"Citizen Kane" director Orson Welles was a highly prolific and influential filmmaker, to say the least. His obsession with exploring power through unconventional means has resulted in some of the most acclaimed films in the American movie canon. While some of his movies were not fully appreciated in their time, it's hard to overstate the influence Welles has had on filmmaking and filmmakers to this day.
However, for as many movies as he was able to make, there were just as many that he didn't couldn't to life. For a variety of reasons, many of Welles' projects wound up never seeing the light of day. These films have long been the subject of speculation and confusion, as there often isn't a lot of available details about them. However, that just makes these unfinished films that much more interesting to learn about. And you're looking for a guide to some of...
However, for as many movies as he was able to make, there were just as many that he didn't couldn't to life. For a variety of reasons, many of Welles' projects wound up never seeing the light of day. These films have long been the subject of speculation and confusion, as there often isn't a lot of available details about them. However, that just makes these unfinished films that much more interesting to learn about. And you're looking for a guide to some of...
- 8/15/2022
- by Erin Brady
- Slash Film
by Cláudio Alves
With David Fincher's Mank on Netflix, many have been talking about Citizen Kane. The writing of Orson Welles' putative first feature is central to the new movie, but the narrative is far more interested in the 1934 California gubernatorial election than in the shooting of Kane. We never see cameras rolling on that which has been, at one point, considered the best movie ever made. Whether you agree with that hyperbolic title or not, it's undeniable that it's one of the most written about works ever produced by Hollywood, with essays such as Pauline Kael's Raising Kane enshrining the picture in prestige and controversy.
While I admire Citizen Kane and find it a masterpiece, I must admit to being far more fascinated by Welles' later efforts. Through exiles and a myriad of unfinished experiments, Orson Welles' filmography extends well beyond Kane…...
With David Fincher's Mank on Netflix, many have been talking about Citizen Kane. The writing of Orson Welles' putative first feature is central to the new movie, but the narrative is far more interested in the 1934 California gubernatorial election than in the shooting of Kane. We never see cameras rolling on that which has been, at one point, considered the best movie ever made. Whether you agree with that hyperbolic title or not, it's undeniable that it's one of the most written about works ever produced by Hollywood, with essays such as Pauline Kael's Raising Kane enshrining the picture in prestige and controversy.
While I admire Citizen Kane and find it a masterpiece, I must admit to being far more fascinated by Welles' later efforts. Through exiles and a myriad of unfinished experiments, Orson Welles' filmography extends well beyond Kane…...
- 12/19/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
The record shows Orson Welles as a grand artist of serious subjects and baroque tastes. That alone is reason enough to hail the discovery, restoration and presentation of the long-thought-lost Too Much Johnson, a tribute to the silent slapstick shorts of Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. It is an unfinished project in its own right but is nonetheless complete enough to reveal a side of Welles so rarely exhibited to the public. That it was made three years before Citizen Kane makes it an invaluable find, a glimpse of the artist exploring the new medium of film with a natural affinity for the possibilities inherent in cinema. But that's a matter of historical scholarship. What matters to the rest of us is that Too Much Johnson is funny, clever, cheeky, inventive and genuinely accomplished, which makes it worth watching on its own modest yet playful merits.>> - Sean...
- 1/31/2016
- Keyframe
The record shows Orson Welles as a grand artist of serious subjects and baroque tastes. That alone is reason enough to hail the discovery, restoration and presentation of the long-thought-lost Too Much Johnson, a tribute to the silent slapstick shorts of Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. It is an unfinished project in its own right but is nonetheless complete enough to reveal a side of Welles so rarely exhibited to the public. That it was made three years before Citizen Kane makes it an invaluable find, a glimpse of the artist exploring the new medium of film with a natural affinity for the possibilities inherent in cinema. But that's a matter of historical scholarship. What matters to the rest of us is that Too Much Johnson is funny, clever, cheeky, inventive and genuinely accomplished, which makes it worth watching on its own modest yet playful merits.>> - Sean...
- 1/31/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Displaying a transparency that few filmmakers of his fame and / or caliber would even bother with, Steven Soderbergh has, for a couple of years, been keen on releasing lists of what he watched and read during the previous twelve months. If you’re at all interested in this sort of thing — and why not? what else are you even doing with your day? — the 2015 selection should be of strong interest, this being a time when he was fully enmeshed in the world of creating television.
He’s clearly observing the medium with a close eye, be it what’s on air or what his friends (specifically David Fincher and his stillborn projects) show him, and how that might relate to his apparent love of 48 Hours Mystery or approach to a comparatively light slate of cinematic assignments — specifically: it seems odd that the last time he watched Magic Mike Xxl, a...
He’s clearly observing the medium with a close eye, be it what’s on air or what his friends (specifically David Fincher and his stillborn projects) show him, and how that might relate to his apparent love of 48 Hours Mystery or approach to a comparatively light slate of cinematic assignments — specifically: it seems odd that the last time he watched Magic Mike Xxl, a...
- 1/6/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Rio de Janeiro’s International Film Festival opened last night (Oct 1) celebrating the life and work of local hero Chico Buarque who, at 71, remains one of Brazil’s top composers, musicians and singers.
The world premiere of documentary Chico - Artista Brasileiro packed Cine Odeon, a 90-year-old movie theatre that will host public screenings of the most important festival sections, including Premiere Brasil.
As Rio celebrated its 450th anniversary in March, it proved appropriate to open the city’s film festival with a documentary that reflected its spirit and culture.
Directed by Miguel Faria Jr., the film attempts to uncover the man behind the artist simply known as “Chico” in Brazil, with testimonials from the musician and those closest to him.
Chico - Artista Brasileiro centres on the list of the artist who wrote Bossa Nova songs in the 1960s and faced censorship in the 1970s, for attacking the Brazilian military dictatorship in his lyrics.
Chico is also...
The world premiere of documentary Chico - Artista Brasileiro packed Cine Odeon, a 90-year-old movie theatre that will host public screenings of the most important festival sections, including Premiere Brasil.
As Rio celebrated its 450th anniversary in March, it proved appropriate to open the city’s film festival with a documentary that reflected its spirit and culture.
