Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-85), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter, a master of theater and radio, a modern Shakespeare, a magician who was always searching for a new trick to surprise his audience, a romantic and legendary figure who lived only for cinema.
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- Cast：
- Simon Callow , Norman Lloyd , Julie Taymor , Peter Bogdanovich , Elvis Mitchell , Henry Jaglom , Joseph McBride
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Reviews
Powerful
Nice effects though.
best movie i've ever seen.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
If you want a film that explores the work of Orson Welles, this film is well worth seeing. However, if you want to see a film about Welles himself and explores his psyche, then you should look further. I knew about most of his film projects but wanted to know what made him tick...what made him so successful but so self- sabotaging (both in films and in his relationships). Sadly, the documentary has very, very little to say about this and instead talks about his genius in a way that almost seems like supplication- --as if to even talk about his faults or psychological make-up was somehow sacrilege. I wanted deconstruction--the film just gives us adoration.So what question did I want to have answered? Well, most importantly why he never completed so many of his films and how this might be related to his personal life. A genius in some ways but also an incredibly flawed man who made a mess of so much promise. If you ever find a film that DOES explore Welles' psychological make-up, drop me a line. But a film that ONLY talks about his work but doesn't criticize or analyze it is interesting...mildly...but nothing more. To me, NOT to talk about his psychological state is like doing a film all about George Washington and never mentioning the Revolutionary War!
As a lifelong admirer of Orson Welles I usually feel that anything at all in which he features will be worth seeing - and then I remember things like Ferry To Hong Kong and reconsider. Magician is a once-over- lightly look at the life and times of Welles which thankfully makes no mention of Ferry To Hong Kong thus preventing me describing it accurately as a look at the life and times of Welles warts and all. If you're a Welles buff you can't really see too many clips of Chimes At Midnight even if you can, at you leisure, wallow in the whole film via the DVD now available once again. Magician also offers clips across the board from Welles the actor, Welles the Broadcaster, Welles the writer, Welles the director so it really would be churlish to ask for more
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles celebrates the centenary of the birth of the legendary Actor, Director, Raconteur and Foodie. The documentary has no narration, it just uses clips from Welles movies, footage from interviews and Welles himself ends up narrating his life through anecdotes and stories he told throughout his career.The problem is if you want to know about the man just watch the Arena documentary from the BBC that was made a few years before he died where you get Orson Welles, his life and career from the big man himself, many clips of which are used here.Magician feels like a tepid rundown of his career. There are some major contributors such as Steven Spielberg but the only interesting aspect I took from this is a man who became a low budget independent film-maker, forever looking to raise money so he could complete the many films he had in production at any one time, some of them going on for years, many never completed.Orson Welles was an important figure in cinematic history, this documentary is a starter not the main course.
This is a fine documentary. I liked it. Guess you can't please everybody.I wanted to tell a story here. A friend of mine was a cab driver in LA from 84 through 90 or so and swears this story is true.As a present for my friend's birthday, another driver let him pick up a regular, weekly round trip: Orson Welles to and from some Italian restaurant in LA. Welles gets in the cab, and my friend tried to engage him in conversation. "I'm a big fan, Mr. Welles," etc. And... nothing. Stony silence. "Cause you know, Third Man is one of the best movies ever..." etc. Nothing. Not word one. Now, my friend tries to to get him to say something. "Boy, they really cheated you on Magnificent Ambersons." Silence. My friend finally gets down to saying, "Cause, you know, Citizen Kane really wasn't that good."Welles also said nothing on the way home.