2015 (May 6th to be precise) is the the 100 year anniversary of Orson Welles's birth.
I recently watched MAGICIAN a very fast moving wide ranging documentary about Welles and his career (good overview with lots of great interviews, I liked it). I've always thought Welles was a genius and I especially liked some of the comments on his film making style by other directors. In particular, a point made by Martin Scorcese that Welles was the first director he saw that shot scenes like you were stumbling into something already in progress as opposed to a set piece staged for a particular moment....Something European filmmakers copied a lot.
Also liked attention paid to two lesser known Welles films that I really enjoy CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (Welles favorite film of his own movies) and his adaptation of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL.
Great stories about how Welles found himself shooting independent movies in foreign settings on shoestring budgets and then running out of money....A scene from his version of OTHELLO was shot in a steam bath because they had no money for wardrobe and the owner let them shoot for free. Most intriguing is that Welles started but didn't complete numerous projects. Some of these films have surfaced, some have not.
The greatest find of all would be the original cut of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, Welles second film, which was butchered by the studios. The version commonly seen is still pretty good but unedited print I imagine would be another Welles masterpiece.
Society often favors commerce over artistic genius. Just think what else Welles could produced in film had he had the resources.
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