I taped conversations with Hitchcock, Marco Ferreri, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Jean Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Luis Berlanga, Jacques Demi, François Trufffaut and no less than three long talks with my friend Nicholas Ray.
Orson Welles, the greatest film director, lived for some years in Spain with Paola Mori, his wife, and their daughter, Beatrice, who 50 years later is still my best friend. I thought that Orson was the best interview we could do. I sent him a special issue of our magazine, devoted to his films, and asked him for an long interview.
In fact we spent several hours recording on a tape recorder in the garden of a house Orson had rented in a residential area distant from the city center in Madrid. He was very kind because it was May 6th. He was turning 49 years old that very day.
Since he dreamed about finishing his Don Quijote that he had started filming some years ago in Mexico, I asked him to let us print for some sequence of of his script in order to add them to our interview. The next week, I visited him to pick up those pages. The conversation was so nice that I asked him if I could work with him (when) his project, Chimes at Midnight, was finally made.
Two months later, when I came back from Paris where I met Marcel Ophuls, who was going to shoot an Eddie Constantine film in Spain and I would be his assistant. I got a call from Alessandro Tasca to meet Orson. He wanted me to be his personal assistant for Chimes at Midnight. Once I finished my translation into Spanish of his French script, we had a farewell meeting. Marcel told me, "Juan you have now a wonderful opportunity. If you don´t take it, tell Welles that I will quit my movie to be his assistant."
That is how I began to work with Welles, whose project was to do, back to back, Chimes at Midnight and Treasure Island. He was afraid that Chimes wouldn't be a very appealing film at the box office and he proposed a remake of Treasure Island to the pack. It was a way to cover the money deficit of Chimes with a more popular film based on Stevenson´s classical novel.
In fact, for financial reasons, he suggested that Treasure Island would get a good subsidy as a Spanish movie shot in this country – but a Spanish director and most of the technicians were needed as part of the deal. At a meeting with the Spanish producers, Orson Welles suggested a director for Treasure Island with whom I had written a couple of scripts, Jesus Franco. The producers became rather startled because Franco never was a prestigious director in Spain. (Emiliano) Piedra and (Angel) Escolano wanted a more famous Spanish director. At that working meeting, Orson didn't mention it was my suggestion and he invented his own lie. He said that he had been told in Paris that young Jesus Franco was a very talented director.
I didn't start well my relations with Emiliano Piedra as a producer but later we became good friends. I even translated, at Orson´s request, the dialogues of Chimes, and was a supervisor of the dubbing into Spanish. Some years later, I did the same job for (F For) Fake that had Piedra bought at Berlin Festival.
When the decision was made to start shooting, in October 1964, we were still a minimum team. Since I was fluent in French and Italian, I sometimes accompanied Alessando Tasca, the executive producer, to get some permissions, and then made a trip to Barcelona in late August with the French director of photography of The Trial, Edmond Richard, to spot possible locations in the Gothic quarter in Barcelona and a village where Welles had heard of an interesting old church in an old castle: Cardona. With Richard, we took photographs for Orson and back in Barcelona, just ready to return to Madrid,
Orson phoned me early in the morning to congratulate me for the birth of my first daughter, Laura, and asking for an after lunch meeting at his home.
As soon as we left the Madrid airport, I ran to meet my first daughter. There I saw a big flower bouquet with a beautiful card from Welles and another from Nicholas Ray, whose bar in Madrid, "Nicca's," where you could find sometimes John Wayne when shooting in Madrid, was two blocks from the clinic where Laura was born.
What were some of your other duties on Chimes?
I always had to be as close to Welles as possible. He was rather fluent in Spanish but I usually had to translate his orders to the film technicians, to the extras... The assistant director on the first part of the shooting of Chimes was very brave on his job, but he was not very good in English. I usually had to translate to European actors. When the first assistant was very busy in the crowd scenes, the battle scenes, as well as in the interior scenes in the King's castle or in Mistress Quickly tavern, I was there to help a little.
Once this assistant left (because he was) angry with Welles, I was for three or four days the only assistant. We were filming the duel in the battle between Prince Hal and the young Percy. They asked me to keep this job but I preferred to work essentially for Orson. They put under contract a young Mexican, Tony Fuentes, who was brilliant as an assistant and spoke American English. Last I knew, he was working in Hollywood.
Once the filming was over, Orson asked me to be with him in the editing room. Sometimes I would go with him to the sound studios where he made the dubbing of some speeches by Falstaff (after) he had found the sound for technical reasons was not as good as he liked.
When the final sound mixing was being done in a Paris studio, the producer thought my work on Chimes was over and I remained in Spain. Two days later, Welles asked Emiliano Piedra, the producer, to bring me back by plane to Paris, as he wanted me to be there... He wanted me to see by his side the definitive mixing of the long battle scene, now praised all over the world, between the armies of Prince Hal and Henry Percy.
Also, he would ask me to find some special music records as I knew the city quite well and our sound studio was far from Paris. And, if possible, to find for him his Havana cigars (De Gaulle had put some strict measures on Cuban trade) and other errands on my trip, as I had done sometimes in Spain when he was editing his film.
You were close with not only Welles, but his wife, Paola Mori. Little is known about her. What was she like?
I usually spoke Italian to her. In the '50s, I had lived and studied in Rome and Naples for two years.
She was a very beautiful, nice and extremely friendly woman. When we were still a very small team, on the very start of the pre-production of Chimes, I sometimes would go shopping with Paola and Keith Baxter looking for some tissues Welles needed for a special custom. Weeks before the shooting started, Keith Baxter and I went scouting with Paola and Orson for possible shooting places for Chimes in a big quiet park park in the outskirts of Madrid.
