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Orson Welles

Neglify said:
jrWHAG42 said:
I know next to nothing about Orsen Welles. I should become more cultured. 
What's the best film of his to start with?
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I say start at the beginning, Citizen Kane.
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Probably very good advice. However...

- If you are into B&W cop/crime movies then 'Touch of Evil' might be a better start (Has to be the 1998 reconstruction).
- If you like things like weird 70s 'Easy Rider' type films then his new Netflix film is a good bet.
- 'Fake for Fake' is a lot of fun to watch, especially as a faneditor. Welles cutting up all kinds of sources to make a new story. It'son youtube in HD.
- If you have never seen anything with Welles in, then start with 'The Third Man'. His cameo is brief but unforgettable, you'll see why he is such a great actor and Carol Reed's film is top notch.

This episode of Drunk History is a damn funny intro:


EDIT: Oh look, 'F for Fake' is on youtube in HD, so there you go:

 
Thank you so much for your input!
I will definitely try to get ahold of some of these and check them out. 
I love documentaries, I might watch the Netflix documentary first to get a feel for what I'm getting myself into, as well as get to know the man beforehand.
Citizen Kane I always here is the best, but that's the thing, everyone says it. I wanted to ask here first, hear from people more well versed in his works. 
I'll definitely watch that, and the other three "masterpieces" Canon Editor mentioned. I don't think I have the heart to watch the films with heavy studio meddling. 
The Shakespeare adaptations, I will most certainly have to check out his Macbeth, as that is one of two Shakespeare plays I've actually read through, and I love the story.
 
I liked the documentary but not so much the actual film The Other Side of the Wind and I like 70s Easy Rider type stuff.
 
When "The Other Side of the Wind" was released I realized it was time for me to get my act together and watch Orson's filmography. Prior to this I had only ever seen "Citizen Kane" and "Touch of Evil" and a few of his acting-only roles ("The Third Man" is phenomenal). So, over the last three weeks I've watched all of his completed directorial efforts, concluding with "...Wind" this afternoon. Either tonight or tomorrow I'm going to check out the doc "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" and eventually I'm going to view as many of his acting roles as I can.

Here's my Letterbox'd list if you want to see all my star-ratings and read my goofy reviews. Here's the bare-bones ranking:

1. Touch of Evil
2. Citizen Kane
3. The Trial
4. F for Fake
5. Chimes at Midnight

6. The Lady from Shanghai
7. The Other Side of the Wind
8. Macbeth
9. The Stranger
10. Othello

11. Mr. Arkadin
12. The Immortal Story
13. Journey Into Fear 
14. The Magnificent Ambersons
15. Don Quixote de Orson Welles
 
I like your determination!
Congratulations @"Neglify" !

I would probably agree with that list myself, even though I still have to see some of his other greatest, like Chimes at Midnight and The Trial.  I would perhaps swith The Other Side of the Wind and The Lady from Shanghai, though... or even take The Other Side of the Wind higher! :D

Glad Orson's oeuvre is spreading aound... finally!
 
^^ A solid list with a great top5... although if the rules of mathematics could be redesigned to also have Othello and Otherside in the top-5 too it'd be even better ;) . Something about Ambersons must have really displeased you, to put it below Journey Into Fear?

The cobbled-together cut of Don Quixote has such a bad reputation that I've never given it a try. I know you've got it in last place but how bad is it?

(Loved the Paul Masson based reviews :D )
 
The primary reason I disliked "The Dandy Andersons" was because I'm just not a fan of old-timey stuff. I gave "Gone With the Wind" two-and-a-half stars, for example. To be fair though, I was high when I watched "Ambersons" and my attention span was all over the place. After that one I paid attention to the flicks... until that Don Quixote mess. That was an embarrassment and I fast-forwarded through a lot of it.
 
"They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" was excellent. It definitely made me appreciate "The Other Side of the Wind" a hell of a lot more. I hope that Netflix starts doing more companion-piece documentaries like this one. 

@"jrWHAG42" I realized that a potentially good film for you to start with, if you're still curious about The Works Of Welles, is TM2YC's excellent fanedit, "Orson Welles and I". The film tells the story of Orson's stage production of "Julius Caesar" before he started making movies. It's a nice way to get some history about his Mercury Theater days before you venture into his celluloid endeavors. Also, because TM2YC is a hardcore Welles nerd, he put together a neat little bundle of special features, one of which is a 12 minute retrospective of TM2YC's favorite moments from 12 Orson Welles films.
 
Neglify said:
"They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" was excellent. It definitely made me appreciate "The Other Side of the Wind" a hell of a lot more. I hope that Netflix starts doing more companion-piece documentaries like this one. 