Directed by Miguel Faria Jr., the film attempts to uncover the man behind the artist simply known as “Chico” in Brazil, with testimonials from the musician and those closest to him.
Chico - Artista Brasileiro centres on the list of the artist who wrote Bossa Nova songs in the 1960s and faced censorship in the 1970s, for attacking the Brazilian military dictatorship in his lyrics.
Chico is also...
- 10/2/2015
- by elaineguerini@terra.com.br (Elaine Guerini)
- ScreenDaily
Rio de Janeiro’s International Film Festival opened last night (Oct 1) celebrating the life and work of local hero Chico Buarque who, at 71, remains one of Brazil’s top composers, musicians and singers.
The world premiere of documentary Chico - Artista Brasileiro packed Cine Odeon, a 90-year-old movie theatre that will host public screenings of the most important festival sections, including Premiere Brasil.
As Rio celebrated its 450th anniversary in March, it proved appropriate to open the city’s film festival with a documentary that reflected its spirit and culture.
Directed by Miguel Faria Jr., the film attempts to uncover the man behind the artist simply known as “Chico” in Brazil, with testimonials from the musician and those closest to him.
Chico - Artista Brasileiro centres on the list of the artist who wrote Bossa Nova songs in the 1960s and faced censorship in the 1970s, for attacking the Brazilian military dictatorship in his lyrics.
Chico is also...
The world premiere of documentary Chico - Artista Brasileiro packed Cine Odeon, a 90-year-old movie theatre that will host public screenings of the most important festival sections, including Premiere Brasil.
As Rio celebrated its 450th anniversary in March, it proved appropriate to open the city’s film festival with a documentary that reflected its spirit and culture.
Directed by Miguel Faria Jr., the film attempts to uncover the man behind the artist simply known as “Chico” in Brazil, with testimonials from the musician and those closest to him.
Chico - Artista Brasileiro centres on the list of the artist who wrote Bossa Nova songs in the 1960s and faced censorship in the 1970s, for attacking the Brazilian military dictatorship in his lyrics.
Chico is also...
- 10/2/2015
- by elaineguerini@terra.com.br (Elaine Guerini)
- ScreenDaily
The centenary of Orson Welles occurred on May 6 this year, but tributes and celebrations for the legendary filmmaker continue throughout 2015.
One such project is Austin Pendleton's play Orson's Shadow, which focuses on the relationship between Welles and actor Laurence Olivier.
The critically-acclaimed production stars Coupling actress Gina Bellman as Vivien Leigh, John Hodgkinson as Welles and Adrian Lukis as Olivier.
The play will continue to run at London's Southwark Playhouse until Saturday (July 25).
Elsewhere, the BFI continues to run its own Orson Welles series, including screenings of his classics and forgotten gems such as Citizen Kane, F for Fake and the recently-discovered Too Much Johnson.
His 1949 masterpiece The Third Man was re-released in a new 4K resolution at cinemas on June 26, while a DVD and Blu-ray release comes out today (July 20).
New documentary Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles was also released at selected UK cinemas...
One such project is Austin Pendleton's play Orson's Shadow, which focuses on the relationship between Welles and actor Laurence Olivier.
The critically-acclaimed production stars Coupling actress Gina Bellman as Vivien Leigh, John Hodgkinson as Welles and Adrian Lukis as Olivier.
The play will continue to run at London's Southwark Playhouse until Saturday (July 25).
Elsewhere, the BFI continues to run its own Orson Welles series, including screenings of his classics and forgotten gems such as Citizen Kane, F for Fake and the recently-discovered Too Much Johnson.
His 1949 masterpiece The Third Man was re-released in a new 4K resolution at cinemas on June 26, while a DVD and Blu-ray release comes out today (July 20).
New documentary Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles was also released at selected UK cinemas...
- 7/20/2015
- Digital Spy
It is entirely in keeping with the life and career of Orson Welles (1915-1985) that the centenary of his birth is being marked in such excessive fashion. One of his first films was called Too Much Johnson (1938). As we are bombarded with new documentaries and tributes to the great man, there may be a sense of Too Much Welles. There are three rival new documentaries about him. Several of his films are being rereleased. An online campaign has just been launched to raise money to complete his unfinished late feature, The Other Side of the Wind, about a macho, Hemingway-like film director. The BFI is holding a lengthy season of his work.
- 6/17/2015
- The Independent - Film
Orson Welles was born 100 years ago today and, as Jonathan Rosenbaum tells Kevin B. Lee in the video we posted the other day, we're still discovering him—in the films we believe we already know and in the films we know are out there but haven't yet seen. Following the rediscovery and restoration of Too Much Johnson (1938) and last year's restoration of Othello (1952), we've seen a restoration of Chimes at Midnight (1965) and the team working on The Other Side of the Wind is still at it, though, as Ray Kelly reports at Wellesnet, the project "is still far from done." But today's for celebrating. We're gathering links, videos and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/6/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Orson Welles was born 100 years ago today and, as Jonathan Rosenbaum tells Kevin B. Lee in the video we posted the other day, we're still discovering him—in the films we believe we already know and in the films we know are out there but haven't yet seen. Following the rediscovery and restoration of Too Much Johnson (1938) and last year's restoration of Othello (1952), we've seen a restoration of Chimes at Midnight (1965) and the team working on The Other Side of the Wind is still at it, though, as Ray Kelly reports at Wellesnet, the project "is still far from done." But today's for celebrating. We're gathering links, videos and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/6/2015
- Keyframe
"Film Forum toasts 2015, the centennial of Orson Welles’s birth, with Orson Welles 100, an exhaustive five-week overview of his oeuvre," reports Andy Webster in the New York Times. William Friedkin will introduce screenings of Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and the Film Forum Players will accompany screenings of Too Much Johnson (1938). Welles scholar Joseph McBride discusses Chimes at Midnight (1965) and we're collecting more writing on The Stranger (1946), Othello (1952) and The Trial (1963). » - David Hudson...
- 1/1/2015
- Keyframe
"Film Forum toasts 2015, the centennial of Orson Welles’s birth, with Orson Welles 100, an exhaustive five-week overview of his oeuvre," reports Andy Webster in the New York Times. William Friedkin will introduce screenings of Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and the Film Forum Players will accompany screenings of Too Much Johnson (1938). Welles scholar Joseph McBride discusses Chimes at Midnight (1965) and we're collecting more writing on The Stranger (1946), Othello (1952) and The Trial (1963). » - David Hudson...
