Orson Welles - Böcker

Set in the seedy underworld of postwar Europe, Orson Welles' novel focuses on the sinister figure of Gregory Arkadin, a fabulously wealthy and influential financier who enlists the services of a small-time smuggler and rackateer, Van Stratten, for an extraordinary assignment. Arkadin claims that he can remember nothing of his life prior to the moment in 1927 when he found himself alone in Zurich with 200,000 Swiss francs in his pocket - a sum with which he subsequently built his vast fortune - and Van Stratten's task is to investigate Arkadin's mysterious past and prepare him a confidential report on it. Welles wrote, directed, and starred in the film version of Mr. Arkadin, which was released under the title Confidential Report in 1955, but believed that only the novel remained the definitive expression of his intentions. A haunting exploration of typically Wellesian themes, it is an enduring example of his unique genius.

Innovative film and theatre director, radio producer, actor, writer, painter, narrator, and magician, Orson Welles (1915-1985) was the last true Renaissance man of the twentieth century. From such great radio works as "War of the Worlds" to his cinematic masterpieces Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Othello, Macbeth, Touch of Evil, and Chimes at Midnight , Welles was a master storyteller, as expansive as he was enigmatic. This Is Orson Welles , a collection of penetrating and witty conversations between Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, includes insights into Welles's radio, theatre, film, and television work Hollywood producers, directors, and stars and almost everything else, from acting to magic, literature to comic strips, bullfighters to gangsters. Now including Welles's revealing memo to Universal about his artistic intentions for Touch of Evil, (of which the "director's edition" was released in Fall 1998) this book, which Welles ultimately considered his autobiography, is a masterpiece as unique and engaging as the best of his works.

The complete screenplay of one of the world's most famous and controversial films "A definitive chronicle of the making of the film" Sheridan Morley, Films & Filming This is the complete companion to Citizen Kane - the film that was "designed to shock" (Kenneth Tynan) - one of the best-loved and best-known movies in the history of Hollywood and still the most staggering film debut ever. Not only was this Orson Welles's first film as actor and director but most of the cast were also new to the cinema. Yet so controversial was the subject matter that an $842,000 bribe and the concentrated wrath of the Hearst newspaper empire combined in an attempt to strangle its distribution. And the authorship of the film is still a subject of conflict. Pauline Kael's long essay, "Raising Kane", dissects a maze of Hollywood lore to re-evaluate these and many other fascinating stories about the making of this remarkable film. Her account is followed by the original screenplay, illustrated with stills and frame enlargements. "Citizen Kane revolutionised film-making, and the question of its authorship is as important to the cinema as that of Hamlet to the theatre ...Pauline Kael explains how the picture came to be made and concludes that the man most responsible for its creation was not Welles but Herman J.Mankiewicz" Kenneth Tynan, Observer

Genre: Melodrama Characters: 12m, 2f An ingenious idea is employed to accommodate the sweep of this classic story on the stage. A Shakespearean company puts down their rehearsal sides of Lear and curiously take up those of a new play entitled Moby Dick. On the rehearsal stage of platforms, the teasers overhead suddenly become yardarms with sails and a tall ladder becomes a mast. The platforms become the decks of the ship on which the cast sails through the storms and tribulations of the Pequod hunting for Moby Dick. "Admirably bold and imaginative." - The New York Post "An adventure in theatre going. As I left the first performance I felt myself rather oddly shaky and breathless...There is nothing else anywhere near like Moby Dick in the theatre." - The New York Daily News

Before The Cradle Will Rock, before War of the Worlds, before Citizen Kane—there was Marching Song.At the age of 25 Orson Welles co-wrote, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane, widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. But this was not the first achievement in the young artist’s career. A few years earlier he terrorized America with his radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. And even before he conquered the airwaves, Welles had made a name for himself in New York theatre, with his dynamic stagings of Shakespeare classics and the politically charged musical The Cradle Will Rock. But before all of these there was Marching Song—a play about abolitionist John Brown—that Welles had co-written at the age of 17. While attending the Todd School for Boys, Welles collaborated with Roger Hill, the schoolmaster at Todd, to produce this full-length drama. Marching Song: A Play is a work by one of America’s true geniuses at an early stage of his creative growth. Steeped in historical detail, the play chronicles Brown’s fight against slavery, his raid on Harper’s Ferry, his capture, his conviction for treason, and his execution. In addition to the entire text of the play, this volume features a biographical sketch of Welles and Hill—written by Hill’s grandson—during their days together at Todd. A fascinating dramatization of a pivotal event in American history, this play also demonstrates Welles’ burgeoning development as social commentator and an advocate for human rights, particularly on behalf of African Americans. Featuring a foreword by noted Welles biographer, Simon Callow, Marching Song: A Play is an important work by an American icon.