Customer Reviews

Working with Orson Welles

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Yes, this shot-on-video documentary is rough around the edges. If you're turned off by that, by all means stay away from not only this documentary, but all of Welles' films after 1958. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a film that tells you what this great artist was up to in his later years, while he was creatively strong as ever, but unable to find financing or studio support,this film is for you. There are interviews here with, among others, filmmaker and Welles friend Peter Bogdanovich and Frank Marshall (who worked with Welles on his unreleased "The Other Side of the Wind" before going on to form Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg). It's not a perfect film, and not all of the people interviewed are as important to Orson Welles' life and career as one would hope, but if you admire Welles body of work I can't recommend it highly enough.

When Orson Welles died in 1985, he left behind a body of unfinished work almost legendary among cinephiles. The cinematographer on most of these projects was Gary Graver.

WORKING WITH ORSON WELLES is Graver's take on that body of unfinished work. Sight unseen, you might expect some clips from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, THE DREAMERS, KING LEAR, and perhaps even DON QUIXOTE. Unfortunately, perhaps for legal reasons, this work is short on such items.

In fact, WORKING WITH WELLES is short on Welles himself. Oh, there are stories...lots of stories...Graver interviews several people involved in the filming of WIND and talks endlessly himself about how much of an honor it was to work with the Man. But in the end, these interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Cameron Mitchell, Frank Marshall, and others get rather dull. And Graver's canned introductions are even harder to take.

There are some interesting snippets of Welles working in Italy, and the inclusion of the trailer for F FOR FAKE is nice, but two of Gravers' short films seem to be here for no other reason than Graver feels that they should be seen (ditto the trailer for Oja Kodar's JADED, a film it seems she was able to make solely on the strength of her association with Welles).

In short, then, WORKING WITH ORSON WELLES is a curio for Welles fanatics only. Others will find it somewhat less than interesting.

of a filmmaker. As such, this film is of legitimate interest not only to die-hard fans of Welles but also to anyone with a serious interest in the history of film.
The flaws are there: too little Welles; too much, perhaps, of Mr. Graver, whose persona cannot help but seem a little flat compared to the over-the-top Orson. The clips from F for Fake and the trailer for Citizen Kane are available elsewhere. Only the F for Fake trailer is really new. It's the hard-to-find Orson Welles: One-Man Band that apparently contains actual segments from Other Side of the Wind, the "unfinished" film on which Gravers did his most important work with Welles.
However the various Welles stories provide a chronology of the making of a pontentially great film, and provide genuine insight into how Welles worked with actors and camera crews, as well as the "guerilla" filmmaking style of the '70s, normally associated with Coppola, Scorsese and Lucas, but hardly with Orson Welles. Working with Orson Welles helps to sketch one part of an era of American movie-making -- the important years 1970-1985 -- which otherwise might have remained undocumented.

What a pity that such an extraordinary man should be shown in such a shallow, pitiful light. Where did Mr Graver pretend to learn how to make documentaries? It is a disgrace to see Orson Welles in such a cheap and bad film. I trust we will see no more works of Mr Graver, but hopefully someone else will produce a documenmtary worthy of it's subject in the not to distant future.

I found this documentary by the last cinematographer to work with Orson Welles
to be a fascinating insight into the personality and working life of the cinema's
most famous director. It is told in a straight-forward honest viewpoint and does
not gloss-over the brilliant, but egocentric, creator of some of the milestones of
Twentieth Century Cinema. This is a portrait of Orson in his declining years, when
he was working on strictly personal and low-budget projects, at a time when he
had lost any studio or financial support. It's an uncommon documentary by Peter
Jason, the cinematographer and Welles confidant, giving us a glimpse into some
of the later, obscure, and lost or unreleased works of the master filmmaker.
We see film clips and scenes, as well as behind the scenes interviews, and rare
workprint material, that gives us some idea, some impression, of where the
restless creativity of Welles was headed in the declining years of his life. This DVD
is highly recommended to fans of the life and works of Orson Welles and would
be invaluable to any student of the cinema or those interested in the life and work
of one of the creative giants of the American Cinema. Get this one quickly if you
can find a copy as it is "out-of-print" and becoming scarce.

I never thought I'd have to force myself to sit through a documentary about Orson Welles, but in this case, I did. It's more a documentary about Graver himself than Welles, and not a very interesting one, at that. It's hard to believe that Graver, a camera man, worked with Welles for 15 years, so amateurly done is this program.

There are some screen test shots of Welles from "F for Fake," which would be fascinating if only Graver didn't talk all over them. But that sets the tone for the whole documentary: Graver talking over Welles, and stretching his association with him far beyond any purpose other than to toot his own horn. Included, for no good reason, are the first short film Graver ever made, a preview for Oda Kounar's "Jaded," and various other clips and anecdotes that have nothing whatsoever to do with Welles.

Peter Bogdanovich lends a small bit of credibilty with his comments. He's probably the only person (other than Stacy Keach) you will recognize. Peter Jason needed to dial it down a bit; he was a little too enthusiastic.

I did enjoy one thing: a short clip of Orson from "The Tonight Show," performing magic tricks (with Graver included---naturally---as the supposedly random audience member), which was charming.

As another reviewer mentioned, this one is really for Welles fanatics only. I enjoyed seeing Orson in ways I hadn't before; when I got to see him at all, that is.

Apparently intended to be an audition tape for the opportunity to edit and release one of Orson Welles last movies, The Other Side of the Wind, cinematographer Gary Graver's WORKING WITH ORSON WELLES is a moderately entertaining look at Welles from about 1970 to his death in 1985.
Cameron Mitchell and Peter Bogdanovich are about the only two immediately recognizable celebrity interviewees. Some of the Wellesian anecdotes are amusing, and there's a bit with Welles doing a magic act on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that's kind of fun, but for the most part this one goes nowhere slow. The highlight is the twelve-minute preview for another late Welles film that never got as far as a final cut - F is for Fake. Even Welles devotees should proceed with caution.

M. Craver worked with Welles in the last 15 years of his life, and wanted to tell us about it. In fact, he mostly tell us about himself, which is not interesting at all. The people he interviews do the same thing. What we learn about Welles is futile stuff about food, the shooting of "The other side of the wind", and "the-first-time-I-met-him" stories. The only interesting stuff you'll see is the trailer of Citizen Kane, and a futile excerpt of "Filming Othello", both being difficult to find elsewhere. Too bad. Such a fascinating man would make a really good subject for an intelligent documentary.