Magician: The Astonishing Life And Work Of Orson Welles
Touch of genius.
Released as part of the BFI’s two-month season marking Orson Welles’ centenary, Chuck Workman’s documentary is an intriguing primer for any fan of the man behind Citizen Kane. While that 1941 movie debut – made when he was just 26 – has come to symbolise his greatness, Kane is just one aspect of a career that embraced movies, film, theatre, radio and television.
Divided into segments, Workman’s film traces Welles’ journey chronologically, beginning with his emergence as a child prodigy. Among his early achievements: playing Mary, mother of Jesus, in a production at the Todd School in Woodstock, where he studied. As he tells one chat-show host later on: “I began as a star – and I’ve been working my way down ever since.”
Contributors include such directors as Peter Bogdanovich, Julie Taylor and Martin Scorsese, as well as Welles scholars like Simon Callow and Jonathan Rosenbaum. But it’s the rare footage of the man himself that captivates, such as speaking to reporters in the aftermath of his sensational radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War Of The Worlds.
Workman’s film carefully charts Welles’ post- Kane years – from The Magnificent Ambersons, via Hollywood exile, to later films Touch Of Evil, The Trial and Chimes At Midnight. Room is given to his turbulent personal life too (he had three daughters, with three wives, including Rita Hayworth).
With so many treasures on display – not least grainy footage of Voodoo Macbeth, his 1936 stage production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play with an all-black cast – Welles geeks will have a field day. It’s not perfect – unfinished film The Other Side Of The Wind gets short shrift. But even those with only passing interest in “the destitute king”, as Jeanne Moreau dubs him, will find this fascinating.
THE VERDICT Solid, straightforward but immaculately researched, Chuck Workman’s documentary is a fitting tribute to the maverick Welles. If he were alive today, he’d surely raise a glass.
› Certificate TBC Director Chuck Workman Starring Simon Callow, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Jeanne Moreau Screenplay N/A Distributor BFI Running time 94 mins