Orson Welles [Paperback]

Joseph Mcbride (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1996

Orson Welles (1915–1985) revolutionized the art of filmmaking with his first feature, Citizen Kane, made when he was only twenty-five. This landmark study challenges the conventional wisdom that regards Welles's subsequent career as a long decline from that early peak, demonstrating that Welles continued to create audacious, profoundly moving, and richly varied films throughout his tumultuous life. Tracing Welles's development from his playful beginnings as an amateur filmmaker in the early 1930s to his masterly artistic summation in such late works as Chimes at Midnight, The Immortal Story, and F for Fake, the book brilliantly synthesizes Welles's wide-ranging body of work into a thematic whole while providing in-depth analyses of the films he directed.Joseph McBride's passion for Welles's work and his groundbreaking scholarship made the first edition of Orson Welles a landmark study and a major influence on subsequent Welles critics and biographers. Out of print for almost two decades, Orson Welles has now been revised and expanded, with new sections on important films and restored versions that have come to light since the book's original publication in 1972, along with an introductory essay and an extended portrait of Welles at work on the still-unreleased Hollywood satire The Other Side of the Wind (in which the author played an important role). The whole adds up to a work of film criticism that will stand as a model of the genre.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An excellent introduction to Orson Welles's career and accomplishments. Newly revised by author Joseph McBride, Orson Welles now features essays on F for Fake, Welles's last theatrical film; the recently reconstructed It's All True; the still unreleased The Other Side of the Wind (which Welles completed in the late '70s and in which McBride acted); and the seldom seen television pilot The Fountain of Youth. In addition, McBride has updated his chapters on The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, and Macbeth. But, as the author states in his new preface, the core of this volume is still the work written in 1972 by a young enthusiast, a Welles fanatic who viewed Citizen Kane scores of times before composing the essay that would became the book's third chapter. --Raphael Shargel

From Library Journal

As attested by Simon Callow's recent in-depth biography Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu (LJ 11/15/95), Voyager's Theatre of the Imagination CD-ROM, and the OscarR-nominated documentary The Battle over "Citizen Kane," the remarkable Welles continues to fascinate more than ten years after his death. This revised and expanded edition of McBride's 1972 volume incorporates new criticism of recently restored versions of Welles's films and other information that has come to light since its original publication.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Revised, Expand edition (March 22, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306806746
• ISBN-13: 978-0306806742
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #934,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, June 18, 2003

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This review is from: Orson Welles (Paperback)

Fabulous look at Welles' career and a critial look at his work as a filmmaker. One of the best, if not THE best works on this fabulour artist.