Orson Welles, Volume 3
One-Man Band
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £9.49
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- £9.49
Publisher Description
In One-Man Band, the third volume in his epic survey of Orson Welles’ life and work, Simon Callow again probes in comprehensive and penetrating detail into one of the most complex artists of the twentieth century, looking closely at the triumphs and failures of an ambitious one-man assault on one medium after another – theatre, radio, film, television, even, at one point, ballet – in each of which his radical and original approach opened up new directions and hitherto unglimpsed possibilities.
The book begins with Welles’ self-exile from America, and his realisation that he could only function happily as an independent film-maker, a one-man band; by 1964, he had filmed Othello, which took three years to complete, Mr Arkadin, the biggest conundrum in his output, and his masterpiece Chimes at Midnight, as well as Touch of Evil, his sole return to Hollywood and, like all too many of his films, wrested from his grasp and re-edited. Along the way he made inroads into the fledgling medium of television and a number of stage plays, including Moby-Dick, considered by theatre historians to be one of the seminal productions of the century. Meanwhile, his private life was as dramatic as his professional life.
The book shows what it was like to be around Welles, and, with a precision rarely attempted before, what it was like to be him, in which lies the answer to the old riddle: whatever happened to Orson Welles?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the riveting and wonderfully wrought third volume of Callow's ambitious four-part biography of Orson Welles (after Orson Welles, Vol. 2: Hello Americans), the biographer and actor examines the forces that led to Welles's self-imposed exile from America. Beginning in 1947 as Welles prepares to film Othello and ending in 1965 following the release of another Shakespeare adaptation, Chimes at Midnight, this entry pursues Hollywood's enfant terrible through the difficult period that nonetheless spawned some of his greatest films, including Touch of Evil. Published 101 years after Welles's birth, Callow's book is a genuine gift to film buffs and historians. Drawing on previously published materials, extensive interviews, and diary excerpts, Callow provides new insight into Welles's character and a deeper appreciation of his broad talent. Despite the author's evident admiration for his subject, this isn't a fawning homage but a warts-and-all look at Welles's life and at the creative processes that allowed him to flourish in film, theater, radio, and television. Callow's acting background and flair for drama transform his research into an immersive, engaging, and immensely readable portrait of Welles, revealing a complicated man and innovative artist whose own life mirrored the Shakespearian tragedies of which he was so fond.
