Orson Welles: The One-Man Band (1995)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Directors:

Vassili Silovic
Oja Kodar (co-director)

Writers:

Vassili Silovic (writer)
Roland Zag (writer)

Release Date:

8 October 1995 (France)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Orson Welles' archives of unfinished/never released movies and the last years of his life from the perspective...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film | Character Name In Title

Cast

Oja Kodar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ingrid Bergman	...	Herself (segment "Salute to Orson Welles") (archive footage)
Tim Brooke-Taylor	...	Algy in 'Stately Homes' segment, Presenter in 'One-Man Band' segment
Michael Bryant	...	(segment "The deep") (archive footage)
Graeme Garden	...	Interviewer in 'Stately Homes' segment (voice)
Charles Gray	...	(segment "Taylor's shop" / segment "The merchant of Venice") (archive footage)
Laurence Harvey	...	(segment "The deep") (archive footage)
François Marthouret	...	Narrator (french version) / Récitant (voice)
Jeanne Moreau	...	(segment "The Deep") (archive footage)
Orson Welles	...	Himself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Orson Welles - l'homme orchestre (France) (TV title)
The Lost Films of Orson Welles (UK) (TV title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Germany | France | Switzerland

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)

Trivia:

"The One Man Band" was originally the title that Orson Welles was going to use for an autobiographical film featuring his unfinished work from the '70s and '80s.

Movie Connections:

Features The Merchant of Venice (1969) (TV)

A haunting treat for Welles fans

When Orson Welles died in 1985, he left behind him several masterpieces, several interesting failures & countless performances in films of varying quality. He also left a massive amount of unfinished work & the legend of a great filmmaker who peaked early & spent the rest of his career struggling to finish projects, most of which remain incomplete.

I'm not sure if this documentary debunks or cements that image, but it doesn't really matter, because the real image one is left with is of a filmmaker as a true artist, experimenting with different techniques & ideas as soon as they occur to him, often abandoning films as one might throw away a rough sketch that doesn't quite work. He carried his editing table around the world with him as a painter might carry his brushes & paint.

The real joy to be had here is in seeing these rough sketches - short comic skits, recitals from Moby Dick & Shakespeare, screentests & so on. Even more tantalising are the brief glimpses of larger projects which were unable to be completed - The Deep, The Other Side Of The Wind & The Merchant Of Venice. There's several appearances by Welles himself in various forums - talking at a university, performing magic & chatting with the Muppets.

Oja Kodar, Welles' longtime companion & collaborator, takes the viewer through this previously unseen body of work & gives a picture of the filmmaker that is in marked contrast to the commonly held image of Welles as some kind of burnt-out megalomaniac.

Underlying this film is a deep sadness at the fact that Orson Welles could have achieved so much more, had he been given the chance & not run into so much bad luck, but it is wonderful that some of his 'lost' films have been allowed to see the light of day.