MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES [2014 / 2016] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] A Film By Academy Award® Winner Chuck Workman!
‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ looks at the remarkable genius of Orson Welles on the eve of his centenary – the enigma of his career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker.
Orson Welles's life was magical: a musical prodigy at age 10, a director of Shakespeare at 14, a painter at 16, a star of stage and radio at 20, romances with some of the most beautiful women in the world, including Rita Hayworth. Orson Welles work was similarly extraordinary, most notably the film ‘Citizen Kane’ and considered by many to be the most important film ever made, and created by Orson Welles when he was only 25. In the years following ‘Citizen Kane,’ Orson Welles career continued to change as he made film after film, but some were never finished, many dismissed and acted in other projects, often to earn money in order to keep making his own films.
Magician features scenes from almost every exciting Orson Welles films, from ‘Hearts of Ages,’ which he made in a day when he was on 18 years of age and to rarely-seen clips from his final unfinished works like ‘The Other Side of the Dream,’ ‘The Deep’ and ‘Don Quixote,’ as well as his television and commercial work.
Cast List: Orson Welles (archive footage), Simon Callow, Christopher Welles Feder, Joanne Hill Styles, Norman Lloyd, Micheál MacLiammóir (archive footage), Ruth Ford (archive footage), Julie Taymor, Paolo Cherchi Usai, Norman Corwin, Peter Bogdanovich, James Naremore, William Alland (archive footage), Reggie Armour (archive footage), Steven Spielberg, William Randolph Hearst (archive footage), John Houseman (archive footage), William Friedkin, Dolores del Rio (archive footage), Robert Wise (archive footage), Richard Wilson (archive footage), Pandro S. Berman (archive footage), Elvis Mitchell, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Henry Jaglom, Joseph McBride, Suzanne Cloutier (archive footage), Beatrice Welles-Smith, Sir Peter Brook, Charlton Heston (archive footage), Walter Murch, George Lucas, Eric Sherman, Costa-Gavras, Anthony Perkins (archive footage), Richard Linklater, Oja Kodar, Buck Henry, Richard Benjamin, Wolfgang Puck, Stefan Drössler, Jeanne Moreau, Peter Viertel (archive footage), Michael Dawson, Sydney Pollack (archive footage), Paul Mazursky, Frank Marshall, (archive footage), Dennis Hopper (archive footage), Glenn Anders (archive footage) (uncredited), Martin Balsam (archive footage) (uncredited), Keith Baxter (archive footage) (uncredited), Richard Bennett (archive footage) (uncredited), Andrew B. Clark (archive footage) (uncredited), Ray Collins (archive footage) (uncredited), Dorothy Comingore (archive footage) (uncredited), Bobby Cooper (archive footage) (uncredited), Dolores Costello (archive footage) (uncredited), Joseph Cotten (archive footage) (uncredited), George Coulouris (archive footage) (uncredited), Elmyr de Hory (archive footage) (uncredited), Joan Fontaine (archive footage) (uncredited), John Gielgud (archive footage) (uncredited), Jeffrey Green (archive footage) (uncredited), Tim Holt (archive footage) (uncredited), John Huston (archive footage) (uncredited), Joi Lansing (archive footage) (uncredited), Mercedes McCambridge (archive footage) (uncredited), Christian McKay (archive footage) (uncredited), Patricia Medina (archive footage) (uncredited), Victor Millan (archive footage) (uncredited), Mort Mills (archive footage) (uncredited), Joanna Moore (archive footage) (uncredited), Agnes Moorehead (archive footage) (uncredited), Jeanette Nolan (archive footage) (uncredited), Austin Pendleton (archive footage) (uncredited), Francisco Reiguera (archive footage) (uncredited), Edward G. Robinson (archive footage) (uncredited), Margaret Rutherford (archive footage) (uncredited), Erskine Sanford (archive footage) (uncredited), Paul Scofield (archive footage) (uncredited), Harry Shannon (archive footage) (uncredited), Everett Sloane (archive footage) (uncredited), Paul Stewart (archive footage) (uncredited), Buddy Swan (archive footage) (uncredited), Akim Tamiroff (archive footage) (uncredited), Ruth Warrick (archive footage) (uncredited) and Alan Webb (archive footage) (uncredited)
Director: Chuck Workman
Producers: Alex Rotaru, Alice Henty, András Krucsai, Charles S. Cohen, Jeremy Workman, Julia Dorner, Lucy Day, Robert J. Lyons and Rose Walton
Cinematography: John Sharaf, Tom Hurwitz and Michael Lisnet (Directors of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Colour and Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 5.1 Dolby Digital
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 91 minutes
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Cohen Media Group
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Orson Welles, this captivating biography documentary examines the remarkable genius of Orson Welles and the enigma of his larger than life career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director and for some a Hollywood failure, and a crucially important independent filmmaker.
‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ shows us a plethora of a lot of clips and quips and snippet of opinions of all involved with the project. Assembled chronologically and delivered at warp speed and there is enough astonishment here for the duration of 91 minutes running time, and this is a very substantial potted history of one of our rarest and astonishing moviemaking talents offers nothing new for fans and seems likely to overwhelm the uninitiated.
The extraordinary tale of how a precocious prodigy Orson Welles from Wisconsin caused a stir in the worlds of theatre, radio and cinema all before his 26th birthday, then spent the rest of his life trying to live up to his own reputation. In the process, he found himself stymied as much by distrustful studios and reluctant funders as by his own stubborn unwillingness to compromise the artistic vision which, today, is seen as possessed of an unfailing foresight.
This is a real tour-de-force, as well as an in-depth study of Orson Welles' singular life and career would run the length of a miniseries, but Chuck Workman engagingly hits a good many highlights in stone-skipping fashion in ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES.’ Additionally, by delving into the protean talent's bag of unfinished projects, the veteran documentary and clips-reel whiz tries to counter the view that Welles had a fear of completion later in life; as the film shows, he was always working, and however under-financed he may have been. Premiered in a near-finished version at Telluride, this energetic, fast-moving portrait is a natural for festivals, specialty cinema venues internationally, TV and home formats.
Chuck Workman's strengths as a miner of archives really pays off here, as he offers up exceedingly rare documentary footage of his subject drawn from diverse international sources, peeks at unfinished works and camera tests Orson Welles himself shot and often unfamiliar excerpts from old but relevant interviews with figures no longer with us (see Cast List above).
A straightforward, chronological approach in chaptered form starts with “1915-1941: The Boy Wonder,” charting Orson Welles eccentric, transient childhood, and the thirst for artistic expression that led to adventuresome stage triumphs (like the all-black ‘Voodoo Macbeth’) in his early 1920s. Orson Welles also became a highly popular radio actor, notably as voice of “The Shadow” on that mystery serial, and it was in that medium that he became infamous via the 1938 Halloween broadcast of H.G. Welles Martian-invasion fantasy “The War of the Worlds” and of course was dramatized in fake-newscast form, and it panicked many gullible American listeners, though some argue the extent of that reaction was greatly exaggerated. Thus began decades alternating lucrative, if often trivial of acting gigs with erratic directorial work, the latter often plagued by budgetary woes or front-office interference. Even his moneymaking 1946 thriller ‘The Stranger,’ couldn’t shake his rep for extravagance, unreliability and inconsistency with popular taste.
The documentary film briskly reveals how young Orson Welles was recognised as an artistic prodigy from the earliest age and how, his parents both dead and disliking his guardian, he found his metier and love of Shakespeare at the Todd School in Woodstock in his early teens before leaving for Ireland and bluffing his way into his first professional appearances. His Todd school mentor Roger Hill's daughter Jane offers the telling insight that the young Orson Welles had no empathetic skills, while Orson Welles daughter Beatrice expresses with chagrin that, having wives and daughters was actually an encumbrance for him. On top of all that Orson Welles meteoric rise in the 1930s with the Mercury Theater, and is colourfully rendered via plentiful of stills and newsreels footage, an array of experts including surviving participant Norman Lloyd, as well as clips from Richard Linklater's fine feature ‘Me and Orson Welles,’ with the remarkable Christian McKay in the pivotal role.
