Working with Orson Welles (1993) (V)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Genre:

Documentary

Cast

Peter Jason

...

Himself

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Stories

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Spoilers herein.

Documentaries about filmmakers are pretty dreary experiences in most cases, but this one is worth seeing even if you don't know Welles work well. It is all the more strange because the man behind this project is a troubled soul indeed, someone apparently without much talent himself. But it works because we have actors

It works because Welles' genius was in the storytelling itself. He understood that so thoroughly well that he could exploit learned technologies, accidents, opportunistic talent, and a multitude of whims in such a way that each added to the visual narrative. Stories. And that's what we have here, mostly stories told about Welles by theater people. Because they are theater people themselves, they are pretty good at telling these stories, especially as they have already told and refined them hundreds of times.

The Bogdonovich sequence really brought the whole thing down. He wrote a book on Welles, a project that Welles initiated and sanctioned. But he asked Bog to handle it precisely because he had all the crippled intellectualism Welles made fun of (on which Bog himself unknowlingly remarks). The book was intended like the `David and Goliath' task: a goof. Other low points were Graver's insistent display of his own adolescent films.

Graver's own work since leaving Welles is an odd saga. He's done porn, and soft porn. One of those I was able to find (`Scorned 2') and apart from the cheezy smut saw some elaborate ideas on narrative folding as translated through a chemically-damaged mind. He's done some more competent folding as well. I imagine there is a punctuated substance abuse problem there. What we need is a documentary on this documentary. And please, can we see something of `Other Side of the Wind,' and `The Deep'? Can we have the raw footage placed online so that thousands of clever edits can spring forth from Macs?

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.