Orson Welles: The Eye of a Poet

[JackFavell]

great! I just added to my streaming queue at Netflix.

Thanks for the review. How was your Thanksgiving?

[ChiO]

How was your Thanksgiving?

Glorious and full of giving thanks.

[JackFavell]

Nice.

I'm especially thankful to the movie fairy for getting me the Criterion Mr. Arkadin, and Chimes at Midnight. Haven't broken the seal on them yet, but hope to soon.

I notice that TCM is showing Jane Eyre January 30th. I haven't seen this version in years.

[RedRiver]

Chio,

The Linklater film is three years old? Where did the time go? I'd forgotten about it. I like movies about movies.

[RedRiver]

I'm especially thankful to the movie fairy

That's no way to talk about Van Johnson!

[JackFavell]

[Rita Hayworth]

Orson Welles


Academy Award ... Oscar Statue that he won in Citizen Kane (In Writing) will be auctioned off ...

[ChiO]

Oh, boy! Just in time for Christmas! I'll try to act surprised when I unwrap it.

I'd like to thank my family, without whose support this moment would not have possible.

[Lzcutter]

If you are planning on visiting Hearst Castle on the central coast of California on March 9th, you might want to make time in your visit to watch Citizen Kane in the theater of the Visitor's Center. Screening as part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, it is the first time the Orson Welles directed movie has screened at La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill).

From the LA Times:

Steve Hearst, the mogul's great-grandson, said the event will present the film as a work of fiction rather than as a documentary about the life of the patriarch known to family members as W.R.

"It's a great opportunity to draw a clear distinction between W.R. and Orson Welles, between the medieval, gloomy-looking castle shown in 'Citizen Kane' and the light, beautiful, architecturally superior reality," he said.

"Citizen Kane" is the unflattering portrait of a character resembling Hearst, a sensationalistic newspaper tycoon with political ambitions, a young mistress in show business, a jaw-dropping mansion and an insatiable zeal for collecting art.

The parallels between Hearst and Charles Foster Kane are obvious — but so, too, are the differences, said Steve Hearst, who manages the family's ranches and other business interests.

"The character Orson Welles depicted was quite a bit more flamboyant and outgoing than W.R. was," he said. "He wasn't the kind of guy who would be dancing in the editorial room with his staffers."

Another big difference was in the film's portrayal of Kane's love interest, a booze-soaked singer forced by Kane into a disastrous operatic career. Hearst's real-life mistress, Marion Davies, was a talented comic actress later described by Welles as "an extraordinary woman — nothing like the character."

By all accounts, Hearst was angry over her portrayal. Decades later, Welles agreed: "I always thought he was right to be upset about that," he said in a 1969 interview with director Peter Bogdanovich.

In the film, Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his castle, a pathetic old man. His final word is the enigmatic "Rosebud" — the name, as it turned out, of the sled Kane had kept from his childhood.

When Hearst died in 1951, he was surrounded by family at the Beverly Hills mansion he shared with Davies.

"His last words went unrecorded," said film scholar James Naremore.

Though Hearst knew enough about Citizen Kane to dislike it immensely, he never actually saw the film, according to Davies and others.

Welles even liked to tell a story about the tycoon declining a personal invitation to see it. In the 1969 interview, he said he bumped into Hearst in an elevator at the Fairmont Hotel the night the film opened in San Francisco.

"He and my father had been chums, so I introduced myself and asked if he'd like to come to the opening of the picture," Welles recalled.

The reception was chilly.

"He didn't answer," said Welles, who, ever the showman, took full advantage of the moment:

"As he was getting off at his floor, I said, "Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.' "

[Lzcutter]

TCM aired The Magnificent Ambersons earlier tonight and I never grow tired of watching Georgie Minafer get his comeuppance.

This is my favorite Welles film. I especially love the snow scene which was filmed in an ice house. And Bernard Herrmann's score is one of my favorites as well.

Here's an article (from a few years ago) about the history of post-production on Ambersons and the search for the lost footage.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/cla ... ion-200201

[RedRiver]

Somebody was telling me this film has only recently come to DVD? Is this possible? Surely my friend is misinformed!

[Professional Tourist]

Somebody was telling me this film has only recently come to DVD? Is this possible?

It's true, the first North American DVD release was this past January (2012). Canada first, then the U.S. at the end of the month.

It's a bare-bones release, just the film itself, no extras at all, not even a commentary track.

[JackFavell]

Of all the films in all the world that needed a commentary track, this is the one.

[MichiganJ]

There was a terrific commentary by Robert Carringer on the old Criterion laserdisc. When Ambersons was included in the Citizen Kane Ultimate Collector's Edition, it was just the film in SD. I'd hoped that when it got it's individual release that Warner Bros would have at least included Carringer's old commentary track. But as PT noted, it's bare-bones, too.
Oh well. At least the image looks great.

[JackFavell]