- 1/1/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
'Sherlock Holmes' movie found at Cinémathèque Française (image: William Gillette in 'Sherlock Holmes') Sherlock Holmes, a long-thought-lost 1916 feature starring stage performer and playwright William Gillette in the title role, has been discovered in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française. Directed by the all-but-forgotten Arthur Berthelet for the Chicago-based Essanay production company, the approximately 90-minute movie is supposed to be not only the sole record of William Gillette's celebrated performance as Arthur Conan Doyle's detective, but also the only surviving Gillette film.* In the late 19th century, William Gillette himself wrote the play Sherlock Holmes, which turned out to be a mash-up of various stories and novels featuring the detective, chiefly the short stories "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Final Problem." ("May I marry Holmes?" Gillette, while vying for the role, telegraphed Conan Doyle. The latter replied, "You may marry or murder or do What you like with him.
- 10/3/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The air is thin, the lines are long, and the choices maddening, but the Telluride Film Festival remains one of the world’s greatest movie events. This year’s Labor Day Weekend gathering—the 41st, to be exact—was no exception, offering exciting new films from around the globe, revivals, discoveries, world-class guests, and spectacular scenery. My family and I feel lucky to be invited. I can’t begin to cover the whole festival, but I will mention a few highlights: Paolo Cherchi Usai’s lively, informative presentation of the Orson Welles footage from Too Much Johnson, with piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin…a tribute to Hilary Swank, who gives a truly great performance opposite Tommy...
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- 9/3/2014
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Main programme includes Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game and Rosewater.
The Telluride Film Festival (Aug 29 - Sept 1) has revealed the line-up for its 41st edition, packed with films tipped for awards season.
The festival will include 85 features, short films and revivals representing 28 countries, along with special artist tributes, conversations, panels and education programmes.
The main programme includes Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, which opened the Venice Film Festival to rave reviews yesterday.
The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, The Homesman, directed by Tommy Lee Jones, and Jon Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater are all generating awards buzz.
There are also several titles that picked up prizes in Cannes earlier this year including Foxcatcher, which won Bennett Miller best director; Russian drama Leviathan, winner of best screenplay; Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, which saw Timothy Spall win best actor; and jury prize winner Mommy from Xavier Dolan.
The 50 Year Argument (d. Martin Scorsese, [link...
The Telluride Film Festival (Aug 29 - Sept 1) has revealed the line-up for its 41st edition, packed with films tipped for awards season.
The festival will include 85 features, short films and revivals representing 28 countries, along with special artist tributes, conversations, panels and education programmes.
The main programme includes Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, which opened the Venice Film Festival to rave reviews yesterday.
The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, The Homesman, directed by Tommy Lee Jones, and Jon Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater are all generating awards buzz.
There are also several titles that picked up prizes in Cannes earlier this year including Foxcatcher, which won Bennett Miller best director; Russian drama Leviathan, winner of best screenplay; Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, which saw Timothy Spall win best actor; and jury prize winner Mommy from Xavier Dolan.
The 50 Year Argument (d. Martin Scorsese, [link...
- 8/28/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
There are a lot of familiar faces in the just announced 2014 Telluride Film Festival line-up, but as much as this fest is about what's officially announced, it's also about what's not mentioned as secret screenings are pretty much what makes Telluride such a buzzy fest, though this year a little bit of snow may also be part of the conversation. As for the titles announced so far you have Venice early standout Birdman, Jon Stewart's Rosewater, The Imitation Game and Jean-Marc Vallee's Wild along with a Ton of Cannes crossover pics including Foxcatcher, The Homesman, Leviathan, Mommy, Mr. Turner, Red Army, Wild Tales and Two Days, One Night. There is plenty of Toronto crossover with many of this pics as well, which also includes Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes, the new Martin Scorsese documentary The 50 Year Argument, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence and Ethan Hawke's Seymour among others.
- 8/28/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Okay, so it might not be "The Other Side Of The Wind" —Orson Welles' unfinished movie that has been in various states of restoration for years— but "Too Much Johnson" is still a project from the famed filmmaker that's been in the shadows for a long, long, long time. But now you can download it right to your desktop. Legally! But first, some backstory... Last summer, Welles' first feature film "Too Much Johnson" (his first short was 1934's "The Hearts of Age," made while still in high school and co-directed by William Vance) was discovered in a shipping warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. It was dusted off rather quickly, and last fall was unspooled at the 32nd Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, before making its way stateside for a screening at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. And thanks to the efforts of the National Film Preservation Foundation...
- 8/21/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
This half-hour version of Too Much Johnson mostly consists of the play’s opening sequence, set in New York City. Orson Welles had worked on these sequences firsthand, and you can see the delight he had in the cutting room as he discovered an array of cinematic effects. Here he cuts his way into making one of the most erotic scenes of the 1930s, even though his actors keep their clothes on. Purely through the use of shock edits, he conjures the ecstatic sensation of wild lovemaking. It would take twenty years before The French New Wave and New Hollywood would film scenes like this.>> - Kevin B. Lee...
- 8/21/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
This half-hour version of Too Much Johnson mostly consists of the play’s opening sequence, set in New York City. Orson Welles had worked on these sequences firsthand, and you can see the delight he had in the cutting room as he discovered an array of cinematic effects. Here he cuts his way into making one of the most erotic scenes of the 1930s, even though his actors keep their clothes on. Purely through the use of shock edits, he conjures the ecstatic sensation of wild lovemaking. It would take twenty years before The French New Wave and New Hollywood would film scenes like this.>> - Kevin B. Lee...
- 8/21/2014
- Keyframe
Before 1941’s Citizen Kane, director Orson Welles played around with film to make 1938’s Too Much Johnson, an unfinished project now available to stream online for free.
When Welles’ Mercury Theatre put on a production of William Gillette’s 1894 comedy Too Much Johnson, he made silent film counterparts to be shown throughout the live production. The film never made it into the production though and was unseen by the public until it was discovered in Italy in 2013, and has only been shown publicly a handful of times since its uncovering.
