Orson Welles' "Voodoo" Macbeth

[ruthdj1000]

My friend's grandmother was one of the witches...

[joebstarsurfer]

what a cool idea and cool guy.

[Stantzs]

Oh My God, I love the witches around 3:00

[JustinandEric1]

My friend and I made a song about Macbeth for an english project. The class liked it so much, that they told us to put it on youtube. Well, we did. You should check it out on my channel =)

[Stantzs]

wow, its weird to think they had actors and plays that look like they could be going on right this second, but they had no rights or anything.

[Orsley]

It's too bad there's no tradition of debate in American public schools so people could learn to disagree without being disagreeable. Welles, of course, is a conundrum, as great artists often are. But "F For Fake," brilliantly edited from mainly "found" footage, suggests that he certainly could finish a film, and that, in fact, editing was increasingly crucial to his creative vision. But he was never a commercial artist, and his tortured relationship w/ Hollywood was unavoidable, it seems to me.

[KentAllard]

Welles said if he were to teach movie making, half the time would be spent sitting around a moviola.

Editing was always important for his films, the dfficulties or time it would take being a point of contention on Ambersons and Arkadin.

[Orsley]

I don't suggest that editing wasn't important to, say, "Kane;" only that his later films (Touch, Chimes, Fake) reveal an evolution in his passion for cutting. (His use of sound was already mature in Kane, after all that radio drama.) Yet, ironically, the difficulty and time to create Welles' own version of Ambersons had already been expended before RKO seized control of it in order to spend additional time and effort to diminish it! (Thanks for the post.)

[spectreagent]

@Orsley Welles staging of this is featured prominently in the PBS documentary, "The Battle Over Citizen Kane."

[Orsley]

@spectreagent - Thanks. Saw it when first aired in '96 and have added it to my Netflix queue for another look, although unclear if it will be/has been released on DVD. Btw, I found the recreated moments from his anti-fascist "Caesar" in "Me and Orson Welles" to be pretty wonderful, and seemingly quite accurate from what I've read of it and stills I've seen. Thanks for the note.

[KentAllard]

Cirrus lack of explanation or refusal to explain has led me to remove his statement

[witchman67]

It is irresponsible for a poster to put up a post accusing someone of racism, and yet will not define why.

Mr. Welles was a lot of things, but a racist was not one of them.

[imagirrl]

just because it's all of the same race it's racist? siao.

[KentAllard]

Cirrus has not explained. I've asked on his page for him to elaborate, no response yet.

[NGS712]

Does anyone happen to know if there's any footage of Welles' adaptation of Julius Caesar?

[KentAllard]

the contemporary dress in Fascist Italy? Not to my knowledge. There are design sketches for lighting and sets and all that drawn by Welles himself and photographs

[NGS712]

Yes, I've seen some photographs and it looked interesting. Too bad they didn't film it.

[Jboss12]

Wow if you think this macbeth trailer is good, go look at mine. Type Macbeth Trailer Eastlake.

[artbychristine]

Wow - I didn't know this existed.....

Thank you so much for posting it.

[FullmoonWalker]

Read Simon Callow's book, The Road to Xanadu, for an excellent overview of the rehearsals for and the actual showing of Welles' Voodoo Macbeth

[benjaminBarr]

The best book on Welles was, in my opinion 'The Magic World of Orson Welles' by James Naremore, check it out sometime

[KentAllard]

This is Orson Welles

[benjaminBarr]

That one is real good also, but I learned more about his films from the Naremore book. Naremore & the guy who edited the Bogdanovich book, who did the appendix to it also, are friends, they do the commentary to the 'Mr Arkadin' DVD together. Jonathan Rosenbaum did 'This is Orson Welles' with Bogdanovich

[abcdefz1]

Naremore's a really nice guy, too. He was my professor for a couple of classes at I.U. Really good teacher.

[ricbear]

I think John Houseman was involved with this as well.

[KentAllard]

Yes, Houseman and Welles first worked together in the Federal Theatre Project. On this, The Cradle Will Rock and other productions.

After Cradle they left to form the Mercury Theatre.

[RaysFroIsSex]

mhmm..Houseman had a pretty big role within the Theatre Project as well

[KentAllard]

I'm reading that atm, reading this book makes me want to grab Callow by the throat and shake him violently while shouting "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!" His sexual reinterpretation of every single thing Welles says, does, people he meets, etc says more about Simon Callow than it does Orson Welles

[digitalshark]

I much prefer "Rosebud," if you read it, there thankfully isn't much reason to read Callow and you can be spared his over zealous need to insert his own interpretations...

[KentAllard]

isn't that the David Thomson one?

[digitalshark]

Yes. I highly recommend it. The most absorbing, and in my opinion, the most illuminating book ever written about Welles. Callow's books are admirable for the amount of researched detail, but that is negated by his need to, as you said, color things with his own (in my opinion, wrong) interpretations.

[KentAllard]

doesn't Thomson take the "Welles couldn't finish work" view?

[digitalshark]

I think that would be an unfair simplification. For example, he makes the point that with "The Magnificent Ambersons," Welles allowed his film to be destroyed in a way, by not remaining to supervise the editing or returning at any point from his "It's All True" shooting to address the crisis as it unfolded. I think it's fairly clear that the "he couldn't finish" aspect had more to do with his ever dwindling limited funds and resources and his contempt for the "money men." He needed a Houseman.

[KentAllard]

That is absurd, between busy filming Its All True and the war time restructions (prevented Robert Wise from joing Welles in Brazil) how on earth was he supposed to go to hollywood to check on the film!?

[digitalshark]

Well, seems like you already have your mind made up on this issue. My opinion, as I'm sure yours is, is based on having studied and read everything I could about Welles over the last 20 years. If you're expecting me to now debate you over the validity of this observation, I'm afraid I'd rather retract my recommendation and leave you to wallow through Callow. Later.

[KentAllard]

And I suppose John Huston could have taken some off from filming the Battle of San Pietro too?

[digitalshark]

Sorry. I like Welles too much to engage in some youtube pissing match. I commented because I thought I'd share my appreciation of the book with another Welles fan, but no good deed goes unpunished on youtube. If you think you're the first Welles fan to take exception to the overwhelming and often bitter criticism of him over the years, you're mistaken. But you've now given me the feeling that you can abide no critical assessment at all, which negates any need for me to discuss this with you.

[KentAllard]

I cannot abide critical assessment of anyone when it concerns events beyond their control. 1)war restrictions prevented Wise being sent down to Brazil to work on editing of Ambersons2)RKO renegged on the rest of that agreement anyway3)In the middle of a difficult shoot & with those restrictions pleas explain how Welles could have come back to check on Ambersons4)RKO rejected the favourable second screening of Ambersons & instead continued to focus on the disasterous first screening

[miguelmouta]

@digitalshark Welles was a person very engaged with the message of ethics , in general. He did suffer a lot  of oposition ,from the system we live. Deserves respect indeed.

[abcdefz1]

Nice clip. Now... maybe there's footage of Welles' version of FAUST? :-)

[KentAllard]

There is meant to be several minutes of silent footage filmed by another student of his boarding school stage production of 5 Kings

[almondguy]

That would be great to see!

[KentAllard]

to compare with his fourth and final attempt at that story: the film Chimes at Midnight

[mencken]

It was said in the Steppenwolfe theatre by several older fellows who had seen it that this was one of the finest performances ever by a new troupe. Shows the excellence of early negroe theatre. What a horror it was lost.