ABOUT JOHN FORD:
"I recently saw what I've always been told was Jack's (John Ford's) greatest movie, and it's terrible. The Searchers. He made many very bad pictures."
ABOUT ART DECO:
"I hate it, you see? I deeply hate it...the maid's furniture is what it is. I knew that Deco was bad_let me be modest_when I was as young as fourteen! And I was so happy after the World War, when people started building other things."
WHO REALLY DIRECTED THE THIRD MAN:
"I said, 'No he (the Harry Lime character played by Welles) has to be fascinating. You must understand why he's got this city in his hand.' And Carol [Reed] took a flyer on that idea and changed the character completely. Greene's Harry Lime was nothing like the way I played it. Every word that I spoke, all my dialogue, I wrote, because Carol wanted me to. Including the 'cuckoo clock.' "
[Elsewhere he credits Korda and Reed for the film.]
ABOUT CHAPLIN AND KEATON:
"Chaplin had too much beauty. He drenched his pictures with it. That's why Keaton is...so much better."
ON LAWRENCE OLIVIER:
"He has to act. He doesn't care if it's a bad movie or a bad play. He has to work. Which is admirable. That's why he went so far beyond me as an actor...he was_and is_a professional, whereas I don't see acting as a profession, as a job, never have. I am an amateur. An amateur is a lover...with all the caprices and the difficulties of love. I don't feel compelled to work. And Larry does. A professional turns up on Wednesday afternoons."
ON THALBERG:
"Thalberg was the biggest single villain in the history of Hollywood. Before him, a producer made the least contribution...he didn't direct, he didn't act, he didn't write...all he could do was mess it up, which he didn't do very often, or tenderly caress it. Support it. Producers would only go onto the set to see that you were on budget.
Now the producer's gotta be creative. The director becomes the fellow whose only job is to say, 'Action' and 'Cut.' [With Thalberg] you were 'just a director' on a 'Thalberg production.' Don't you see? A role had been created in the world."
4 comments:
I do like Welles. Not only did he do some amazingly innovative work, but he was very human and tragically flawed. I quince at the drunken Welles doing a Paul Masson wine commercial, and was astonished by his documentary "F is for Fake" for its subversiveness and low quality. The bastardization of his unfinished "Don Quixote" left me depressed and anger over his legend being tarnished by exploitation. And yet Welles still shines through bigger than life and just as sure of himself.
I meant wince, not quince...don't even know what quince is but it must be something because spellcheck didn't catch it.
Awesome. I'll check it out as soon as possible.
Wow, I gotta get that book! I'm amazed Orson had that opinion of The Searchers, which, although is somewhat overrated in this day and age, is still a great film. I have a feeling Orson didn't watch it very closely. Ford did make a lot of stinkers. The masterpiece with this scene in it isn't one of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_imB5kmc_pk I think it's one of his most intimate and nuanced pictures.
That being said, I love Orson, love how opinionated he is. To me he's the ideal artist.
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