Beatrice has the talent of Orson and the grace and beauty of Paola. Beatrice for more than 50 years is still my best friend. We – my wife, children and I – have spent some days with her throughout the years in Las Vegas, Morocco, Madrid and Ronda. I went with her to Ronda to leave Orson´s ashes in the estate of his friend , bullfighter Antonio Ordoñez.
The Welles family took part in the making of In The Land of Don Quixote. Were you involved in the shoot?
The filming of the Italian TV series was made before I got in touch with Orson. I have seen the Italian series and interviewed for hours the Spanish newsreel cameraman who used to work at the time for Franco's Spanish weekly newsreel projected every day in every Spanish cinema before the commercial feature films.
Orson is shown in those reels with Paola and Beatrice, who was very young, taking flamenco dancing lessons in Seville, travelling with his family in a car and then introducing some of the country places he really loved.
In one of our talks in the small moviola room where he was editing Chimes, he told me that In the Land of Don Quijote was just a travelogue series. But he wrote many pages on the places he filmed (Spanish historical places such as Granada, Seville, Madrid, Salamanca), local fairs, bullfighting, painters like Velazquez, Goya, landscapes. He deeply loved Cervantes and the country people in Spain.
I only took part in the talks about finishing the finishing Don Quijote in Spain with a brilliant and wealthy Spanish producer who had already funded some good films in the early sixties.
After Chimes at Midnight, I had some more meetings with Welles. He asked me to translate into Spanish his script The Full Moon, based on thee stories by Isaak Dinesen The Immortal Story, The Old Chevalier, and The Heroine)... Also the almost finished script of Don Quijote.
What was the extent of your involvement in Don Quixote?
At that time, Orson, Beatrice and Paola left Madrid for London for a couple of weeks for Christmas. He told me to get a Spanish film editor and work for a couple of weeks seeing a rough copy of Don Qiijote he had in the editing room on the basement of his villa. He wanted us to revise the reels of the rough copy with sound, and the majority majority, still silent, to be dubbed in a near future. It was about 75 minutes of rough copy.
When Welles on his Christmas holiday in London, he asked me to help the cutter repair some minor damages on the copy of the film, I (watched) several reels a day on the editing table. Francisco Reiguera and (Akim) Tamiroff were great as Quijote and Sancho Panza.
(When Orson) was filming in Hong Kong as an actor, (he was also) thinking about the best way to finish his Don Quijote. So he sent a letter to the director of the Italian Radio-Television (RAI) to co-produce several programs on Spain. RAI would show the series in Italy and Orson would deal the rights in some other countries.
What he really was thinking of a deal to finish Don Quijote. Akim Tamiroff was ready, but Welles needed Francisco Reiguera, a Spanish republican who had fled Spain when Franco´s armies won the Spanish Civil War in 1939. I even asked the opinion of a friend of mine in the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry, who had been attached to the Spanish diplomatic missions in India, Argentine and other countries, to know if Reiguera would possibly go to jail for his political ideas from 30 years past. My friend told me after a time that Reiguera might have no trouble, but still the actor was afraid. He was working in Mexico and we had seen him in small parts in several Buñuel Mexican films. So Reiguera flew to Italy, where Welles filmed some adventures of Don Qiojote and Sancho Panza.
Still, Orson aimed to finish his film in Spain and that was the reason for my translating his screenplay into Spanish, since the censorship was mandatory for any screenplay to be shot in Spain. It was astonishing to search in Cervantes prose, and see how deeply Welles understood the novel and how he took dialogues from distant pages to write his scenes with a very deep understanding of Cervantes prose.
What was it about Spain that Welles found so appealing?
Orson loved the country, its landscapes and the people. He often said "Spain was not a country in its diversity, but a continent."
I never spoke to him about his decision, but his Spanish lawyer was working for some time on the Spanish official documents for Orson to become a Spanish citizen. That would have let him apply for the official state aid for filmmaking in Spain.
I think he deeply loved France and Spain, but in Paris he was in a much better position to make films not only in France but also in England and Italy... In a much more culturally developed country than Franco's fascist military government in Spain.
In my opinion, his deep fondness for bullfights was the main reason for living in Spain. Sometimes he talked about his trips from Hollywood to Mexico to attend great corridas, about his respect and deep admiration for the Spanish matador, Manolete, killed in the '50s by a bull in the south of Spain.
He told me he was really happy when, at a meeting of bullfighters, he could follow their views on the bulls, the fights on the arena, their opinions about an art he loved most.
When Dino De Laurentiis was going to produce The Bible, directed by some great filmmakers , Welles wrote the script for the Jacob episode and took a large number of locations photos for the Spanish locations he had chosen.
De Laurentiis chose the British dramatist Christopher Fry as the screenwriter for the whole project, but Welles wrote his own script of Abraham and he even wrote Luchino Visconti's episode of Joseph and His Brothers. Welles and De Laurentiis kept their secret. Orson let me know about this correspondence when I was by his side everyday cutting Chimes at Midnight.
People respected Orson very much, so he could attend corridas like a Spaniard, without being disturbed by several thousands of people attending the bullfights . Back in those days, the Spanish people were very respectful of foreigners and deeply moved to see Welles happy in their country, knowing that he was a world-famous actor and film director.