The National Film Preservation Foundation put the work on its...
When Welles’ Mercury Theatre put on a production of William Gillette’s 1894 comedy Too Much Johnson, he made silent film counterparts to be shown throughout the live production. The film never made it into the production though and was unseen by the public until it was discovered in Italy in 2013, and has only been shown publicly a handful of times since its uncovering.
The National Film Preservation Foundation put the work on its...
- 8/21/2014
- by Ariana Bacle
- EW - Inside Movies
The record shows Orson Welles as a grand artist of serious subjects and baroque tastes. That alone is reason enough to hail the discovery, restoration and presentation of the long-thought-lost Too Much Johnson, a tribute to the silent slapstick shorts of Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. It is an unfinished project in its own right but is nonetheless complete enough to reveal a side of Welles so rarely exhibited to the public. That it was made three years before Citizen Kane makes it an invaluable find, a glimpse of the artist exploring the new medium of film with a natural affinity for the possibilities inherent in cinema. But that's a matter of historical scholarship. What matters to the rest of us is that Too Much Johnson is funny, clever, cheeky, inventive and genuinely accomplished, which makes it worth watching on its own modest yet playful merits.>> - Sean...
- 8/21/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
The record shows Orson Welles as a grand artist of serious subjects and baroque tastes. That alone is reason enough to hail the discovery, restoration and presentation of the long-thought-lost Too Much Johnson, a tribute to the silent slapstick shorts of Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. It is an unfinished project in its own right but is nonetheless complete enough to reveal a side of Welles so rarely exhibited to the public. That it was made three years before Citizen Kane makes it an invaluable find, a glimpse of the artist exploring the new medium of film with a natural affinity for the possibilities inherent in cinema. But that's a matter of historical scholarship. What matters to the rest of us is that Too Much Johnson is funny, clever, cheeky, inventive and genuinely accomplished, which makes it worth watching on its own modest yet playful merits.>> - Sean...
- 8/21/2014
- Keyframe
Reading about a rare film “find” is one thing: seeing it is another. The National Film Preservation Foundation is now streaming the long-lost Orson Welles Mercury Theatre footage of Too Much Johnson. Shot in New York City in 1938, it was part of Welles’ high-concept revival of an 1894 play featuring a young Joseph Cotten and other Mercury actors. This footage has intrigued Welles buffs for years, but it was said to have been lost in a house fire decades ago. Imagine how exciting it must have been to discover 10 reels of the original work print last year in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy! Film scholars owe a debt of thanks to the Cineteca del Friuli and Cinemazero, which took...
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[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...
- 8/21/2014
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
The best movie culture writing from around the internet-o-sphere. There will be a quiz later. Just leave a tab open for us, will ya? “The Most Bizarre SNL Sketch of the Season was Cut From Andrew Garfield’s Show” — Mike Ryan at ScreenCrush writhes in his seat trying to figure out how he feels about a comedy sketch with sexual harassment and ’90s Saturday morning sitcom style. Is anyone else suddenly hungry for chicken wings? “Orson Welles’s Too Much Johnson: the moment he fell in love with cinema” — Jordan Riefe at The Guardian profiles the recently rediscovered 1938 take on silent era film techniques, and the obsession of its creator. “Under the Skin and the Problem with the Adjective ‘Kubrickian’” — Vadim Rizov at Filmmaker Magazine reminds all of us that boiling down a director’s ideas, styles, preoccupations, limitations, and etc. to a single focal point is dangerous not only for the way we think about...
- 5/6/2014
- by Scott Beggs
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The rediscovered 1938 film, which has launched the Academy's Essential Orson Welles series, anticipates his later Diy spirit
Last summer, much excitement greeted the news that a work print of Orson Welles's long-lost Too Much Johnson, which pre-dates his first feature, Citizen Kane, had been discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. Produced in 1938 as part of a mixed-media staging of actor/playwright William Gillette's 1894 comedy, it consists of three filmed interstitial segments designed to provide backstory and context for the play, which unfortunately flopped in tryouts at Connecticut's Stony Creek theatre and never opened on Broadway.
Restored under the auspices of George Eastman House and the National Film Preservation Foundation, the footage (about 66 minutes) had been screened for the public only three times before its presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on 3 May as part of a double bill with Welles's earliest known film, the...
Last summer, much excitement greeted the news that a work print of Orson Welles's long-lost Too Much Johnson, which pre-dates his first feature, Citizen Kane, had been discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. Produced in 1938 as part of a mixed-media staging of actor/playwright William Gillette's 1894 comedy, it consists of three filmed interstitial segments designed to provide backstory and context for the play, which unfortunately flopped in tryouts at Connecticut's Stony Creek theatre and never opened on Broadway.
Restored under the auspices of George Eastman House and the National Film Preservation Foundation, the footage (about 66 minutes) had been screened for the public only three times before its presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on 3 May as part of a double bill with Welles's earliest known film, the...
- 5/5/2014
- by Jordan Riefe
- The Guardian - Film News
On slate this month for screening events at AMPAS – A trilogy of documentaries tailor-made for fans of the L.A. music scene in the early 80’s and two of the most fascinating characters to come out of the “Kennedy’s Camelot” era in American History.
Penelope Spheeris’ Decline Of Western Civilization films (I, II, and III) are a great walk down memory lane for music fans that came of age during the early 80’s in Los Angeles. 1 and 3 cover the early days of punk rock and 2, “the metal years” is an eye-opening look into the hair-bands that were struggling to make it on the famed Sunset Strip.
Grey Gardens, you just have to see to believe. Funny, sad, hilarious and sometimes shocking, this classic Maysles Brothers film documents a branch of the Kennedy family tree most people don’t know even existed.
April Events
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
Friday,...
Penelope Spheeris’ Decline Of Western Civilization films (I, II, and III) are a great walk down memory lane for music fans that came of age during the early 80’s in Los Angeles. 1 and 3 cover the early days of punk rock and 2, “the metal years” is an eye-opening look into the hair-bands that were struggling to make it on the famed Sunset Strip.
Grey Gardens, you just have to see to believe. Funny, sad, hilarious and sometimes shocking, this classic Maysles Brothers film documents a branch of the Kennedy family tree most people don’t know even existed.
