This Is Orson Welles by Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Rosenbaum
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Book Reviews of This Is Orson Welles
Book Review: Beautifully edited and organized collection of interviews is the first book on Welles you should have
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Bogdanovich interviewed Orson Welles on numerous occasions over the period from 1969-1972, recording the interviews on reel-to-reel tape and intending them for a book project, which alas took 20 years to get from planning stage to eventual publication, 7 years after the death of it's subject. It was worth the wait. Welles covers in his expansive, mostly generous and ebullient way his childhood, early creative years in the theater and on radio, and nearly the whole of his career as a director and some of his work as actor. There are personal anecdotes, reminiscences of other great filmmakers, jokes, and of course, sadness and regret at the way in which his career was often marginalized or trivialized, and especially at the ruination of most of his films by producers uninterested in "genius".
Bogdanovich and editor Jonathan Rosenbaum did a brilliant job in putting a shape to the book; it was wise I think that they edited it into a chronological form following Welles' life, rather than in the order that the interviews took place. There is much great material here about obscure and unfinished works like DON QUIXOTE and THE DEEP; politics; some of Welles' predecessors of note, like the similarly tragic Erich von Stroheim; and many of those who have succeeded him with the enfant terrible title, like Jean-Luc Godard. It's nice that editor Rosenbaum was able to keep some of the director's less politically-correct language intact; Welles was a liberal, a progressive and a humanist his whole life - but he was also born almost a hundred years ago, and we can't expect him to always fit our 2009 norms of behavior.
The last 200 pages of this lengthy book are taken up by a nearly day-by-day chronology of Welles' career, a reconstruction of the missing scenes of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, extensive end-notes, and a detailed index. My copy is the 1992 first edition; the 1998 edition adds an updated introduction by Peter Bogdanovich and excerpts from Welles' memo cocerning the editing of TOUCH OF EVIL - which can also be found on the newest DVD release of that film. Whatever edition you get, if you're a fan of the director at all, you owe it to yourself to have this book. Welles never got around to writing an autobiography - despite being a "one hit wonder" in the eyes of a lot of ignorant people who really ought to have known better, he was still working on what he loved - making films - right up until his death. In the absence of such a book, this will have to do, and will do, very nicely.
Book Review: Orson Welles: The Man and his Movies, Larger Than Life
Summary: 5 Stars
I commend to the book above, an interview with Peter Bogdanovich. Although I'm not a huge fan of the latter's movies (with the exception of "Paper Moon," which I loved ever since it came out when I was eight, and fell in love with tomboy Tatum O'Neill forthrightly), I have begun reading about half of this book over the past few days, and find it better than my previous favourite, the Hitchcock/Truffaut book. Of course, much favoured above Wilder/Crowe, namely because of Crowe's incessant name dropping of "Jerry Maguire" and "Tom Cruise" every other irritating sentence, which prevented the reader from finding out what
Wilder had on *his* mind.
What impresses me about the Welles/Bogdanovich volume is the raucous sense of humour Welles brings to the conversation, always as lively and as larger-than-life as Welles was. Also, Bogdanovich has laced the book with pertinent interviews, articles, anecdotes that elucidate certain points of the text, as well as Welles' lines cut from "Magnificent Ambersons" and the long memorandum he wrote to Universal studio chiefs and cc'd to Chuck Heston, trying to save what I consider his masterwork,
"Touch of Evil" from falling prey to overzealous editing by indifferent studio hacks.
But most of all, I am touched that when all the world was dumping on Welles, when he was being derided as a has-been and a spendthrift, that up-and-coming director Bogdanovich gave him his friendship and accorded him the respect he was so shamefully denied. Even Pauline Kael couldn't resist savaging Welles, and she wrote a particularly nasty and libelous article that Welles didn't write any of the screenplay to "Citizen Kane."
Of all Hollywood's sins (and I retain in memory a cross-indexed catalogue of them), the fact that even when Welles started getting "lifetime achievement" accolades, he still couldn't get any financing for his movie projects, on which he worked until his last days, leaves the bitterest taste in my mouth. There must be certain people destined to the lowest rungs of hell -- or at least purgatory -- for creating a world in which Orson Welles' last paid acting role was as the voice of the evil planet in a "Transformers" movie.
Book Review: Touch of Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
Of all books about Orson Welles, this one gives us the closest understanding of his genius. It contains a collection of interviews given to Welles by his good friend, Peter Pogdanovich. We are given a personal tour of Welles' thoughts and motivations behind some of his greatest or most notorious works, without the pompous guesswork of an independant biographer. At the same time, Pogdonavich acting as interviewer lends an air of honesty, as Welles isn't as free to reinvent history as he might have been if this were simply an autobiography. However, this interview format makes for a rough chronology, as conversations jump all over the place. The book does give some basic dates and highlights of Welles' life and careers, but the reader is still expected to know a little about Welles. You might want to suppliment this volumne with another Welles biography. What entertained me the most was Welles' genius for story, which he not only used in such mastery on stage, radio, and film, but also in telling us of his own personal stories. I didn't realize the extent of Welles' accomplishments, which include some of theater and radio's finest moments, as well as film. Before making Citizen Kane at the ripe age of 26 (or 23?), Welles had a fuller, more distinguished life than most people manage to squeeze into a lifetime. Most importantly, this book can give a film fan some general insight to all those great "lost masterpieces", the films in which Welles often lost control over (which basically are the majority of his films). He explains his original visions and where the studios altered his work. Watching these films with this book as my guide, I noticed more of his touch and his genius than I would have without it. A great book and gift to filmmakers everywhere.
Book Review: A painful descent in the Inferno
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Bogdanovich's interviews with Orson Welles demonstrate (although it was probably not his intention) that his subject was a "monstre sacré", but not a genius. He tries to deny Pauline Kael's thesis ("Raising Kane") where the famous film critic made clear, that the real author of Citizen Kane's screenplay was Herman Mankiewicz and not Welles. But as the pages go on, Bogdanovich's interviews painfully describe the errors of a "boy-wonder" who could have been almost everything, if he had not been Orson Welles. Most of his films, sometimes made with his own money, after he had been banned by all American studios, were not finished, or mutilated, because he made them too long, or was not present when cuttings were asked. One has the feeling of some kind of self destructive behavior, even more painful as we realize how gifted, and talented an author, director, and actor he was. This book is a must for anybody who wants to try to find some answers about an extraordinary career (including "Citizen Kane", "Touch of Evil", "The Third Man") with even more failed or destroyed dreams. The best quote of the book: Peter Bogdanovich: And you don't love theatre anymore? Orson Welles: I love empty theatres. For explanations, refer to page 3 of 'This is Orson Welles".Book Review: Rosebud Reigns Supreme in Filmdom
Summary: 5 Stars
As one who had just completed a viewing of Ciitzen Kane on DVD(featuring the excellent audio commentary on the film by Roger Ebert & Rudy Behlmer) I turned to Frank Brady's excellent biography.This is Orson Welles completes my examination of this giant of film directorship. Over several years and in many locals the Falstaffian Welles shares his thoughts on film, his own movies and life with his devoted student Peter Bogdonovich
(himself a talented director best known for "The Last Picture Show'). If you want to know what Welles really thinks and believes this book is the Rosetta Stone for your investigation!
As Truffaut was able to discuss his life and films with Sir Alfred Hitchcock so does Peter B. do the same thing for Welles.
After all the reading and studying of Welles the man emerges as a titanic force of nature whose undisciplined genius is a wonder to behold. Any fan of Welles or Cinema should add this excellent book to your library. Well Recommended!