As one who had just completed a viewing of Ciitzen Kane on DVD(featuring the excellent audio commentary on the film by Roger Ebert & Rudy Behlmer) I turned to Frank Brady's excellent biography.This is Orson Welles completes my examination of this giant of film directorship. Over several years and in many locals the Falstaffian Welles shares his thoughts on film, his own movies and life with his devoted student Peter Bogdonovich...
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I commend to the book above, an interview with Peter Bogdanovich. Although I'm not a huge fan of the latter's movies (with the exception of "Paper Moon," which I loved ever since it came out when I was eight, and fell in love with tomboy Tatum O'Neill forthrightly), I have begun reading about half of this book over the past few days, and find it better than my previous favourite, the Hitchcock/Truffaut book. Of course, much...
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Of all books about Orson Welles, this one gives us the closest understanding of his genius. It contains a collection of interviews given to Welles by his good friend, Peter Pogdanovich. We are given a personal tour of Welles' thoughts and motivations behind some of his greatest or most notorious works, without the pompous guesswork of an independant biographer. At the same time, Pogdonavich acting as interviewer lends an...
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Some have criticized this book, which Welles felt was the definitive word on his films, by stating that it never deals with Orson's children or his failed marriages. That has nothing to do with what this book is about. If you are looking for a biography then look elsewhere. This is Orson Welles talking about his films and his life in film and what he was trying to do and say. When I finished reading I knew that for...
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The first good thing about this book is that the interviews are by Peter Bogdanovich who is also a movie maker. He knows as much about movies as Orson and is not afraid to challenge him. There is a lot of source material, e.g. notes/letters/memos written by Orson and other people he worked with which give a very personal feeling to the overall book. Also the fact that the interviews were conducted over a number of years...
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