April Events
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
Friday,...
- 4/1/2014
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Joel and Ethan Coen movie ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ tops 2014 National Society of Film Critics Awards (Oscar Isaac in ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’) The National Society of Film Critics is the last major U.S.-based critics’ group to announce their annual winners. This year, their top film was Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, a comedy-drama about a hapless folk singer. Inside Llewyn Davis also earned honors for the directors, star Oscar Isaac, and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. Additionally, the Coen brothers’ film was the runner-up in the Best Screenplay category. Inside Llewyn Davis is the first movie directed by Joel and Ethan Coen to win the top prize at the National Society of Film Critics Awards. Back in early 2008, whereas most critics’ groups — and the Academy Awards — went for the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, the Nsfc selected instead Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
- 1/7/2014
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
The Coen Brothers’ take on the early 1960s New York folk scene was named Best Picture Of The Year 2013 by the National Society Of Film Critics on January 4.
The Society’s 48th annual awards voting meeting’s weighted ballot system also delivered the Coens the best director crown, named Oscar Isaac best actor and anointed Bruno Delbonnel best cinematographer.
Cate Blanchett won the actress award for Blue Jasmine, James Franco was voted best supporting actor for Spring Breakers and Jennifer Lawrence best supporting actress for American Hustle.
Before Midnight earned the best screenplay. Blue Is The Warmest Color was named best foreign film, while An Act Of Killing took the documentary prize.
Leviathan was named best experimental film. Stray Dogs by Ming-liang Tsai and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone shared Best Film Awaiting American Distribution.
The following won the Film Heritage Award:
MoMA for its Allan Dwan retrospective;
the surviving reels of Orson Welles’ first...
The Society’s 48th annual awards voting meeting’s weighted ballot system also delivered the Coens the best director crown, named Oscar Isaac best actor and anointed Bruno Delbonnel best cinematographer.
Cate Blanchett won the actress award for Blue Jasmine, James Franco was voted best supporting actor for Spring Breakers and Jennifer Lawrence best supporting actress for American Hustle.
Before Midnight earned the best screenplay. Blue Is The Warmest Color was named best foreign film, while An Act Of Killing took the documentary prize.
Leviathan was named best experimental film. Stray Dogs by Ming-liang Tsai and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone shared Best Film Awaiting American Distribution.
The following won the Film Heritage Award:
MoMA for its Allan Dwan retrospective;
the surviving reels of Orson Welles’ first...
- 1/4/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Coen Brothers’ take on the early 1960s New York folk scene was named Best Picture Of The Year 2013 by the National Society Of Film Critics on January 4.
The Society’s 48th annual awards voting meeting’s weighted ballot system also delivered the Coens the best director crown, named Oscar Isaac best actor and anointed Bruno Delbonnel best cinematographer.
Cate Blanchett won the actress award for Blue Jasmine, James Franco was voted best supporting actor for Spring Breakers and Jennifer Lawrence best supporting actress for American Hustle.
Before Midnight earned the best screenplay. Blue Is The Warmest Color was named best foreign film, while An Act Of Killing took the documentary prize.
Leviathan was named best experimental film. Stray Dogs by Ming-liang Tsai and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone shared Best Film Awaiting American Distribution.
The following won the Film Heritage Award: MoMA for its Allan Dwan retrospective; the surviving reels of Orson Welles’ first...
The Society’s 48th annual awards voting meeting’s weighted ballot system also delivered the Coens the best director crown, named Oscar Isaac best actor and anointed Bruno Delbonnel best cinematographer.
Cate Blanchett won the actress award for Blue Jasmine, James Franco was voted best supporting actor for Spring Breakers and Jennifer Lawrence best supporting actress for American Hustle.
Before Midnight earned the best screenplay. Blue Is The Warmest Color was named best foreign film, while An Act Of Killing took the documentary prize.
Leviathan was named best experimental film. Stray Dogs by Ming-liang Tsai and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone shared Best Film Awaiting American Distribution.
The following won the Film Heritage Award: MoMA for its Allan Dwan retrospective; the surviving reels of Orson Welles’ first...
- 1/4/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Orson Welles Lost 1938 Film Too Much Johnson Receives New York City Premiere Mon., Nov. 25, 6:30 pm!
In 1934 a 19-year-old Orson Welles created his first short film Hearts Of Age, mostly seen by audiences many years later on home video. In 1938, to accompany his stage adaptation of William Gillette's 1894 play Too Much Johnson, Welles created three short films to act as prologues to each act of the play. Originally including live music and sound effects, and despite starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles himself, the three-act slapstick was never finished, and the play opened August 16, 1938, without the filmed sections. The film never received any public screenings, Welles moved on and the film was mislaid, and lost, later believed to have burned in a fire at his Spanish villa. Then, in 2012, almost 75 years after its...
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- 11/22/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Orson Welles' Too Much Johnson, screened for the first time to a full house at Pordenone Festival of Silent Cinema, comes trailing clouds of mystery like so much else in the life and work of its maker.
We know Welles shot the film in 1938 with a newsreel cameraman, intending it as a series of insert sequence within a play he was producing with the Mercury Theater. For various reasons, the three sequences, intended to carry the exposition in William Gillette's 1894 farce, were not ready or could not be projected when the play opened, and as a result the show was not a success.
Now George Eastman House has restored what it describes as Welles' cutting copy, apparently discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone itself. It consists of several reels of loosely ordered material with multiple takes, and was presented without any alteration apart from the preservation necessary to make the material projectable.
We know Welles shot the film in 1938 with a newsreel cameraman, intending it as a series of insert sequence within a play he was producing with the Mercury Theater. For various reasons, the three sequences, intended to carry the exposition in William Gillette's 1894 farce, were not ready or could not be projected when the play opened, and as a result the show was not a success.
Now George Eastman House has restored what it describes as Welles' cutting copy, apparently discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone itself. It consists of several reels of loosely ordered material with multiple takes, and was presented without any alteration apart from the preservation necessary to make the material projectable.
