Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)

Truly Dreadful Film

Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

Good concept, poorly executed.

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!

"Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" is a documentary from 2014 about the great filmmaker, actor, magician, and personality. I must have seen and read everything there is on Welles, if that's possible, and this particular documentary borrowed heavily from the best there is -- the BBC interview with Welles, which was one of the best things I've ever seen. Of interest here were the photos of him as a young boy, and interviews with Micheál MacLiammóir, Norman Lloyd, comments by Julie Taymor, his daughter Beatrice, and so many others, some of whom I had not seen interviewed before.Welles was, to say the least, a complicated man. He couldn't deal with the studio constraints, but without them, he often floundered. Spielberg was interviewed here, and I remember very well from one of the books on Welles that he went to dinner with Spielberg with the idea that Spielberg could help him find a distributor for one of his movies. When he came home, the interviewer called him, and he said, they only ever want to talk about Kane. Kane was a blessing and a curse. I think some of the people interviewed didn't give him credit for the fact that he was just as talented as he had always been, but the business had become so much tougher.Documentaries about Welles are always worth seeing. He was one of the most charismatic and interesting people who ever lived, and he'd probably tell you that himself. And the people around him seemed to adore him. So really, as much as I have liked other documentaries better, this one is worth seeing too.

A documentary on the acclaimed theatre and film director Orson Welles, combining clips from his movies with interview footage and commentaries from many collaborators.This film, which was shown theatrically at various festivals and I caught at my local arts cinema, is informative, well made and provides real insight into Welles' philosophy. This is achieved partly through the terrific footage of Welles himself but also by devoting time to the circumstances of his career. There are the expected plaudits from filmmakers such as Peter Bogdanovich (who knew him very well), Paul Mazursky, and Steven Spielberg, but also firsthand experiences from Norman Lloyd (one of the original Mercury Theatre players and I believe the last one still living), Charlton Heston (Touch Of Evil), Anthony Perkins and Jeanne Moreau (The Trial), as well as Oja Kodar whom Welles lived with for the last twenty years of his life. There are also key contributions from Welles' biographer Simon Callow, who champions the 1966 Chimes At Midnight (and not Citizen Kane) as his masterpiece, as well as noted sound designer/editor Walter Murch. In my view Welles was clearly a fine actor and a brilliant filmmaker, whose intelligence, innovation and gift for his craft is indisputable, but what's more fascinating for me is the career path he took. Many label him a failure; a prodigious talent who peaked in his twenties and then threw it all away. He suffered many indignities, particularly from studio bosses, the Hearst press, critics and bankers throughout his life (New Yorker writer Pauline Kael did a particularly vicious and unfair hatchet job on him in 1971), and when he died in 1985 aged seventy there was muted recognition of his achievements. Conversely I find his biography heroic and trailblazing. Far from getting stuck in Hollywood making formulaic costume dramas, he lived a far richer and more artistically rewarding life. He might have had regrets, when he ran out of money or had to resort to TV shows to retain his status, but all through his life he did great work, often in difficult circumstances where others would give up, and always pushing, learning, adapting, embracing new ideas. This is the true measure of any artist; not how lucrative their work is or how famous they become, and this is why he is held in such regard by so many people who have experienced the frustrations of trying to be a filmmaker with vision and integrity. The movie also illustrates Welles' inestimable influence on cinema, with clips from films as diverse as Woody Allen's Radio Days and Tim Burton's Ed Wood, and some comic interludes, notably a dead-on impression of the great man by John Candy. It's also a real treat for fans of Welles, with footage from some of his lesser known work (such as 1974's F For Fake), and several unfinished projects like his endless production of Don Quixote (a cursed film if ever there was, which Terry Gilliam also tried and failed for years to make). Was Orson Welles a genius ? A mad egocentric ? A pioneer so far ahead of his time ? A charlatan masquerading as an artist ? I think of him as simply a brilliant film director, who poured his soul and originality into his work. To quote Marlene Dietrich, he was some kind of a man.

I was moved to review this because the one review on this page completely tore it apart. The way the reviewer wrote made me think that this person had an intense personal dislike of Chuck Workman, for some reason. So, I thought I'd look at this reviewers other reviews. And guess what? Almost all porn. So, let's just stick to the subject at hand: Orson Welles. I first became aware of Welles when I was taking a film class in college. "Citizen Kane" amazed me, not surprisingly. Welles says, in "Magician," that Gregg Toland, the great cinematographer, came to Welles and said that he (Toland) wanted very much to work with Welles on "Kane." Welles said, "Why? I've never directed a film before." And Toland said, "That's why."It was uncharted. Anything was possible. And, indeed, it was.I would encourage any Welles fan to see this. It was well worth it.