@"jrWHAG42" I realized that a potentially good film for you to start with, if you're still curious about The Works Of Welles, is TM2YC's excellent fanedit, "Orson Welles and I". The film tells the story of Orson's stage production of "Julius Caesar" before he started making movies. It's a nice way to get some history about his Mercury Theater days before you venture into his celluloid endeavors. Also, because TM2YC is a hardcore Welles nerd, he put together a neat little bundle of special features, one of which is a 12 minute retrospective of TM2YC's favorite moments from 12 Orson Welles films.
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I will definitely check this out eventually, though I don't necessarily feel like watching it first. For something like this, I think I'd rather read about him or watch a proper documentary before diving into a drometization. Though now I feel like a hypocrite, because I watched Man on the Moon having not done extensive research on Andy Kaufman first... 
I'll definitely check it out sooner or later. Really I think I'll just start with one of the classics. 
Thank you for your input!
 
The Other Side of the Wind: First Day of Shooting (Audio)

This 31-minute audio recording was made by film critic, screenwriter, and actor Joseph McBride on August 23, 1970—the first day of shooting on The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles’s film about the last day in the life of fictional director J. J. “Jake” Hannaford (played by John Huston). The recording features McBride (as Marvin Pister) rehearsing a scene with Peter Bogdanovich (as Charles Higgam) at Welles’s house in Beverly Hills, with Welles directing.
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RKO 281 (1999)

rko-281-the-battle-over-citizen-kane-4-1.jpg


A Making the Masterpiece biopic so nice, they put it on the Ultimate Collector's Edition blu-ray - but only as a DVD, and it doesn't seem to be streaming or available in HD anywhere. (I borrowed the flick from the SF library, but used DVD seem cheap and available enough.) Anyhow, Liev Shrieber is Welles, John Malkovich is Herman Mankiewicz, and James Cromwell is William Randolph Hearst in this 1999 HBO movie that was developed as a big-screen feature before downsizing to TV and a trim 86 minutes. I'm no Welles scholar/expert, having only recently seen Citizen Kane and then toured Hearst Castle the very next day last month, but I thoroughly enjoyed this look at both men. (And learned several things about Hearst in particular the docents somehow neglected to mention on the official Castle tour.) Like Citizen Kane itself, no filming was done on Hearst's estate, which the movie makes to look rather bigger than it actually is, but the look of the production can hardly be faulted, and the cast is strong. Any Welles devotee may not love it, necessarily, but should definitely check it out.

B+

(What happened to HBO Films? HBO still makes great series, but they used to produce excellent films, also, whereas their recent ones have looked fairly meh. Some have been critically acclaimed, but I haven't been excited to actually see one since 2012's excellent Game Change and pretty good Hemingway & Gellhorn.)
 
The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)
If you are familiar with the work of film-critic and Documentarian Mark Cousins' and his all encompassing 15-hour 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey' project, you'll know what to expect stylistically. Deliberately eschewing a traditional film biopic and instead exploring boxes of Welles' drawings/paintings and finding symmetrys with his films, life, loves, preoccupations and political principles.  The trademark poetic musings of Cousins' voiceover are in the curious form an earnest fan letter to Welles, even going so far as having a creditable Orson mimic voice an imagined reply. Very different and thought provoking.


In other news: I'm pleased that a digital copy of 'The Otherside of the Wind' finally arrived in my inbox (a great looking 4GB Stereo AAC 1080p mp4. 24fps, not 23.976023fps). A larger filesize would have been ideal but I'm just surprised and relived it's DRM-free, considering the streaming Netflix deal. Now I'm waiting on the long promised blu-ray. Please don't ask for links.
 
David Harbour doing a fine Orson Welles send up in this strange looking 'Frankenstein meets Garth Marengi's Darkplace' Netflix film called "Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein":


It's out in a couple of weeks. I'm intrigued.

By the way, still no sign of that 'Otherside of the Wind' blu-ray :mad: .
 
Was sent this earlier. Quite amusing:

 
Dr. Chim Richalds said:
TM2YC said:
By the way, still no sign of that 'Otherside of the Wind' blu-ray :mad: .
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You know, while you're waiting, there is that OTHER blu-ray that came out a while back...  Just sayin's all.
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I've got it and can confirm it's a great looking blu-ray.
 
The Indiegogo crowdfund for 'The Other Side of the Wind' have finally sent out info updates about perks... just 4-years late. I'll wait to see how long it actually takes them to deliver the blu-ray, book and posters.
 
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