Sometimes we were working in his apartment very near his own home, where the moviolas and a lot of tin cases with the film were kept. We had no phone and I would go to a nearby bar to call the film lab. The TV bar was always on and one afternoon I suddenly caught a glimpse of Orson among the aficionados in a Madrid bullring at least 300 kilometers away. Orson had left the cutting job for the day and we thought he was at home writing, reading or calling to Paris, London or New York.
The next morning he was again early at the cutting room,
He enjoyed his daily, quiet life in Spain, the very fine lunches and the respect people had for him. There he could write. He was all his life an avid reader.
Nobody approached him as a film star, or as a great filmmaker. He was just an "Americano" who enjoyed living in a country he had first known and loved before his American successful days in the theatre, radio and movies.
-
Black Irish
- Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 317
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:07 pm
Re: Dawson CAM poster
April 2017
MT: One could argue that the stereo or two-track soundtrack for Chimes is the real soundtrack.
MD: Well, the argument is that he mixed it monaurally for the optical soundtrack; therefore, that’s what he wanted. Well maybe, maybe not. The technology, particularly the optical printer, available to him in 1965 must be considered. It would have cost him more in post-production to go with stereo because that is a much more complicated mix and Welles was struggling just get the film done at all. But the master mag track for the music was definitely recorded in stereo. Also, when we acquired the original elements for the film, we also acquired ten extra boxes of original mag track, which we didn’t pay much attention to at first, but which we eventually discovered contained all kinds of sound effects that were not in the film, such as wind, air, fire crackling, flags flapping, horses neighing, etc. Not just the stereo, but many sound effects were sacrificed due to the lack of post-production funds. So that was my beef with Criterion: we had all kinds of original elements that they were not interested in using. Their attitude was they wanted to do it all themselves with no outside technical assistance. But we’ve got our own version.
MT: What are the chances that Adriana Saltzmann will authorize a release of your restored version?
MD: We’ve already entered into an agreement with her, and she has nowhere else to go with it if she wants to exercise her rights. She has taken on Len Rueben, a former Todd School student who met Welles in the late 40’s, as a partner. A very capable lawyer, he’s semi-retired now, but he’s doing this as a labor of love.
MT: Anything new with your documentary, CITIZEN WELLES?
MD: Well, we’re thinking of doing it as a subscription series, ten to fifteen minute segments, and do it as a VOD (Video on Demand) release. We think that might be the best way to go, tying it in with a recent documentary that’s been made about the new Orson Welles statue that’s going to be in Woodstock.
MT: How about the next Orson Welles creative arts festival?
MD: We’re going to add satellite programs to the next festival, from Oregon, Cairo, Northwestern and maybe Los Angeles, with Oja Kodar. As you know, she was at the Woodstock Welles fest in 2015, and the video we made of her talking with Jonathon Rosenbaum is currently being used by the Third Man Museum in Vienna. One idea we’re kicking around is showing our version of Chimes at Midnight with Beatrice skyped in from her home. We had planned to do that this past October, but we cancelled it because the Cubs being in the World Series wiped out our audience.
MT: One could argue that the stereo or two-track soundtrack for Chimes is the real soundtrack.
MD: Well, the argument is that he mixed it monaurally for the optical soundtrack; therefore, that’s what he wanted. Well maybe, maybe not. The technology, particularly the optical printer, available to him in 1965 must be considered. It would have cost him more in post-production to go with stereo because that is a much more complicated mix and Welles was struggling just get the film done at all. But the master mag track for the music was definitely recorded in stereo. Also, when we acquired the original elements for the film, we also acquired ten extra boxes of original mag track, which we didn’t pay much attention to at first, but which we eventually discovered contained all kinds of sound effects that were not in the film, such as wind, air, fire crackling, flags flapping, horses neighing, etc. Not just the stereo, but many sound effects were sacrificed due to the lack of post-production funds. So that was my beef with Criterion: we had all kinds of original elements that they were not interested in using. Their attitude was they wanted to do it all themselves with no outside technical assistance. But we’ve got our own version.
MT: What are the chances that Adriana Saltzmann will authorize a release of your restored version?
MD: We’ve already entered into an agreement with her, and she has nowhere else to go with it if she wants to exercise her rights. She has taken on Len Rueben, a former Todd School student who met Welles in the late 40’s, as a partner. A very capable lawyer, he’s semi-retired now, but he’s doing this as a labor of love.
MT: Anything new with your documentary, CITIZEN WELLES?
MD: Well, we’re thinking of doing it as a subscription series, ten to fifteen minute segments, and do it as a VOD (Video on Demand) release. We think that might be the best way to go, tying it in with a recent documentary that’s been made about the new Orson Welles statue that’s going to be in Woodstock.
MT: How about the next Orson Welles creative arts festival?
MD: We’re going to add satellite programs to the next festival, from Oregon, Cairo, Northwestern and maybe Los Angeles, with Oja Kodar. As you know, she was at the Woodstock Welles fest in 2015, and the video we made of her talking with Jonathon Rosenbaum is currently being used by the Third Man Museum in Vienna. One idea we’re kicking around is showing our version of Chimes at Midnight with Beatrice skyped in from her home. We had planned to do that this past October, but we cancelled it because the Cubs being in the World Series wiped out our audience.
-
Black Irish
- Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 317
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:07 pm
Re: Dawson CAM poster
For the record, the packaging for Criterion's release of Othello lists a 91 minute running time for the 1955 version. Keep in mind, the original 1952 European edit does not include the end credits seen in the 1955 cut since Welles "narrates" the credits at the beginning over unique footage of Venice. That would suggest that the additional footage in the '52 version runs closer to three minutes if not four minutes.