- 10/30/2013
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
This year's edition of the silent film festival featured Welles' previously-thought-lost Too Much Johnson amid a typically irreverent and varied selection
• Orson Welles's first professional film discovered in an Italian warehouse
• Review: Peter Bradshaw on Blancanieves
The first full day of the 32nd Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world's most prestigious silent-film festival, took place exactly 86 years after The Jazz Singer premiered in New York. There were no mournful faces in the town of Pordenone, Italy, where the Giornate is held, however. In this corner of the world, for one week only, it is not quite as if the talkies never arrived, but rather that they failed to stop the party. Silent cinema continues to reinvent itself, to surprise even its most protective guardians, and to multiply.
The opening gala night of the festival featured a recent film that paid tribute to European silent cinema, Pablo Berger's invigoratingly...
• Orson Welles's first professional film discovered in an Italian warehouse
• Review: Peter Bradshaw on Blancanieves
The first full day of the 32nd Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world's most prestigious silent-film festival, took place exactly 86 years after The Jazz Singer premiered in New York. There were no mournful faces in the town of Pordenone, Italy, where the Giornate is held, however. In this corner of the world, for one week only, it is not quite as if the talkies never arrived, but rather that they failed to stop the party. Silent cinema continues to reinvent itself, to surprise even its most protective guardians, and to multiply.
The opening gala night of the festival featured a recent film that paid tribute to European silent cinema, Pablo Berger's invigoratingly...
- 10/14/2013
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
As a sparkling restoration of Orson Welles's delirious 1947 film noir is unveiled at the London film festival, Tony Paley explores the dramatic story behind its production
• More on the London film festival
Citizen Kane may no longer automatically called the greatest film ever made, but a year after Orson Welles's movie was knocked off the top of Sight & Sound's poll on the 50 greatest films of all time, the late director is back in the spotlight with two world premieres.
This week, Too Much Johnson (1938), a forerunner to Citizen Kane, was screened where the director's "lost" silent film was found – in the Italian town of Pordenone. It coincided with the opening night of the London film festival, where the sparkling new restoration of The Lady from Shanghai (1947) will be unveiled.
Welles screened The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) for his cast and crew prior to shooting The Lady from Shanghai.
• More on the London film festival
Citizen Kane may no longer automatically called the greatest film ever made, but a year after Orson Welles's movie was knocked off the top of Sight & Sound's poll on the 50 greatest films of all time, the late director is back in the spotlight with two world premieres.
This week, Too Much Johnson (1938), a forerunner to Citizen Kane, was screened where the director's "lost" silent film was found – in the Italian town of Pordenone. It coincided with the opening night of the London film festival, where the sparkling new restoration of The Lady from Shanghai (1947) will be unveiled.
Welles screened The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) for his cast and crew prior to shooting The Lady from Shanghai.
- 10/10/2013
- by Tony Paley
- The Guardian - Film News
Lost footage shot by Citizen Kane director Orson Welles has been recovered.
Three short films from 1938 were found in a warehouse in north-east Italy. They were originally intended to be screened during a staging of the 19th Century comedy Too Much Johnson.
The movies were planned as prologues to each act of William Gillette's three-part farce but were never finished.
It was previously thought that the only known print was destroyed in a fire in 1970, according to the BBC.
Simon Callow, Welles's biographer, said the shorts represent "a very significant missing piece in the jigsaw of Welles's art".
He added: "It will tell us an enormous amount about his visual sensibility and indeed about his theatrical instincts."
Too Much Johnson was staged without the shorts at the Stony Creek Theatre in Connecticut in August 1938 but wasn't a success.
The short films, which weren't all intact, have been restored and...
Three short films from 1938 were found in a warehouse in north-east Italy. They were originally intended to be screened during a staging of the 19th Century comedy Too Much Johnson.
The movies were planned as prologues to each act of William Gillette's three-part farce but were never finished.
It was previously thought that the only known print was destroyed in a fire in 1970, according to the BBC.
Simon Callow, Welles's biographer, said the shorts represent "a very significant missing piece in the jigsaw of Welles's art".
He added: "It will tell us an enormous amount about his visual sensibility and indeed about his theatrical instincts."
Too Much Johnson was staged without the shorts at the Stony Creek Theatre in Connecticut in August 1938 but wasn't a success.
The short films, which weren't all intact, have been restored and...
- 8/8/2013
- Digital Spy
Milan — A long-lost Orson Welles film that was believed destroyed in a 1970 fire has been discovered in a northern Italian warehouse and will finally make its public debut 75 years after being filmed, an Italian film archive announced Thursday.
The silent film "Too Much Johnson," a slapstick comedy made just before Welles went to Hollywood to film "Citizen Kane," was found in a box that had been stored for years in the northeastern city of Pordenone before being identified, said Giuliana Puppin, a spokeswoman for the archive, Cineteca del Friuli.
How the 35mm nitrate print arrived in Pordenone remains a mystery.
Found by a shipping company, it was turned over at some point to a local film society – but the film seemed of no particular value and was left unopened for many years, Puppin said.
"We don't know where the box came from. There were no documents with it. We don't know the road it took,...
The silent film "Too Much Johnson," a slapstick comedy made just before Welles went to Hollywood to film "Citizen Kane," was found in a box that had been stored for years in the northeastern city of Pordenone before being identified, said Giuliana Puppin, a spokeswoman for the archive, Cineteca del Friuli.
How the 35mm nitrate print arrived in Pordenone remains a mystery.
Found by a shipping company, it was turned over at some point to a local film society – but the film seemed of no particular value and was left unopened for many years, Puppin said.
"We don't know where the box came from. There were no documents with it. We don't know the road it took,...
- 8/8/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Too Much Johnson – which was intended for inclusion in a theatre show – forms an 'intellectual bridge' between the director's theatrical and cinematic careers, says its restorer
Reading this on mobile? Click to view
It's hugely exciting discovery – and a bizarre, unexpected one too. An early Orson Welles film, previously thought lost, has been found in a warehouse in northern Italy. Too Much Johnson, the second film Welles ever created, is a silent movie, a slapstick comedy that has never been shown and was thought to have been destroyed in a fire.
"We may never fully understand the mystery of why it was abandoned. What matters now is that it is safe, and that it will be seen," says Dr Paolo Cherchi Usai, senior curator of motion pictures at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, which restored the footage.
