Trailer for Orson Welles Documentary MAGICIAN
A wonderful trailer has been released for a documentary called Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles. Welles is a legendary filmmaker who is best known for his film Citizen Kane and his famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast. He was an incredible artist and visionary, and the doc focuses on his Hollywood career as a star and troubled director. According to IndieWire,
Magician digs into Welles' oeuvre on the eve of his centenary. Workman covers the midwestern childhood demons that fueled Citizen Kane, young Welles' prodigious theatrical accomplishments, love of Shakespeare, and move toward radio and cinema with "Citizen Kane," which was demolished by the film's fictionalized subject, William Randolph Hearst, as well as how Welles was his own worst enemy in terms of protecting his work. There is rarely seen footage of such masterpieces as Chimes at Midnight (he plays Falstaff) and Macbeth, The Trial and Mr. Arkadin.
"Magician includes clips from almost every existing Welles film, from Hearts of Age, which he shot in one day at age 18 to rare unfinished films The Other Side of the Wind, The Deep, and Don Quixote as well as some appearances on television and commercials. Also in the film are interviews with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater (Me and Orson Welles), and of course, critic and filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich."
I remember studying many of the films that Welles made when I was in college, and the guy was a filmmaking genius. This looks like a fascinating doc, and it's one that I'm looking forward to watching. Magician opens December 12th at Lincoln Plaza and the Royal in Los Angeles for a one-week Academy-qualifying run.