I figured the credit sequence at the end of '55 is close in length to the credits at the beginning of '52, so that leaves the extra Venice snippets as the difference, which didn't seem to be more than a minute's worth or so. I guess the exact running time of each version doesn't really matter that much. I like both versions, although I don't think either is entirely satisfactory.
I'm not that crazy about the spoken credits at the beginning of '52, although I know many prefer it. The fact that Welles's narration to set up the story comes right after we've seen him carried away dead at the beginning gives the '55 version a nice, slightly creepy quality, almost as if he's telling his tragic story from beyond the grave. Also, Gudrun Ure's voiceovers in '55 are far superior to Cloutier's original line readings. Welles redid some of his own lines too, improving them markedly.
I wonder if anyone has ever thought to interview Ure about her work on the film and with Welles on the stage. She's still alive (91).
I thought the additional scenes/footage shown during the Venice section felt substantial, setting up the action and the characters (especially Hilton Edwards' "Brabantio") in a much smoother fashion than in the re-edited '55 cut.
No question, '52 is much smoother in this regard, because of the extra footage. I've always wondered which version of the film Welles was talking about when he said this during the 1982 BBC interview:
Interviewer: I find the cutting in Othello a bit confusing in places.
Welles: So do I. There are several bits in Venice that I don't like. I think Venice is the weak part of the picture. In fact, some of it is quite weak indeed.
-
Black Irish
- Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 317
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:07 pm
Re: Dawson CAM poster
La Tragedie d’ Othello, le More de Venise, histoire d un homme genereux, donl l’amour fut trop passionné pour admettre aueune mesure. Comme il était d’un natural confiant, sa jalousie excitée par un traitre le conduisit aux pires égarements.
The Tragedy of Othello, the More of Venice, the story of a generous man, whose love was too impassioned to admit any measure. As he was of a natural confidence, his jealousy excited by a traitor led him to the worst mistakes.
-
Black Irish
- Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 317
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:07 pm
Re: Dawson CAM poster
It's hard to know where to begin singing the praises of Indiana University's new "Orson Welles on the Air" website.
Naturally, because of the variable condition of the transcription discs themselves, some shows still sound pretty rough in spots, but the cleanup using the latest digital technology makes them more listenable than ever before. Some programs, like the Campbell Playhouse version of Noel Coward's "Private Lives", which were practically unlistenable before, are now a real pleasure to listen to, and a revelation in terms of appreciating Orson Welles's immense skills as a radio actor. Here, one can really enjoy the sizzling chemistry between Welles and the legendary Gertrude Lawrence, who originated the role opposite Noel Coward himself.
That may be best part of this whole project: the restoring of the magnificent Welles voice in all it's young, multi-faceted glory.
Naturally, because of the variable condition of the transcription discs themselves, some shows still sound pretty rough in spots, but the cleanup using the latest digital technology makes them more listenable than ever before. Some programs, like the Campbell Playhouse version of Noel Coward's "Private Lives", which were practically unlistenable before, are now a real pleasure to listen to, and a revelation in terms of appreciating Orson Welles's immense skills as a radio actor. Here, one can really enjoy the sizzling chemistry between Welles and the legendary Gertrude Lawrence, who originated the role opposite Noel Coward himself.
That may be best part of this whole project: the restoring of the magnificent Welles voice in all it's young, multi-faceted glory.
-
Black Irish
- Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 317
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:07 pm
Re: Dawson CAM poster
CONVERSATION WITH NICKLESCHICONEY - 2017
Here's my edit of MR. ARKADIN, if you're interested in seeing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W2IEEcoar0.
Best,
Nic
*
Thanks a lot, Nic. I think your cut is very good, and you've made some very interesting editing decisions, such as eliminating the flea circus scene and the kiss between Raina and Van Stratton. I don't think any cut could turn this into a really good movie, but yours is very watchable and definitely holds it's own against all the other versions. Thanks again!
Mike
*
Thanks Mike!
Some scenes, like the chat between Guy and Arkadin in Mexico and some of the Zouk scenes, I had to re-cut from scratch. As for Raina leaving (after Arkadin says "You will not see him [Guy] again"), I conveyed that by receding footsteps and a slamming door. [I think it works a lot better than the dubbed line in Confidential Report: "I'll never forgive you, father, never!"]
Mischa Auer's scene went out because it didn't fit the logic of the flashback structure: Unlike, say, the brief scene with Mily at the end of the Juan-les-Pins episode, there's no need for Van Stratten to bring up the flea circus guy, an episode in itself. He doesn't give Van Stratten any useful info about Arkadin's past. He just provides atmosphere. I have cut the scene together, but ultimately I left it out. I'll post it on YT as well.
The kiss went out because it's fooled some people (including my oh-so-beloved Welles biographer Simon Callow) into thinking Raina has fallen for Guy's machismo. This is not the case, because she knows Guy HAS no machismo. He's an insecure idiot. She, meanwhile, is a tough girl trying to see past all the layers of ill-fitting machismo to whatever innocence she thinks is at Guy's core. The sad thing is, there isn't any, and she sees that she's wasted her time by the end of the film.
I must be alone in thinking this is a good film, haha. I tried making it clear in my cut that this film is about an idiot (Guy) telling a story that takes place in a world mostly built by another, more powerful idiot (Arkadin). It's fractured, it's nonsensical -- but intentionally so. I tried editing it so that the film embracedits own nonsensical nature. Does that make sense?