The film, says Cherchi Usai, is the "intellectual bridge" between Welles's theatrical and cinematic careers.
Reading this on mobile? Click to view
It's hugely exciting discovery – and a bizarre, unexpected one too. An early Orson Welles film, previously thought lost, has been found in a warehouse in northern Italy. Too Much Johnson, the second film Welles ever created, is a silent movie, a slapstick comedy that has never been shown and was thought to have been destroyed in a fire.
"We may never fully understand the mystery of why it was abandoned. What matters now is that it is safe, and that it will be seen," says Dr Paolo Cherchi Usai, senior curator of motion pictures at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, which restored the footage.
The film, says Cherchi Usai, is the "intellectual bridge" between Welles's theatrical and cinematic careers.
- 8/8/2013
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Oh Orson Welles, how we love thee. Let us count the ways... From Rosebud to last month's "My Lunches with Orson," Welles continues to capture the minds of generations of filmmakers and film enthusiasts. Every so often, little bits of Welles' work and legacy seem to crop up out of the woodworks, and if you couldn't tell, we relish each revelation and rediscovery, from an unmade complete screenplay to a casino instructional video to a "Dark Tower" boardgame ad. Now, another piece of Welles has been uncovered in northern Italy, and it's about time. Considered to have been long lost (thought most likely to have been destroyed in a 1971 fire that burnt down Welles' Spanish villa), Welles' first professional film "Too Much Johnson" (his first amateur one was the 1934 short "The Hearts of Age" that he made still in high school) has been recovered from a shipping warehouse in Pordenone,...
- 8/8/2013
- by Diana Drumm
- The Playlist
75 years after it was shot, a silent film by Orson Welles is set to be screened at the Giornate del Cinema Muto festival in Italy. The film, though lost, was rediscovered in a warehouse in Pordenone, in north eastern Italy. It has now been painstakingly restored to life.
The film, Too Much Johnson, is a silent slapstick comedy which was originally made in three parts, each intended to introduce one act of a play put together by Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe. The play, which starred Joseph Cotton, ended up running without the film and was not successful. A subsequent fire at Welles' home was thought to have destroyed the only print of the film.
When rediscovered, the film had its first two reels in good condition but the third badly decomposed and covered in brown goo. It was passed to George Eastman House, an international museum of photography and film based.
The film, Too Much Johnson, is a silent slapstick comedy which was originally made in three parts, each intended to introduce one act of a play put together by Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe. The play, which starred Joseph Cotton, ended up running without the film and was not successful. A subsequent fire at Welles' home was thought to have destroyed the only print of the film.
When rediscovered, the film had its first two reels in good condition but the third badly decomposed and covered in brown goo. It was passed to George Eastman House, an international museum of photography and film based.
- 8/8/2013
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Silent short Too Much Johnson features Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles.
A 1938 Orson Welles film has been discovered in a warehouse in Italy.
Silent film Too Much Johnson, starring Joseph Cotten in the lead role, was found in a warehouse by the staff of Cinemazero, an art house in Pordenone, Italy.
The silent film was originally intended to be used in conjunction with Welles’ stage adaptation of an 1894 play by William Gillette. The Mercury Theatre planned to show the three short films as prologues to each act of the play.
The nitrate print of the film - left unfinished by the Mercury Theatre and never shown in public - was given by Cinemazero to one of Italy’s major film archives, the Cineteca del Friuli in nearby Gemona, and transferred from there to George Eastman House in order to be preserved.
According to published sources, until now the only known print of Too Much Johnson had burnt...
A 1938 Orson Welles film has been discovered in a warehouse in Italy.
Silent film Too Much Johnson, starring Joseph Cotten in the lead role, was found in a warehouse by the staff of Cinemazero, an art house in Pordenone, Italy.
The silent film was originally intended to be used in conjunction with Welles’ stage adaptation of an 1894 play by William Gillette. The Mercury Theatre planned to show the three short films as prologues to each act of the play.
The nitrate print of the film - left unfinished by the Mercury Theatre and never shown in public - was given by Cinemazero to one of Italy’s major film archives, the Cineteca del Friuli in nearby Gemona, and transferred from there to George Eastman House in order to be preserved.
According to published sources, until now the only known print of Too Much Johnson had burnt...
- 8/8/2013
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
A 35mm nitrate work print of Orson Welles' long-lost 1939 slapstick short film "Too Much Johnson" has been recovered.
Welles made the never completed short for his Mercury Theatre's stage production of William Gillette's 19th century comedy of the same name.
The plan was to show three short films as prologues to each act of the three-part slapstick comedy. It was never confirmed why the project was never completed, though the stage production was a flop.
A then 23-year-old Welles directed the work the same year he presented his infamous radio production of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds". Two years later he created his revered 1941 cinematic classic "Citizen Kane".
Until recently, the only known print of the film was destroyed in a fire at Welles' home near Madrid in 1970. This newly discovered print was located in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy, by staff from the film exhibition organization Cinemazero.
Welles made the never completed short for his Mercury Theatre's stage production of William Gillette's 19th century comedy of the same name.
The plan was to show three short films as prologues to each act of the three-part slapstick comedy. It was never confirmed why the project was never completed, though the stage production was a flop.
A then 23-year-old Welles directed the work the same year he presented his infamous radio production of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds". Two years later he created his revered 1941 cinematic classic "Citizen Kane".
Until recently, the only known print of the film was destroyed in a fire at Welles' home near Madrid in 1970. This newly discovered print was located in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy, by staff from the film exhibition organization Cinemazero.
- 8/8/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
It isn't The Merchant Of Venice or the missing footage from The Magnificent Ambersons, but the discovery of an Orson Welles work thought lost for forty years is still cause for celebration. So it's great news that the silent short Too Much Johnson (stop sniggering at the back) has been unearthed and restored in Italy, in time for this year's silent film festival in Pordonone in October. It was thought that the only copy was destroyed in a fire at Welles' Madrid home in 1970, but he always insisted another copy still existed somewhere. He was right!Too Much Johnson was filmed in 1938, three years before Citizen Kane and in the same year as Welles' infamous War Of The Worlds radio broadcast. A pastiche slapstick comedy, it stars Joseph Cotten along with other members of Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe, and was intended to form part of a theatre production, from which it took its title.
