Orson Welles
If you are not familiar with Orson Welles' work -- educate yourself! He is a fine
film maker who always worked outside (even when he was on the inside) of the Hollywood
margins. His Shakespeare films make up for what they lack in style with the
substance of Welles' performance.
I recommend the biography featured below. It is a fairly honest portrait drawn by
the film maker Peter Bogdonavich and edited by Jonathan Rosenblum, the film critic.
The writer worked with Welles through correspondence and interviews to assemble an
overview of Welles' life and career.
This Is Orson Welles
By Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich and Jonathan Rosenbaum (ed.)
Filming Shakespeare's Plays : The Adaptions of Laurence Olivier,
Orson Welles, Peter Brook and Akira Kurosawa
by Anthony Davies
Paperback Reprint edition (July 1990)
Cambridge Univ Pr (Pap Txt);
Chimes
at Midnight : Orson Welles, Director (Rutgers Films in Print ; V. 11)
by Bridget Gellert Lyons, Orson Welles
Paperback - 340 pages (December 1989)Rutgers Univ. Press.
MacBeth 45 Anniversary Edition
by Orson Welles
VHS Tape VHS Video edition (September 1992)
Natl Appraisal & Consulting Assoc.
Alas, Alack!! Amazon Books does not offer this superb video!!
You can special order Put Money In Thy Purse, the hilarious and informative
book by Michael MacLiammoir, who plays Iago in the film.
Orson Welles wrote the Foreword, and I bow to his superior abilities in
describing this book:
I have had diaries myself. But, then, I have known how to leave them
alone: an entry or two just for the thrill of it, and then back to normalcy. I
count myself lucky. The addiction to diaries, the habitual keeping of a journal, a
secret vide like the eating of hashish, degrades the diarist himself to something very
like the moral status of a drama critic and, unlike drugs, destroys not only the character
of the user but of his friends.
Having exposed Mac Liammoir for what he is, an explanation of this book
requires that I make full confession of being myself an inveterate, an incurable snoop.
Chimes at Midnight
VHS Tape VHS Video edition (February 1996).
Chimes at Midnight is in the same category as the BBC-TV
videos. This film has been "lost" for many years. I first read about
this film in a thoughtful article that appeared in a Sunday paper on the ten best films of
all time. "Chimes at Midnight" takes its title from the Falstaff line to
Prince Hal, "My lord, we have heard the chimes at midnight." This film is
Welles' compilation of the Falstaff character that stretches through Henry IV, I; Henry IV
II; Henry V, and some argue, also in the Merry Wives of Windsor.
Falstaff is a wonderful character. Welles is one of
the greatest film makers the U.S. has produced. This marriage produces a wonderful
child.
Orson Welles' version of the "more sinned against than sinning"
King. I haven't seen this, but since it is Orson Welles I'm sure it is worth
watching. If you have seen this and would like to refute or affirm the quality of
this film, please email me. Go to Prospero's Page.