*
Lol, yes it makes at least as much sense as the film itself. Would you like us to announce the Youtube link to your cut on Wellesnet Facebook and the Wellesnet blog, or did you want to keep it a secret for awhile?
*
I don't really like your dismissal of my explanation at all.
Anyway, the video is unlisted due to copyright, so I'd rather it not be made public.
*
Sorry, didn't mean to be dismissive of your explanation. I guess what I meant was that your explanation seems as valid or makes as much sense as any other explanation of the film I've heard. The film is a bit of a mess, but as I've written on the board before, Orson Welles's messes are more enjoyable to watch than most director's good movies. Your version may actually be the clearest one I've seen, with the best continuity.
Another explanation I've heard that I like is that the film is a Cold War parallel with Arkadin as the USSR, Van Stratton as the USA, and Raina as Europe, with the two men fighting over her affections and loyalty. Van Stratton even resembles a young Nixon, Eisenhower's VP at the time. He starts the film swaggering with confidence, which is why I think Raina is attracted to him, but ends up way over his head. They're both con men, but I don't think either are idiots. One can't amass the kind of power that Arkadin has if one is an idiot. Rather, he as the instinct and low cunning of an animal, or a barbarian.
I do agree with your point about the flea circus being too irrelevant to bother relating to Zouk, and also about the film embracing it's own nonsensical nature. That would make it akin to THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, which I feel does the same thing in many ways. In both cases, Welles was going for a tightrope act between drama and parody. I think he pulled it off better in Lady for several reasons, one of which being he was working with superior Hollywood resources and a bigger budget. In making this film, Welles also started out confidently, but got in over his head after giving two leading roles to his girlfriend (soon to be his wife) and an unknown stage and radio actor like Arden, who had limited talent. Still, there are plenty of wonderful things in it, and it's a Welles film, so your efforts are well worthwhile.
BTW, if you'd like to see the reconstruction/essay of AMBERSONS that Jaime Marzol and I did a few years ago, the links are below. It is pretty rough and rather sloppy compared to Roger’s, and needs to be redone sometime, but I’m glad we at least finished it after a monstrous amount of work. Our version gives special emphasis to Bernard Hermann’s original score and attempts to imagine how it fit in with the original film. It’s available to view in four parts on Vimeo.
Part 1:
https://vimeo.com/154414422
Part 2:
https://vimeo.com/154428343
Part 3:
https://vimeo.com/154430342
Part 4:
https://vimeo.com/154433081
Any feedback, good or bad, is welcome.
*
Thanks for the reply. Sorry for being gruff earlier.
That's interesting, and it would fit Welles's statement that he based Arkadin on Stalin. However, I think that's a bit of a retrojection on Welles's part. I'd say Zaharoff was a greater influence on Arkadin. I really don't think Raina was interested in Guy because of his confidence. She's a bit maternal around him, frolicking with him in the Spanish countryside, pulling him along, telling him where to go. When Guy leaves Raina's room in a huff, she turns to him and says "Guy! Come back here!"
Well, you can be an idiot but have enough cunning to get ahead. Guy isn't very bright, and he's incredibly insecure. It's the same with Arkadin -- he doesn't know who Neptune is, he wasn't smart enough to check if Guy had a plane to catch, and when things don't go his way, he throws a temper-tantrum. Think of Donald Trump: He's an idiot, but he knows enough to get by. (Until he becomes president, that is...)
Lady was, in pre-production and production, a thriller with psychological elements. It was to be occasionally funny, but not an outright comedy. It became fractured only in post-production, when the film was chopped up and all those close-ups were added. (Actually, I found frame blow-ups from Welles's original cut of the funhouse scene in the Welles-Kodar collection at the UofM. It's very expressionist-influenced and flows better.)
With Arkadin, it seems like Welles was going for something that was, at its core, choppy and farcical -- at least once he shot everything he wanted and was ready to edit the film. Then he was removed and Dolivet didn't know what to do with what remained. Actually, I'd guess that the falling-out occurred because Welles started off making a thriller (in pre-production) and wound up producing something that was basically a weird comedy.
That's interesting. That way, Welles would be weaving stuff from his own life into the movie, as he did with most of his work. I think he started off making a thriller, like Lady or even Smiler with a Knife, but realized that Arden couldn't play a tough hero convincingly, and that Mori, though beautiful, was more ladylike and dignified than sexy. So, as usual, he rewrote his script as he worked with his actors. As a result, Arden's character became an insecure idiot, not a world-weary antihero, and Mori's became a maternal figure.
Thanks! Are those the original storyboards?
*
Yes, I used some of the original storyboards where there were no photos available.
You're right, similarities between Arkadin and Trump are numerous, and interesting. Arkadin had a quasi-incestuous love for his daughter too.
Zaharoff was defintely a model for Arkadin, though Welles tried to dismiss that to Bogdanovich. Other likely models include Ivar Krueger, the "Match King"
Calouste Gulbenkian, British businessman of Armenian origin
Aristotle Onassis, Greek tycoon cited by at least two Welles biographers as the probable model for Arkadin
Carlos de Beistegui, flamboyant art collector who hosted one of the most famous balls of the 20th century, the Bal di Beistegui of 1951, which Welles attended, and which the ballroom scene of Arkadin was probably based.
There was someone other rich guy named Lowenstein who jumped out of an airplane, although others say he was pushed out.
One of these days I'll get a thread off the ground on this subject.
*
The reconstruction is very nice -- I can't believe all those goodies were on the Criterion laserdisc.