Such notoriety brought Hollywood offers; Orson Welles held out until RKO’s terms gave him virtual carte blanche. Though his initial plan to adapt Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ was scuttled as too expensive and risky, ‘Citizen Kane’ was scarcely less so and not least for being so blatantly inspired by the life of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, who used his considerable might to thwart its success. Though, as one observer points out here, the film was just as much a critical self-portrait for Orson Welles. As a result, RKO was all too happy to seize the post-production reins on ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ when Orson Welles blithely decamped to South America for the abortive ‘It’s All True.’ The sadly compromised if still brilliant result proved another box office failure, ending his cinematic honeymoon.
Spending most of the next decade in Europe, Orson Welles made ‘Othello,’ the first of several projects that were shot piecemeal whenever funding became available. He considered two late masterpieces, ‘The Trial’ and ‘Chimes at Midnight,’ and his personal best, but sadly they also flopped. Several other projects ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and the improvised ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ never neared completion. Some have been or will be released in posthumously constructed form; it’s noted that several titles, including ‘Chimes at Midnight’ remain in legal contention. Meanwhile, his slightly embarrassing career as a public bon vivant flourished is represented via clips from ‘I Love Lucy,’ ‘The Muppet Show,’ and a myriad talk shows and commercials.
In addition to much archival input from Orson Welles himself and always willing to talk about himself, albeit sometimes via tall tales like in ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ and draws on many commentators living or who has passed away. The latter includes such co-workers as Charlton Heston, Robert Wise and John Houseman. Others include from biographers, critics and relatives to present-day people still in awe of his influence. Richard Linklater calls him “the patron saint of indie filmmakers.” Among those extensively tapped are his close friend Peter Bogdanovich and his final long-term companion, Oja Kodar. One fleeting portrait montage provides a glimpse of the many famous, beautiful women Orson Welles was involved with. The closing mention of a feud between two of Orson Welles’ daughters hints at rich dramatic potential in the messy legacy of legal and personal conflicts, still roiling three decades after his death.
In an initially amusing device, Chuck Workman inserts clips from variably worthwhile films in which Orson Welles is portrayed, like in ‘Radio Days,’ ‘Heavenly Creatures’ and extending it to films that simply reference him in ‘Day for Night’ and ‘Get Shorty.’
Conversely, the unfinished film Orson Welles toiled on through the 1970s, ‘The Other Side of the Wind,’ gets surprisingly short shrift, even though there are plenty of people still around who worked on it and could have provided first-hand accounts of its erratic, start-and-stop making and analysis of why it was never completed.
There are 12 chapters in all with this film documentary and they are as follows: The Boy Wonder; Stage Craft; War of the Worlds; RKO; Citizen Kane; The Outsider; Women; The Gypsy; The Road Back; The Trial; F for Fake; End Credits.
Finally, it is a very breezy and very analytical look at the genius of Orson Welles and prone to leaving out any psychological evaluation of this enormously complex figure, and ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ adopts a lively, energetic approach in the worthy service of engaging the interest of viewers perhaps unfamiliar with Orson Welles life and work. Such a result would be all to the good for an artist about whom there are always more aspects to discover and perspectives to be shared. But the revelations aren’t pursued, leaving the man whom the actress Jeanne Moreau beautifully pronounces “a destitute king” perched on his throne. If, as he claimed, Orson Welles aspired to make films by saying “for something except entertainment,” what that might have been remains anyone’s guess and sadly we will never know.
Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ is presented on this stunning awesome Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an even more awesome stunning 1080p image presentation, which has varied selection of aspect ratios, but with the main one is the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. With the archival interviews are varied, with some elements taken from several television videos with having various anomalies like some ghosting displayed. Some Older filmed interviews, especially from the BBC fare a bit better at times, though can look sometimes soft when compared to the newer interview segments. Film clips look generally very good to excellent, while some on the backstage footage of theatrical outings is relatively not so good looking images. But despite this, this is still truly a wonderful stunning image presentation, especially the 2014 sections that radiate brilliant stunning colourful images you will ever view.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – With the audio, you are given the option of a 5.1 DTS-HD Master surround and a simple 5.1 Dolby Digital. There are a few separations, but the film clips are mostly flat and from the centre channel. There is some music beyond those used in the film clips – classical and played beyond the clips into the narration, for example Burt Bacharach via Herb Alpert's 'Casino Royale' and the score can add to the gaps in the dialogue. Music and effects remained mainly as background elements to a substantial degree, but they seemed well-reproduced and clear. Ultimately, the audio of ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ is well suited to the documentary film very well.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: A Conversation with Director Chuck Workman [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [8:58] After the titles have finished, sitting in front of the camera, in a private viewing cinema, we find Chuck Workman [Director] and Annette Insdorf [Director of Undergraduate Film Studies of Columbia University] who does the interview, and Annette Insdorf asks Chuck Workman in wanting to know what was Orson Welles greatest achievement and Chuck Workman replies that Orson Welles said, “that I am just warming up” and that he was married to film, as well loving film. Annette Insdorf points out to Chuck Workman at one particular part of his film documentary, that he shows Orson Welles talking about ‘Citizen Kane,’ that he had the confidence of ignorance, but in turn makes him a genius. Chuck Workman also felt that Orson Welles was not understood, but he was definitely of an era of progressives and liberals. Annette Insdorf also says to Chuck Workman that his film documentary presents a man with tremendous appetite in all respects and asks the question about the heart shaped picture frames of all the beautiful women and also asks if all those women were Orson Welles lovers, and chuck says with one word “supposedly.” Chuck Workman also informs us to make this special documentary of Orson Welles; he had to view all of Orson Welles films and out of all the films he viewed, and the one he loved the best was a ‘Touch of Evil.’ Chuck Workman declares that Orson Welles gave so much more, and more than we may have thought and as much as we love ‘Citizen Kane’ and his other films of his, there was so much more and was such a master of cinema and we can look at it, and look at it again and learn so much from it and at the time they filmed this special, Chuck Workman declares that it was the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles and people are starting to look at his films again and he finally declares that the world has finally caught up, so now they can see what Orson Welles has done with sets, with music, with lighting and with soundtrack. And now we come to the of this very short special, but I leave the last words to Chuck Workman, where he says, “Orson Welles said he was lucky to do this job, I have my problems, I recognise them, and said lets go to dinner” and Chuck Workman also tells us that basically Orson Welles attitude was for show and that he was happy to be Orson Welles and we were lucky to have him. All in all this is a nice look at Cuck Workman and his feelings towards Orson Welles and why he did this special documentary film and it is such a shame it is so short, as I would of loved to hear more from Chuck Workman, as he is a very interesting intelligent person. But boy oh boy, the only negative aspect of this special feature, is that I hated and detested Annette Insdorf, as she is the most pompous and pretentious egotistic person I have ever encountered on this planet of ours.
Theatrical Trailer [2014] [1080p] [1.65:1] [2:04] This is a totally brilliant trailer, that gives a great impression on the life and times of Orson Welles, especially by the brilliant director Chuck Workman and shows you why Orson Welles was such a genius, and was ahead of his time, which is now only just being recognised and rightly so.
Cohen Sneak Peak Blu-ray Releases: ‘DELI MAN’ [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [2:16]; ‘TIBUKTU’ [2014] [1080p] [1.66:1] [1:54]; ‘IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER’ [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [2:08] and ‘JAMAICA INN’ [1939] [1080p] [1.37:1] [5:30]
BONUS: Cohen Film Collection Special 8 page Booklet, with stunning Black-and-White still photographs.
Finally, is ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ exhaustive? No, it is very comprehensive and especially at 91 minutes, Chuck Workman's documentary film will leave Orson Welles fans salivating for more or perhaps even shrugging, given that ‘MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES’ has, when it comes down to it, little new to say or offer. And yet, in a fickle Hollywood culture of reboots, remakes and recasting, Chuck Workman has done a totally brilliant professional service in making a broadly accessible history of Orson Welles that stands a chance of drawing younger generations of film buffs, like moths, to the master’s flame. In that way, and in teasing, ‘Magician’ functions as a sort of preview of coming attractions lying in wait for new and old Orson Welles fans to discover. As Orson Welles famously and accurately predicted, “God, how they'll love me when I'm dead.” So all in all this is a totally brilliant film documentary of a total genius filmmaker and if you are a fan of Orson Welles, you will love this Blu-ray disc and if you feel that other people should find out about this genius that they are missing out and especially informing about his brilliant film, then you should tell as many people about this fantastic brilliant film documentary about Orson Wells, as they will not be let down. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
