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Newport Beach Film Festival Honors Orson Welles' Centennial
OC Weekly ^ | April 15, 2015 | Matt Coker

Posted on 04/16/2015 10:18:01 AM PDT by EveningStar

1. Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915.

2. As a filmmaker, his three greatest pictures, in order, are Touch of Evil (1958), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).

3. Ah, yes, but Citizen Kane tops many lists as the greatest film of all time (with Welles filling the top slot on many directing lists). The fictional story of a megalomaniac newspaper magnate (loosely based on William Randolph Hearst) and innocence lost is indeed a masterpiece . . . albeit a dated one. Newspaper magnates? Not in this century, bub.

4. John Houseman wrote in his 1972 memoir Run-through that the deeper he, Welles and Herman Mankiewicz took the script into the heart of Kane, the more the identity of Welles was exposed. "Between young Kane and young Welles, there is more than a surface likeness; in the dramatized person of Charles Foster Kane, 'Champagne Charley' was finally able to realize extravagances that far exceeded anything achieved in life by Richard Welles and his precocious son," Houseman wrote.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.ocweekly.com ...


TOPICS: History; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: california; centennial; cinema; film; filmfestival; movies; nbff; newportbeach; orangecounty; orsonwelles; southerncalifornia; wine; wino
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1 posted on 04/16/2015 10:18:01 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Borges; DollyCali; Perdogg

ping


2 posted on 04/16/2015 10:18:59 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: 5th MEB; AgThorn; al baby; BAW; bboop; BenLurkin; Bob J; Bon of Babble; BunnySlippers; bunster; ...
SoCal Ping!

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Attention Southern Californians



Please ping me with any Southern California related articles. Thank you!

If you want on or off this ping list, please FReepmail me.

3 posted on 04/16/2015 10:21:10 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: GraceG

Their iz a California chanpain buy paul masson, inscpiered buy dat shame frencdh excellence.


4 posted on 04/16/2015 10:24:21 AM PDT by KC_Lion (This Millennial is for Cruz!)
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To: KC_Lion

I find Paul Masson pairs well with Mrs. Pell’s fishsticks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za3EuqU385k


5 posted on 04/16/2015 10:28:52 AM PDT by DemforBush (Ex-Democrat, and NotforJeb. Just so we're clear.)
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To: KC_Lion
Aaaaaaaaah, the French…


6 posted on 04/16/2015 10:31:31 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: KC_Lion
Their iz a California chanpain buy paul masson, inscpiered buy dat shame frencdh excellence.

In the end he was a mess. I remember him from my childhood for wine commercials and the Muppet Movie.

7 posted on 04/16/2015 10:31:53 AM PDT by Poison Pill
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To: EveningStar

Welles was also a master at radio. In the 30’s and 40’s he produced, directed and starred in many outstanding radio dramas and documentaries. For info go to OTRCAT.com. He was by any measure a genius.


8 posted on 04/16/2015 10:32:55 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: EveningStar

I’ve never seen the Magnificent Ambersons. I’d always heard that the studio butchered it with editing, and the final product was far from what Welles’ had envisioned. On that basis, I always gave it a pass.

I have seen both Touch of Evil and Kane, and agree heartily they are fantastic films. The opening shot to ToE is some of the greatest camera work in film history, IMHO.


9 posted on 04/16/2015 10:33:40 AM PDT by DemforBush (Ex-Democrat, and NotforJeb. Just so we're clear.)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep

LOL, he is sooooo hammered....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s


10 posted on 04/16/2015 10:34:03 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Don Corleone

The Mercury Theatre! :)


11 posted on 04/16/2015 10:35:43 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: dfwgator

I love the couple standing there with him. You wonder what’s going through their heads. Probably, “If this shoot runs past the meal break, we start getting double time.”


12 posted on 04/16/2015 10:42:06 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: DemforBush; All
Touch of Evil Opening Shot
13 posted on 04/16/2015 10:42:33 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: DemforBush
I have seen both Touch of Evil and Kane, and agree heartily they are fantastic films. The opening shot to ToE is some of the greatest camera work in film history, IMHO.

I have seen ToE numerous times. Great movie. Opening scene is unbroken footage moving through several city blocks. Lots to like. Charleton Heston. Janet Leigh. A young Dennis Weaver as the super uptight motel clerk. And Marlene Dietrick is amazing.

14 posted on 04/16/2015 10:48:50 AM PDT by matt1234 (2015-2016 America's enemies sense obama's weakness and strike)
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To: Poison Pill
In the end he was a mess. I remember him from my childhood for wine commercials and the Muppet Movie.

A friend of mine, a serious film buff, remembers his first day in L.A., driving down La Brea and seeing Orson Welles, in a motorized wheelchair with and oxygen tank and a toy poodle on his lap, sitting in front of Pink's Hot Dogs, stuffing a messy chili dog into his mouth.

Another friend of mine, a screenwriter, owned the house Welles died in until a couple years ago. He used to throw some amazing parties there.

15 posted on 04/16/2015 10:49:15 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: DemforBush

“I’ve never seen the Magnificent Ambersons. I’d always heard that the studio butchered it with editing, and the final product was far from what Welles’ had envisioned. On that basis, I always gave it a pass”

It’s still all right.

And they couldnt change the way it was filmed. It is all Welles in that way and worth seeing.


16 posted on 04/16/2015 10:55:18 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: DemforBush
I’ve never seen the Magnificent Ambersons. I’d always heard that the studio butchered it with editing, and the final product was far from what Welles’ had envisioned. On that basis, I always gave it a pass.

It's well worth checking out, even with the extensive cuts and the happy ending the studio tacked on.

17 posted on 04/16/2015 10:59:14 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: matt1234

See post #13. :)


18 posted on 04/16/2015 11:08:43 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Don Corleone

Great man but he made a really big mistake making powerful enemy in Hearst—that killed his career as a director. He rebuilt his career as an actor—but what other great films might he made if he had selected another topic for his film?


19 posted on 04/16/2015 11:33:34 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep

Is that commercial you could tell Orson was “toasted” LOL!


20 posted on 04/16/2015 3:23:56 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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