Whatever his models were for Arkadin, Welles had a weird tendency to see Arkadin as sympathetic. I see him as incredibly unsympathetic, myself, but then again, Welles liked playing devil's advocate with his characters.
Anyway, I've also completed an edit of TOO MUCH JOHNSON, if you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9P55BTwOk
*
Great job with that Johnson edit, Nic; by far the best I've seen so far! I love the way you used the original Paul Bowles score, and very cleverly too. They should have you assist with THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND!
Is it OK if I give this link to my partner Ray Kelly? He should see this.
*
Sure, go ahead.
Sorry I didn't say this sooner: Wow! Thank you!
I put a lot of work into this; I started in July 2016 and did some things even before that in 2014. I had to take a hacksaw the footage Welles et al. edited themselves. It's so amateurish that it's unusable, unwatchable, and looks like it was thrown together by inexperienced men at the last minute. I tried doing as much justice to Welles's vision as I could while making a film in a more-refined version of his own style. My background in film preservation also helped, as I've worked with silent film preservationists who've tried restoring several of the slapstick comedies Welles probably saw. So I know how a silent comedy should be cut together as well.
I pretty much had to rely on stock footage for the second film. It was supposed to include shots of a miniature plantation and plantation house, as well as a fake-looking papier-mache volcano. All of this would have fit in with the film's artificial aesthetic. However, these shots were probably filmed last, only to be left at the film processing lab because Welles and the Mercury couldn't afford to pay the bills. As a result, the work print only has shots of people walking (in a particularly rocky plantation!) and looking at things we can't see. The use of stock footage provides them something to look at and fits in with the artificiality of the film. Welles apparently used stock footage later in his film prologue to The Green Goddess, and, of course, he'd use it in Citizen Kane, so I don't think he'd have a problem with it. Right?
*
Well, he's no longer here, so we'll never know if he would have a problem with it or not, but I'm not really a Welles purist myself, so I have no problem with it. IMO, those of us who love Welles's artistry should try and expand his oeuvre as best we can with the tools and materials that are available. Lots of "societies" devoted to great artists have had to do the same thing, using their gut instinct sometimes. I hope the Wind people do as careful and conscientious a job as you've done. I think you incorporated the stock footage very gracefully and picked good samples.
That's great that you have a background in restoring silent film. Some of my most cherished film experiences have been silent film with live accompaniment. I saw a 4K of Harold Lloyd's SAFETY LAST on the big screen a few years ago and thought it was great. Welles loved that film too. Some of Cotton's stunts in Johnson remind me of that film's building-climbing climax.
*
Hi...
Do you know if anyone's translated Muller's BANDA DE UM HOMEM SO into English? I'm getting a copy and I'm going to have a crack at translating it with Google's help...
Nic
P.S.: What did Ray Kelly think of the TOO MUCH JOHNSON edit? I've since had the titles finished: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9P55BTwOk
*
No translation that I know of, Nic. If you take a crack at it, keep us updated on how it goes. I'd love to read it.
Ray thought your TMJ project was excellent, as do I. Let us know if you want us to post a link to it on Facebook or on the message board.
*
Please do!
At the risk of being an attention-monger, I'd love to have that thing get more publicity. Facebook would be nice.
Here's my edit of MR. ARKADIN, if you're interested in seeing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W2IEEcoar0.
Best,
Nic
*
Thanks a lot, Nic. I think your cut is very good, and you've made some very interesting editing decisions, such as eliminating the flea circus scene and the kiss between Raina and Van Stratton. I don't think any cut could turn this into a really good movie, but yours is very watchable and definitely holds it's own against all the other versions. Thanks again!
Mike
*
Thanks Mike!
Some scenes, like the chat between Guy and Arkadin in Mexico and some of the Zouk scenes, I had to re-cut from scratch. As for Raina leaving (after Arkadin says "You will not see him [Guy] again"), I conveyed that by receding footsteps and a slamming door. [I think it works a lot better than the dubbed line in Confidential Report: "I'll never forgive you, father, never!"]
Mischa Auer's scene went out because it didn't fit the logic of the flashback structure: Unlike, say, the brief scene with Mily at the end of the Juan-les-Pins episode, there's no need for Van Stratten to bring up the flea circus guy, an episode in itself. He doesn't give Van Stratten any useful info about Arkadin's past. He just provides atmosphere. I have cut the scene together, but ultimately I left it out. I'll post it on YT as well.
The kiss went out because it's fooled some people (including my oh-so-beloved Welles biographer Simon Callow) into thinking Raina has fallen for Guy's machismo. This is not the case, because she knows Guy HAS no machismo. He's an insecure idiot. She, meanwhile, is a tough girl trying to see past all the layers of ill-fitting machismo to whatever innocence she thinks is at Guy's core. The sad thing is, there isn't any, and she sees that she's wasted her time by the end of the film.
I must be alone in thinking this is a good film, haha. I tried making it clear in my cut that this film is about an idiot (Guy) telling a story that takes place in a world mostly built by another, more powerful idiot (Arkadin). It's fractured, it's nonsensical -- but intentionally so. I tried editing it so that the film embracedits own nonsensical nature. Does that make sense?
*
Lol, yes it makes at least as much sense as the film itself. Would you like us to announce the Youtube link to your cut on Wellesnet Facebook and the Wellesnet blog, or did you want to keep it a secret for awhile?
*
I don't really like your dismissal of my explanation at all.
Anyway, the video is unlisted due to copyright, so I'd rather it not be made public.
