ORSON WELLES: GENIUS

I promised some friends that I would tell them how the last complete episode of Orson Welles' TV travelogue show turned out. Well, I saw it last week at Steve's and it was, just like the other episodes, a revelation.  Some call it the Jean Cocteau episode, but Cocteau was hardly in it. Mostly it was an interview with a skilled American sculptor who lived in Paris and insisted on wearing a toga instead of pants.

   

Steve rightly summed up Welles' role as that of the listener. The focus was on what the sculptor had to say. Orson spoke only to provoke the man to keep talking. What seemed to interest Welles was not the man's opinions about pants but rather his dignity and good will. As in the other episodes Welles found a subject who represented what was good about mankind and just let the camera roll, trusting that we'd be interested. And we were.

One more thought: Welles was a little more active than I indicated here, though his technique was subtle. With his own voice and demeanor he established a civilized and encouraging tone. Maybe with a different interviewer the man's opinions would have degenerated into a rant, but with Orson they came across as thoughts deserving respect. The film was shot in the aftermath of WWII and I imagine that Welles believed in the healing power of friendly and intelligent conversation.

Interesting, eh?

AROUND THE WORLD WITH ORSON WELLES

Shortly after WWII Orson Welles did a show for American TV called "Around the World with Orson Welles." It was never shown here because half way into the filming Welles got a feature film okayed and he instantly abandoned his other projects. That's too bad. I saw some of it on European formatted discs at Steve Worth's house and can testify that the show was first rate.

His first subject was Basque country which straddles the border between France and Spain. Actually the Basques are neither Spanish nor French and have to put up with a pesky border check right in the middle of their land. It's okay, though...at the time Welles was there the Basques seemed to have a sense of humor about it all.    

Welles could have handled the project as a standard Lowell Thomas-type travelogue but instead he decided to focus on a couple of the people who live there. If I had Orson's job I would have picked interview subjects for their diversity: some good, some bad. Orson, on the other hand, picked only one type: people who had kind, civilized faces...people who he knew he'd enjoy talking to. What do you know? That turned out to be just the right thing to do.

He started with an American writer who lives there with her 10 year-old son. Actually she lives in the States and every two or three years takes a Summer in Basque country. She had a theory that everyone needs to escape to an alternative reality on a regular basis.

I'll add that this woman was interesting for another reason. Orson apparently charmed her into attempting to charm him. He brought out the best in her, and when she countered with a seduction of her own...which was meant for Orson...she seduced the film audience as well. Welles was smart to go after that.

But I don't want to give the impression that Welles only interviewed women.

He interviewed this guy (above), who had actually worked in Montana for a while. He was an extremely nice guy who had an admirable wife. It makes you feel good to imagine that the world contains people like that. He was a quiet man of few words but, amazingly, such a person is still capable of holding an audience's interest. How did Welles know that?

In another episode Welles set up in the kitchen of a Viennese restaurant that was famous for its pastries. Here he interviewed only one person, one of the owners. She was a rather nervous woman who had a sunny smile which frequently lapsed into something tragic. For that reason I wouldn't have chosen her for an interview subject, and once again I would have been wrong. The camera loved her!

She had one of those rare faces that seemed to reveal everything she was feeling, no matter how hard she tried to cover it up. She was a bundle of contradictions. She was alternately attracted to Welles and worried that he might do something that would hurt the business. She was vulnerable and strong, romantic yet practical. She definitely wasn't a natural-born restauranteur, yet the business she presided over continued to operate at a high level. She made it work, as G. A. Henty would say, by sheer pluck.

A fascinating subject for an interview!

BTW: a commenter speculates that the writer in the Basque village was New Yorker writer, Lillian Ross. Could that be? I wish I knew.

LUNCH WITH ORSON WELLES

A new book has come out: "My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles," edited by Peter Biskind. If you're a Welles fan like I am this is must reading. I'll digest a few quotes from the book, and mention that these are Welles' opinions, not my own.


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."