This is Orson Welles

This is Orson Welles
by Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is Orson Welles
List Price: $24.00
Our Price: $11.49
You Save: $12.51 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.61 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Jonathan Rosenbaum, Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-03-21
ISBN: 030680834X
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Da Capo Press

Book Reviews of This is Orson Welles

Book Review: This is Orson Welles
Summary: 4 Stars

Fortunately, Orson Welles had a crucial influence in writing this book. Therefore it might be regarded as a truthful and helpful source in the attempt to approach this artist's view of his universe. It's a privilege and of high benefit to learn more about this great master of motion pictures. JKK

Summary of This is Orson Welles

Innovative film and theater director, radio producer, actor, writer, painter, narrator, and magician, Orson Welles (1915-1985) was the last true Renaissance man of the twentieth century. From such great radio works as "War of the Worlds" to his cinematic masterpieces Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Othello, Macbeth, Touch of Evil, and Chimes at Midnight, Welles was a master storyteller, as expansive as he was enigmatic. This Is Orson Welles, a collection of penetrating and witty conversations between Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, includes insights into Welles's radio, theater, film, and television work; Hollywood producers, directors, and stars; and almost everything else, from acting to magic, literature to comic strips, bullfighters to gangsters. Now including Welles's revealing memo to Universal about his artistic intentions for Touch of Evil, (of which the "director's edition" was released in Fall 1998) this book, which Welles ultimately considered his autobiography, is a masterpiece as unique and engaging as the best of his works.

In 1992, the first publication of This Is Orson Welles brought a priceless document to light. In the late '60s and early '70s, filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich had conducted extensive interviews with Welles, but a number of circumstances--including the director's decision to compose an autobiography that he never got around to writing--kept the interviews out of the public eye. Edited and annotated by Jonathan Rosenbaum, these conversations give wonderful insights into Welles's craft and personality. He discusses his forays into acting, producing, and writing as well as directing, his confidences and insecurities, and his plans for film projects that were either never made or only partially completed. He also offers insights into the triumph of Citizen Kane and later masterpieces like The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, Othello, and Chimes at Midnight. His defense of his controversial adaptation of Kafka's The Trial is so fascinating that readers might want to rush out and rent the film.

While the book is worth owning just for this 322-page interview, it is also full of other material that is equally revealing. Rosenbaum presents a meticulous chronology of Welles's life, closely following his day-to-day activities from his birth in 1915 to his death in 1985. Anyone who thinks that Welles was an essentially lazy and profligate artist will be astonished at how hard he worked and how much he accomplished, even after the completion of Citizen Kane. Another treat found in the book is a detailed description--complete with rare photographic stills--of the original Magnificent Ambersons, Welles's impressive follow-up to Kane, which can now be seen only in a tragically truncated version.

This 1998 reissue of the volume contains a fond new introduction by Bogdanovich and another crucial piece of Welles minutia, excerpts from his 58-page memo to Universal Pictures about the editing of Touch of Evil. Forty years after its composition, the material in this memo has been used to create a restored "director's cut" of the film. With such grand material between two covers, This Is Orson Welles is the most informative and entertaining book available on one of the 20th century's greatest artists. --Raphael Shargel

Performing Arts Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Good film writing.
This is Orson Welles ImageThis is Orson Welles
by Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Rosenbaum
Da Capo Press; Published: 1998-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.21
Price in other shops: $24.00
The Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium ImageThe Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium
by Professor Gilberto Perez
The Johns Hopkins University Press; Published: 2000-11-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops: $25.00
Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life ImageCities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life
by Stanley Cavell
Belknap Press; Published: 2005-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.89
Price in other shops: $21.00
Cinema 2: The Time-Image ImageCinema 2: The Time-Image
by Gilles Deleuze
University of Minnesota Press; Published: 1989-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops: $20.00
Cinema 1: The Movement-Image ImageCinema 1: The Movement-Image
by Gilles Deleuze
University of Minnesota Press; Published: 1986-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.94
Price in other shops: $20.00
James Agee: Film Writing and Selected Journalism (Library of America) ImageJames Agee: Film Writing and Selected Journalism (Library of America)
by James Agee
Library of America; Published: 2005-09-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.25
Price in other shops: $40.00
On Film (Thinking in Action) ImageOn Film (Thinking in Action)
by Stephen Mulhall
Routledge; Published: 2008-05-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.39
Price in other shops: $29.95
Film As Film: Understanding And Judging Movies ImageFilm As Film: Understanding And Judging Movies
by V. F. Perkins
Da Capo Press; Published: 1993-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.58
Price in other shops: $16.50
Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard Film Studies) ImagePursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard Film Studies)
by Stanley Cavell
Harvard University Press; Published: 1984-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops: $24.50
Negative Space: Manny Farber On The Movies ImageNegative Space: Manny Farber On The Movies
by Manny Farber
Da Capo Press; Published: 1998-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.36
Similar Books and other products
Chimes At Midnight ImageChimes At Midnight
DVD
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops: $19.99
Macbeth (Fully Restored Version) ImageMacbeth (Fully Restored Version)
DVD
Best price: $11.13
The Lady from Shanghai ImageThe Lady from Shanghai
Sony; Release date: 2000-10-03; DVD
Best price: $13.00
Price in other shops: $19.94
Discovering Orson Welles ImageDiscovering Orson Welles
by Jonathan Rosenbaum
University of California Press; Published: 2007-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.70
Price in other shops: $26.95
Hitchcock (Revised Edition) ImageHitchcock (Revised Edition)
by Helen G. Scott, Francois Truffaut
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1985-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.98
Price in other shops: $23.00
The Third Man [Blu-ray] ImageThe Third Man [Blu-ray]
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-12-16; DVD
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops: $39.95
Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition) ImageCitizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2001-09-25; DVD
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops: $26.98
Touch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition) ImageTouch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition)
Universal; Release date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $15.29
Price in other shops: $26.98
Orson Welles: Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu ImageOrson Welles: Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu
by Simon Callow
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1997-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $18.00
Orson Welles: Volume 2: Hello Americans ImageOrson Welles: Volume 2: Hello Americans
by Simon Callow
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-11-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.01
Price in other shops: $18.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories