Orson Welles Remembered
Interviews with His Actors, Editors, Cinematographers and Magicians
Peter Prescott
Tonguette
ISBN
978-0-7864-2760-4
18 photos, notes, bibliography, index
216pp.
softcover
2007
Available for immediate shipment
Description
With a career spanning almost five decades, Orson Welles became—and in many ways still is—one of entertainment’s biggest names. His temperamental vitality, his humor and his general theatricality contributed volumes to the American stage and movie screen. His concepts of lighting and staging brought a new era to American productions. Welles influenced an entire generation of directors.
These interviews conducted between 2003 and 2005 record the reminiscences of 30 individuals who worked with Orson Welles in a professional capacity. Beginning with 1937 and his work in Mercury Theatre, it follows a selected few of many who were part of Welles’s life up to his sudden death in October 1985. Including actors, editors, cinematographers, camera assistants and magicians, the work presents a rounded view of Welles’s career and, to some extent, his personal life. Each interview is presented in question and answer format with occasional commentary inserted for context or clarification. Projects discussed include Welles’s most notable (Citizen Kane and War of the Worlds) as well as others like Heart of Darkness and The Cradle Will Rock which never quite reached fruition.
About the Author
Peter Prescott Tonguette is an Ohio-based film critic and essayist
Reviews
“a fascinating oral history...fully half of the 32 interviews collected here are related either to The Magic Show or to The Other Side of the Wind, the most tantalisingly advanced of Welles’ phantom features...illuminating perspectives emerge throughout the book on the paradoxes of Welles.”—Ben Walters, Sight & Sound
“Paints an enjoyable, positive picture of a complex, gregarious and energetic figure”—Video Watchdog
“The new generation of Orson Welles scholars is led by Peter Prescott Tonguette. His impressive, indefatigable, and wide-ranging scholarship turns up a wealth of fresh insights and information into Welles’s always-astonishing career. In this captivating book of oral history, Tonguette shows engaging modesty in letting his interviewees take center stage while expertly guiding their recollections into areas of Welles research that most urgently need exploration, including unfinished films and projects, theatrical adventures and misadventures, and the filmmaker’s lifelong avocation as a magician. Orson Welles Remembered is a treasure-house for anyone interested in Welles and a fertile resource for future scholarship on the life and work of this great and multifaceted artist”—Joseph McBride, author of What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career (2006), Orson Welles (1972/1996) and Orson Welles: Actor and Director (1977)
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Table of Contents & Excerpts
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