*
Sorry, didn't mean to be dismissive of your explanation. I guess what I meant was that your explanation seems as valid or makes as much sense as any other explanation of the film I've heard. The film is a bit of a mess, but as I've written on the board before, Orson Welles's messes are more enjoyable to watch than most director's good movies. Your version may actually be the clearest one I've seen, with the best continuity.
Another explanation I've heard that I like is that the film is a Cold War parallel with Arkadin as the USSR, Van Stratton as the USA, and Raina as Europe, with the two men fighting over her affections and loyalty. Van Stratton even resembles a young Nixon, Eisenhower's VP at the time. He starts the film swaggering with confidence, which is why I think Raina is attracted to him, but ends up way over his head. They're both con men, but I don't think either are idiots. One can't amass the kind of power that Arkadin has if one is an idiot. Rather, he as the instinct and low cunning of an animal, or a barbarian.
I do agree with your point about the flea circus being too irrelevant to bother relating to Zouk, and also about the film embracing it's own nonsensical nature. That would make it akin to THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, which I feel does the same thing in many ways. In both cases, Welles was going for a tightrope act between drama and parody. I think he pulled it off better in Lady for several reasons, one of which being he was working with superior Hollywood resources and a bigger budget. In making this film, Welles also started out confidently, but got in over his head after giving two leading roles to his girlfriend (soon to be his wife) and an unknown stage and radio actor like Arden, who had limited talent. Still, there are plenty of wonderful things in it, and it's a Welles film, so your efforts are well worthwhile.
BTW, if you'd like to see the reconstruction/essay of AMBERSONS that Jaime Marzol and I did a few years ago, the links are below. It is pretty rough and rather sloppy compared to Roger’s, and needs to be redone sometime, but I’m glad we at least finished it after a monstrous amount of work. Our version gives special emphasis to Bernard Hermann’s original score and attempts to imagine how it fit in with the original film. It’s available to view in four parts on Vimeo.
Part 1:
https://vimeo.com/154414422
Part 2:
https://vimeo.com/154428343
Part 3:
https://vimeo.com/154430342
Part 4:
https://vimeo.com/154433081
Any feedback, good or bad, is welcome.
*
Thanks for the reply. Sorry for being gruff earlier.
"Another explanation I've heard that I like is that the film is a Cold War parallel with Arkadin as the USSR, Van Stratton as the USA, and Raina as Europe, with the two men fighting over her affections and loyalty. Van Stratton even resembles a young Nixon, Eisenhower's VP at the time. He starts the film swaggering with confidence, which is why I think Raina is attracted to him, but ends up way over his head."
That's interesting, and it would fit Welles's statement that he based Arkadin on Stalin. However, I think that's a bit of a retrojection on Welles's part. I'd say Zaharoff was a greater influence on Arkadin. I really don't think Raina was interested in Guy because of his confidence. She's a bit maternal around him, frolicking with him in the Spanish countryside, pulling him along, telling him where to go. When Guy leaves Raina's room in a huff, she turns to him and says "Guy! Come back here!"
"They're both con men, but I don't think either are idiots. One can't amass the kind of power that Arkadin has if one is an idiot. Rather, he as the instinct and low cunning of an animal, or a barbarian."
Well, you can be an idiot but have enough cunning to get ahead. Guy isn't very bright, and he's incredibly insecure. It's the same with Arkadin -- he doesn't know who Neptune is, he wasn't smart enough to check if Guy had a plane to catch, and when things don't go his way, he throws a temper-tantrum. Think of Donald Trump: He's an idiot, but he knows enough to get by. (Until he becomes president, that is...)
"and also about the film embracing it's own nonsensical nature. That would make it akin to THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, which I feel does the same thing in many ways. In both cases, Welles was going for a tightrope act between drama and parody."
Lady was, in pre-production and production, a thriller with psychological elements. It was to be occasionally funny, but not an outright comedy. It became fractured only in post-production, when the film was chopped up and all those close-ups were added. (Actually, I found frame blow-ups from Welles's original cut of the funhouse scene in the Welles-Kodar collection at the UofM. It's very expressionist-influenced and flows better.)
With Arkadin, it seems like Welles was going for something that was, at its core, choppy and farcical -- at least once he shot everything he wanted and was ready to edit the film. Then he was removed and Dolivet didn't know what to do with what remained. Actually, I'd guess that the falling-out occurred because Welles started off making a thriller (in pre-production) and wound up producing something that was basically a weird comedy.
"In making this film, Welles also started out confidently, but got in over his head after giving two leading roles to his girlfriend (soon to be his wife) and an unknown stage and radio actor like Arden, who had limited talent."
That's interesting. That way, Welles would be weaving stuff from his own life into the movie, as he did with most of his work. I think he started off making a thriller, like Lady or even Smiler with a Knife, but realized that Arden couldn't play a tough hero convincingly, and that Mori, though beautiful, was more ladylike and dignified than sexy. So, as usual, he rewrote his script as he worked with his actors. As a result, Arden's character became an insecure idiot, not a world-weary antihero, and Mori's became a maternal figure.
"BTW, if you'd like to see the reconstruction/essay of AMBERSONS that Jaime Marzol and I did a few years ago, the links are below. It is pretty rough and rather sloppy compared to Roger’s, and needs to be redone sometime, but I’m glad we at least finished it after a monstrous amount of work. Our version gives special emphasis to Bernard Hermann’s original score and attempts to imagine how it fit in with the original film."
Thanks! Are those the original storyboards?
*
Yes, I used some of the original storyboards where there were no photos available.
