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| Orson
Welles |
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| Director
/ Actor / Screenwriter / Producer / Production Designer |
| 1915 - 1985 |
| Born May 6,
Kenosha, Wisconsin |
| Key
Production Countries: USA, France
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Key Genres: Drama,
Period Film, Film Noir, Psychological Thriller |
| Key
Collaborators: Joseph Cotten (Leading
Character Player), Erskine Sanford
(Character Player), Jeanne Moreau (Leading Player), Akim Tamiroff (Leading Character Player), Ray Collins (Leading
Character Player), Russell Metty (Cinematographer), Everett Sloane
(Leading Player), Agnes Moorehead (Leading Character Player), Edmond
Richard (Cinematographer), Robert
Wise (Editor) |
| Highly
Recommended: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent
Ambersons (1942), The
Stranger (1946), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), Othello (1952), Touch of Evil (1958) |
| Recommended:
The Fountain of Youth [TV] (1956), Chimes
at Midnight (1966) |
| Links: [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [ All-Movie
Guide ] [ Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[ The
Estate of Orson Welles ] [
Welles Net ] [ The Man and His
Genius ] [
Reel
Classics ] [ Guardian
Unlimited Orson Welles Special ] [ Film
Journal Article ] [
Los Angeles Times Article (2006) ]
[
Review of
"Citizen Kane" by Erich
von Stroheim ] |
| Books:
[
This
is Orson Welles ] [ Rosebud:
The Story of Orson Welles ] [ Orson
Welles: A Critical View ] [ Despite
the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios ] [ Orson Welles ]
[
Orson Welles:
Volume 2 - Hello Americans ] [
Orson Welles: Volume 1 - The Road to Xanadu ] [
Walking Shadows: Orson Welles, William Randolph Hearst, and Citizen Kane
] [
Orson Welles: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) ] [
Encyclopedia of Orson Welles (Great Filmmakers) ] [
The Films of Orson Welles ] [
What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career
] |
| DVD's:
[ Amazon
] |
| 1,000
Greatest Films: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent
Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), Othello (1952), Touch of Evil (1958), The Trial (1963), Chimes at Midnight (1966),
F for Fake (1975) |
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250 Quintessential Noir Films:
The Stranger (1946), The Lady from
Shanghai (1948), Mr. Arkadin (1955), Touch of Evil (1958) |
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"Like
von Stroheim and von Sternberg, although otherwise hardly in similar mould,
Wisconsin-born Welles was one of Hollywood's enfants
terribles, beginning with brilliance but soon falling out
with the studio, having his work hacked down and setting off on
wanderings round the world, forever in search of another
masterpiece and the money to make one." - David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
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"Welles's
outsider status in connection with the American film industry is
an interesting part of cinema history in itself, but his
importance as a director is due to the innovations he introduced
through his films and the influence they have had on filmmaking
and film theory." - Susan
Doll (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)
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"It
is almost tragically ironic that George Orson Welles, without
doubt one of the greatest filmmakers ever, was forced to work
for most of his career under the most adverse of conditions.
Such were his genius and ambition that his films, years ahead of
their time, still astonish by their inventiveness, stylistic
virtuosity and freshness; while the widely held view that he
never fulfilled his early promise fails to take account of the
thematic and moral consistency of his work, not to say its
restless experimentalism." - Geoff
Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989) |
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"People
should cross themselves when they say his name." - Marlene
Dietrich |
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"One of the most important filmmakers to emerge since the advent
of the talkie. Welles was one of the first in Hollywood to
realize the potential of elliptical narratives and deep focus in
the construction of camera angles. His oeuvre consists of
complex tales with themes of truth and illusion (Citizen Kane,
41; The Magnificent Ambersons, 42; Touch of Evil,
58; Chimes at Midnight, 66). Welles is also one of the
few commercial filmmakers to experiment with the soundtrack of a
film." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"I
want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that.
Give them too much and they won't contribute anything
themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working
with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes
a social act." - Orson Welles |
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"Hollywood
is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does
not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation."
- Orson Welles |
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