- 8/8/2013
- EmpireOnline
As any good film student or person with working Internet can tell you, Orson Welles made his feature-film debut with 1941’s Citizen Kane, thus ruining the lives of every first-time filmmaker thereafter. But somewhat less known is that Kane wasn’t Welles’ first at-bat: He shot his first short film in 1934 (in the same town that later hosted Groundhog Day), and in 1938, he even directed an almost-feature-length movie, the 40-minute Too Much Johnson. (Please keep reading.) Based on an 1894 William Gillette play, the film was meant to be the cinematic component of an ambitious, early multimedia ...
- 8/7/2013
- avclub.com
In 1941, Orson Welles released what was widely considered his feature film debut: A little movie called Citizen Kane. However, three years earlier, he shot another fullish-length (40 minutes) movie, Too Much Johnson, an adaptation of William Gillette's 1894 play. Welles originally shot the movie to play before his own stage version of the comedy, but never showed it to an audience as the play closed before he could finish editing it. It remained unseen for decades and, after a fire destroyed Welles' Spanish villa in 1970, it was widely considered that no copies existed.However, a copy was recently discovered in a warehouse in the northern Italian town of Pordenone. It's in surprisingly salvageable shape and is currently being restored by the George Eastman House with the help of the National Film Preservation Foundation with the intention of premiering it at Pordenone's silent film festival Le Giornate del Cinema Muto on October...
- 8/7/2013
- by Jesse David Fox
- Vulture
Though Orson Welles has been gone from this world for 28 years, but that doesn't mean he's done giving films to the world. Back in 1938, Welles worked on a stage production of an 1894 play from William Gillette. As part of the show, Welles and his Mercury Theater planned to show three short films as prologues to each act of the play. The segments together formed a three-part slapstick comedy starring Citizen Kane and Soylent Green actor Joseph Cotten, which were originally supposed to be screened with music and live sound effects, but the project was never completed and was thought lost. But it has just been found in Italy! Variety reports the film, called Too Much Johnson, was discovered in an Italian warehouse and has been restored and set for premiere at Italy’s silent film fest Le Giornate del Cinema Muto on October 9th. Following its debut overseas, the film...
- 8/7/2013
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
A long lost, never-before-seen film that was written and directed by 20-year-old wunderkind Orson Welles three years before the premiere of Citizen Kane has been unearthed in Italy and restored for a premiere in October. Too Much Johnson (1938), a screwball marital farce that starred Joseph Cotten, Arlene Francis and Ruth Ford, was done by Welles’ famed Mercury Theatre as a companion piece for a planned multimedia stage adaptation of the 19th century play by William Gillette. The silent work, filmed in three acts and about an hour in length, was never finished or seen publicly,
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- 8/7/2013
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As the New York Times' Dave Kehr points out in a recent highlight piece, Orson Welles' filmmaking debut came seven years before 1941's "Citizen Kane," with an eight-minute short titled "The Hearts of Age." Teenager Welles made the film with a friend from school, William Vance. In this early endeavor, Welles dons old-age makeup -- a sign of disguises to come in "Kane." Watch below. The main gist of Kehr's article, however, focuses on forty minutes of footage filmed by Welles in 1938, made to be shown with theatrical production "Too Much Johnson," a revival of an 1894 comedy the director planned for the 1938 season of the Mercury Theatre. When the show closed following a negatively received preview in Stony Creek, Connecticut, Welles put the footage aside. Mercury Theatre members, including eventual screen star Joseph Cotten and Welles' wife at the time, Virginia Nicholson, were part of the abandoned film. Recently...
- 8/7/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Orson Welles' "Too Much Johnson," a long-lost three-part slapstick comedy that he directed in 1938, has been found in an Italian warehouse and is being restored for its U.S. premiere in October. The George Eastman House film and photography museum will screen the silent film on Oct. 16 in Rochester, NY., following the restoration's world premiere on Oct. 9 at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, an Italian film festival devoted entirely to silent cinema. Also read: Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' Oscar Sells for Nearly $1 Million "Too Much Johnson" was originally intended to be...
- 8/7/2013
- by Greg Gilman
- The Wrap
As film lore tells us, director Orson Welles made his feature film debut with "Citizen Kane," widely considered to be the greatest movie of all time.
But as it turns out, "Citizen Kane" wasn't Welles's first film; he made a three-part slapstick comedy called "Too Much Johnson" in 1938 that was never seen by the public. The trio of short, silent films were meant to be screened as part of Welles's production of an 1894 William Gillette farce -- but the director never finished editing the footage, and the play closed early after terrible previews.
For years, film scholars have been intrigued by Welles's first movie project, but there was no known print in existence. Until now.
A copy of "Too Much Johnson" was unearthed in an Italian warehouse and is being restored at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York. "Too Much Johnson" will...
But as it turns out, "Citizen Kane" wasn't Welles's first film; he made a three-part slapstick comedy called "Too Much Johnson" in 1938 that was never seen by the public. The trio of short, silent films were meant to be screened as part of Welles's production of an 1894 William Gillette farce -- but the director never finished editing the footage, and the play closed early after terrible previews.
For years, film scholars have been intrigued by Welles's first movie project, but there was no known print in existence. Until now.
A copy of "Too Much Johnson" was unearthed in an Italian warehouse and is being restored at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York. "Too Much Johnson" will...
- 8/7/2013
- by Kelly Woo
- Moviefone
Orson Welles made his feature film debut as a director with Citizen Kane and before that he directed the eight-minute short film Hearts of Age, which you can watch at the bottom of this post. However, Welles worked on another film between those two efforts, which was believed lost forever... until now. Dave Kehr at the New York Times has posted a feature article on Welles' Too Much Johnson, a 1938 film he wrote, directed and never finished based on the play by William Gillette, which has recently resurfaced "in the warehouse of a shipping company in the northern Italian port city of Pordenone, where the footage had apparently been abandoned sometime in the 1970s." Classic film organization Cinemazero is working with George Eastman House and the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve and transfer the nitrate film to safety stock, after which the 40 minutes of surviving footage will be screened...
- 8/7/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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