Documentary explores Welles the artist
It turns out Hollywood’s wunderkind-turnedenfant-terrible had another string to his bow. As Mark Cousins’ 2018 documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles (debuting on Sky Arts, 8.15pm, February 16) details, the larger-than-life director, writer and actor was also an accomplished artist.
Gaining access to a New York storage unit, an archive at the University of Michigan, and Welles’ third daughter Beatrice, Cousins showcases the Mercury Theatre founder’s sketches, landscapes, watercolours and Christmas cards.
While providing a fascinating insight into some of Welles’ visual inspirations for his movies, what truly impresses is some of the archival footage that Cousins has cobbled together.
There’s an avuncular appearance while applying his Falstaff makeup on The Dean Martin Show, and snippets from festival Q&As.
Unfortunately, this and Cousins’ suggestions that each of Welles’ cinematic works reflects an artistic style (The Trial is a lino-cut, A Touch of Evil a fresco), is let down by Cousins’ insistence on ingratiating himself into the story, presenting the documentary as a literal love letter to the late
Welles, and positing a series of endless questions to which even a man of Welles’ transcendent powers has no answer.
Those who prefer to hear more of Welles’ voice should check out two of his most beloved performances in The Third Man and Citizen Kane (Google Play, Apple TV and DVD/Blu-ray).
The former is a 1949 thriller generally regarded as one of the greatest noir films ever made (with Welles stealing the show as black-market opportunist
Harry Lime), while the latter often tops the overall best-movie-of-all-time charts.
Finally, if you want to see and hear Welles as you might never have imagined, watch cult 1990s cartoon Pinky and the Brain (YouTube, DVD).
Starting out on 1993’s Animaniacs (which, like everything else from that era, has a reboot due), it follows two laboratory mice, whose mission each episode is to try to take over the world.
The man of a thousand voices, Maurice LaMarche, imbued Brain with a brilliant renditioncum-parody of Welles’ unmistakable vocal tones, as he taunts the audience and his less intellectual companion while cooking up global domination schemes.
Each increasingly bizarre plan satirised history or modern culture.