You're right, similarities between Arkadin and Trump are numerous, and interesting. Arkadin had a quasi-incestuous love for his daughter too.
Zaharoff was defintely a model for Arkadin, though Welles tried to dismiss that to Bogdanovich. Other likely models include Ivar Krueger, the "Match King"
Calouste Gulbenkian, British businessman of Armenian origin
Aristotle Onassis, Greek tycoon cited by at least two Welles biographers as the probable model for Arkadin
Carlos de Beistegui, flamboyant art collector who hosted one of the most famous balls of the 20th century, the Bal di Beistegui of 1951, which Welles attended, and which the ballroom scene of Arkadin was probably based.
There was someone other rich guy named Lowenstein who jumped out of an airplane, although others say he was pushed out.
One of these days I'll get a thread off the ground on this subject.
*
The reconstruction is very nice -- I can't believe all those goodies were on the Criterion laserdisc.
Whatever his models were for Arkadin, Welles had a weird tendency to see Arkadin as sympathetic. I see him as incredibly unsympathetic, myself, but then again, Welles liked playing devil's advocate with his characters.
Anyway, I've also completed an edit of TOO MUCH JOHNSON, if you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9P55BTwOk
*
Great job with that Johnson edit, Nic; by far the best I've seen so far! I love the way you used the original Paul Bowles score, and very cleverly too. They should have you assist with THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND!
Is it OK if I give this link to my partner Ray Kelly? He should see this.
*
Sure, go ahead.
Sorry I didn't say this sooner: Wow! Thank you!
I put a lot of work into this; I started in July 2016 and did some things even before that in 2014. I had to take a hacksaw the footage Welles et al. edited themselves. It's so amateurish that it's unusable, unwatchable, and looks like it was thrown together by inexperienced men at the last minute. I tried doing as much justice to Welles's vision as I could while making a film in a more-refined version of his own style. My background in film preservation also helped, as I've worked with silent film preservationists who've tried restoring several of the slapstick comedies Welles probably saw. So I know how a silent comedy should be cut together as well.
I pretty much had to rely on stock footage for the second film. It was supposed to include shots of a miniature plantation and plantation house, as well as a fake-looking papier-mache volcano. All of this would have fit in with the film's artificial aesthetic. However, these shots were probably filmed last, only to be left at the film processing lab because Welles and the Mercury couldn't afford to pay the bills. As a result, the work print only has shots of people walking (in a particularly rocky plantation!) and looking at things we can't see. The use of stock footage provides them something to look at and fits in with the artificiality of the film. Welles apparently used stock footage later in his film prologue to The Green Goddess, and, of course, he'd use it in Citizen Kane, so I don't think he'd have a problem with it. Right?
*
Well, he's no longer here, so we'll never know if he would have a problem with it or not, but I'm not really a Welles purist myself, so I have no problem with it. IMO, those of us who love Welles's artistry should try and expand his oeuvre as best we can with the tools and materials that are available. Lots of "societies" devoted to great artists have had to do the same thing, using their gut instinct sometimes. I hope the Wind people do as careful and conscientious a job as you've done. I think you incorporated the stock footage very gracefully and picked good samples.
That's great that you have a background in restoring silent film. Some of my most cherished film experiences have been silent film with live accompaniment. I saw a 4K of Harold Lloyd's SAFETY LAST on the big screen a few years ago and thought it was great. Welles loved that film too. Some of Cotton's stunts in Johnson remind me of that film's building-climbing climax.
*
Hi...
Do you know if anyone's translated Muller's BANDA DE UM HOMEM SO into English? I'm getting a copy and I'm going to have a crack at translating it with Google's help...
Nic
P.S.: What did Ray Kelly think of the TOO MUCH JOHNSON edit? I've since had the titles finished: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9P55BTwOk
*
No translation that I know of, Nic. If you take a crack at it, keep us updated on how it goes. I'd love to read it.
Ray thought your TMJ project was excellent, as do I. Let us know if you want us to post a link to it on Facebook or on the message board.
*
Please do!
At the risk of being an attention-monger, I'd love to have that thing get more publicity. Facebook would be nice.-
Black Irish
- Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 317
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:07 pm
Re: Dawson CAM poster
Craig,
Noted Welles scholar Robert Carringer ("The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction") contacted us recently on Facebook and said that his entire processing and research file for the original Ambersons Criterion LD (for which he did the commentary track) is available to anyone who can demonstrate a need for it. Here's his statement to us:
"I'd gladly GIVE my research files to anyone who can provide a convincing need for them. OK to announce this on your GMAIL ONLY. "Interested parties can apply to me at rlcannot@icloud.com. I'll select the one who makes the most convincing case for wanting them."'
I thought you might be interested in this. Sincerely,
Mike Teal/Wellesnet assistant
PS: How is the project to digitize your collection of Welles radio programs going?
Noted Welles scholar Robert Carringer ("The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction") contacted us recently on Facebook and said that his entire processing and research file for the original Ambersons Criterion LD (for which he did the commentary track) is available to anyone who can demonstrate a need for it. Here's his statement to us:
"I'd gladly GIVE my research files to anyone who can provide a convincing need for them. OK to announce this on your GMAIL ONLY. "Interested parties can apply to me at rlcannot@icloud.com. I'll select the one who makes the most convincing case for wanting them."'
I thought you might be interested in this. Sincerely,
Mike Teal/Wellesnet assistant
PS: How is the project to digitize your collection of Welles radio programs going?
Return to “Moe and Herb Conversations”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest