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From: drjnh
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  • Can we please skip past the guy who knows nothing about McLuhan and get straight to Welles?

  • What the hell.

  • wtf?

    

  • GO ON SINGING_yes evolution-means we all live on...

  • orson didn't get to see the digital age . . . immortality is here.

  • I made a tribute to this video check my channel page.

  • A depressing intellectualistic ode to the futility and meaningless of life, designed to further promote decadence & corruption of consciousness -Hollywood's main function.

  • Profundity-wise, Noodles holding the dying Dominic does it for me.

  • Yawn....

  • The greatest talent in the 20th Century!

  • Best slide show ever

  • The final scene in Antonioni's 'Blow-up '

  • @jpsartreny

    Now that's OK

  • I think a lot of his persona just came from the fact that he had a rich baritone voice, which allowed him to speak softly and still be heard, (thus allowing for more voice inflection).

    I do enjoy a good movie, with convincing and charismatic acting, which I am sure does take a lot of practice and, yes, even talent.

  • yes, but then not everyone who has a rich baritone carries it across like that, there is a bit more to the voice than just where it sits on the scale... but yes i do agree its due to his voice - for whatever reason...

  • how come most of the genius entertainers become bloated buffoons, loosely speaking. Nicholson, Elvis, Welles, Brando, Wayne.

  • because in the end they are just men, and not the titanic icons we would have them to be

  • wow does anyone know if he read the bible it would be fantastic to hear

  • He read a lot of fantasy....so it's more than likely.

    If you mean "was he a christian".....don't be silly.

  • you weakminded fool

  • Ohhhh...touchy.

    You obviously read it and have a deep understanding of the message.

    I love you.

  • One of cinema's greatest - and unheralded - works. F For Fake

  • Ben from lost?

  • Is this the famous Chartres cathedral in France ?

  • Yes it is.

  • No, it's the lesser known Chartres cathederal in Mexico.

  • @JCMcGee HAHAHAHA!!!

  • I just made a documentary about Orson Welles which won 3rd place in the NYS History Day Competition. Please feel free to look at it. It's called "Orson Welles:  Genius and Innovator of the American Cinema". I really love his work!

  • There are those who say God makes us and when we die we are sent back to live and learn more. And it is repeated until we discover why it is done. But ever so often, one will be sent. Someone, only once because they already know why.

    I don't believe in that, but if I did; Orsen Welles, I think, would have been one of those one only sent once because he knew why. This is proof of that!

  • Unicron speaks. We all must listen.

  • @SatiricalTruth You should get a fuckin trophy for that one!

  • What is this clip actually from? I can't see anything that tells me, but the clip has great resonance

  • The Movie is F For Fake. You can order it from Amazon... it is a criterion release, so you can find it anywhere those are sold, but GET IT! This clip is the slowest moment of the film... the movie is so funny, clever, intelligent and entertaining that you will have to watch it over and over. Welles' best work in my opinion. do a search for F For Fake trailer and you will get a feel for it.

  • @SiameseChemise - Die in a car crash, wanker

  • @SiameseChemise - Yes I'm SOO hurt. Burn in hell with all you family, you worthless little wanker

  • @grobbledonk Oh dear, go away you pathetic cretin. Accept your mistake and move on, cunt.

  • @SiameseChemise You seriously pulled out the c-word for that innocent little comment grobbledonk made? Holy crap, what are you like when you're actually upset??

  • For me it's that bit in Star Wars when Chewy is trying to piece C3PO back together again. Friendship is beautiful man *sniff*

  • I love Orwell, he's so theatrical and mysterious and intense and odd...and...so unique...

  • Orwell?

  • Ha ha ha ha ha -

    Yeah, don't you know that Touch of 1984 is one of the greatest films ever? Magnificent Amberson's Farm is considered one of the great lost films, and many think Citizen Wiggan to be one of the most horrowing tales of a coal miner turned newspaperman ever.

  • :-D

    Sorry, got to laugh: I'm a big Welles fan!

  • 'profoundest'? Yes, that is awkward.

  • 'profoundest'??! wtf

    Surely 'most profound.'

    And can we please tone down the sweeping generalizations without qualification - what makes this particular scene the most profound of Welles' many profound moments? I expect more from you Dr. Herndon!

  • Profoundest is perfectly fine. It is a word, just not used very often. Look it up in any dictionary, I assure you it's there.

  • Yes I know it's a word, I'm not objecting to the existence of that word - I'm objecting to the awkward usage of the word, particularly as he used it both in the video and the write up. My objection is to the inelagance of his word choicage (and yes, my usage of the word 'choicage' is a joke for all you humourless pedants).

  • that made me laugh, 'choicage' nice use of irong :O)

  • Welles' career consists of stating the obvious to great fanfare, creating the illusion of gravity. He was a true Hollywood director, like James Cameron. Great fun, but not much else.

  • Like James Cameron? lol. Ok then.

  • Somehow you forget that he transformed radio, created new theatre, and at a phone call, stars would leave their plush surrounds in a second to come work for him without pay. Watch his performance as Hank Quinlan in Touch of Evil. He completely disappears. Watch the other performances in that film...especially Dennis Weaver. The whole thing is an enlightened space...occupied by your dreams....Heston's best role...watch the camera moves and choices...Akim Tamiroff's death..a celebration....love.

  • Please tell us where we might find the "much else" that Welles lacks in your estimation.

  • I hear you like Family Guy, and Fight Club. Maybe you'll find it there?

  • If you think calling attention to my appreciation of Family Guy and Fight Club exposes a disinclination to seek intellectually challenging entertainment, then you are sadly mistaken. Fight Club, both in print and in film, is an extremely thought provoking post-modern portrait of male identity, and Family Guy? It's very, very funny...and what kind of pompous twit would I be if I was unable to appreciate a TV show for that reason alone?

  • That you find "Fight Club" to be thought provoking leaves me questioning your intelligence. If there has ever been a more obvious film, I've not yet had the displeasure of watching it. And you seem to think that watching Family Guy adds (?) credibility to your taste, but one who truly seeks "intellectually challenging entertainment", as you call it, will never find entertainment in such filth. As regards my taste, I enjoy: Kubrick, Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Pudovkin, Lean, Ophuls, Tarkovsky, etc.

  • Go ahead and sneer. I really couldn't care.

  • Oh, so Fight Club is "obvious"? A film which explores the existential crisis of a generation of men displaced from outdated patriachal institutions, undefined by poverty or war, and adrift in a pluralistic society where seemingly everything is attainable, yet nothing is tangible. It is a multi-faceted portrait of post-modern man, composed of fear, nihilism, apathy, and a journey from quiet desperation to a new idealism, beginning in a rediscovery of innate instinct...

  • Its funny, though, that you launch into a tirade at my mention of Kubrick. Never heard of the others, then, have you? Thats OK. I would never call myself a film buff either, I have so little patience with most film. I suppose that's one reason why I find this argument so incredibly inane, the other being that you're quite obviously a complete moron. "Fight Club" was a comment on society? Really? Gee, well I guess I better strike it from the blacklist. Good lord, you're dumber than I thought.

  • Thank you, "NonSubmersible", for proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are an intellectual coward of the most cretinous variety. You denounce the intelligence of others, but when - oh no! - they challenge you to use your own intellect, you panic and retreat into puerile responses like "you're dumber than I thought". What was your second choice comeback..."I am rubber, you are glue"? And the less said about your devastating one word critique of Fight Club ("really"?) the better...

  • (cont.)...it's interesting, is it not, that despite my obvious stupidity and your obvious genius, I can easily provide a detailed commentary of the depth and complexity of a film like Fight Club, whereas your attempt to prove the reverse shows no recourse to intellectual reasoning whatsoever?

    Personally, there's nothing I enjoy more than sharing and debating different points of view...I'm disappointed that you lack the courage to sincerely offer yours.

  • (cont.)...and ending in an anarchic expression of defiance towards a world that has no purpose or place for "God's middle children".

    You didn't really think it was just about a bunch of guys hitting each other, did you?

    By the way, it astonishes me that you have the nerve to denounce Family Guy as "filth", when the first name on your holier-than-thou list brought the world A Clockwork Orange...

  • Gosh, that's really wonderful that I've managed to astonish somebody so wise.

  • By the way, just to be clear where the intellectual arrogance truly lies, I never claimed to be wise...you have claimed I am stupid.

  • I can no longer continue this debate in jest, since you clearly have crossed into hostility, and so I write to you from a position of "repentance". I should like nothing more than to resolve this utterly pointless argument. It was a misguided mistake, regardless of the obvious sarcasm with which I wrote, to insult your intelligence.

  • (CONTD) So you would like me to support my point of view? I will say that in Kubrick I find unprecedented philosophical value, the exploration of the concepts of epistemology, ontology, cosmology, empiricism, determinism... In Kubrick, I find intelligent allegory which explores these topics which I find so mesmerizing.

  • (CONTD2) I enjoy them because as a spectator one can participate in the marvellous craft with which he constructed his films, which encourage thought on dozens of levels, spanning dozens of areas of thought, ethical, political, psychological, as well as philosophical.

  • (CONTD3) And, whether this derives from the previous or not, I find his films to be of tremendous aesthetical value, they are exhilarating and intriguing, and this is magnified by the knowledge that there was an unmatched level of thought going into them, and beneath the surface there are hundreds of nuances and mysteries whose purpose no one will ever really understand.

  • (CONTD4) I don't think EWS was filthy, neither CWO. I think they were both impossibly complex (and I would give you examples, but I'm about 900 characters over the limit). EWS, the film you seem to hate so deeply, was a psychological investigation, but, more than this, it explored metaphysical issues of enormous importance.

  • (CONTD5) And... I have never claimed to be wise either; at least I dont feel that I have. I can only say that, when I speak of the works which I admire greatly, I feel almost as if I am passing on the "word of god", that sort of knowledge which one accepts as fact because of the incredible faith from which it derives, and the inevitable (?) opposing opinion I take offense to as a religious person would blasphemy.

  • (CONTD6) I hope you will accept my humble apologies, which I offer even though you called me an intellectual coward of the most cretinous variety!

    (Im laughing)

  • For the record, Sub, I asked for your opinions in good faith, you responded with insults, and I responded by pointing out that using such insults is an untenable position for anyone attempting to demonstrate their intellectual superiority. For you to accuse me of "hostility" for expressing distaste in your own hostility smacks rather of hypocrisy...but no matter. You've had the good manners to apologise, and you've offered a well-written advocacy of Kubrick's art, which (for the most part)...

  • (cont.)...I concur with. I'm still confused by your seemingly contradictory definition of "filth", but since you have no desire to continue this conversation I won't ask you to explain further. As a final thought, consider this:

    If other people's opinions - specifically those which fail to concur with yours - are "blasphemy", are you not implying that you have nothing to learn and everything to teach?

    Accepting the limitations of one's own wisdom is the wisest choice one can make.

  • In response (and nothing more):

    I think you might be doing a bit of white-washing when you say you asked for my opinions in good faith. I dont think that anybody could honestly argue that your question was nothing more than a naive invitation.

    Furthermore, I did not respond with hostility, I responded casually, amusedly, as I would in light conversation over such a topic. I meant no offense in what I said, surely you can see this?

  • (CONTD2) Of course, one forgets that online discourse will lack the color afforded by this luxurious tone of voice that one normally takes advantage of. Also, I do not, by any means, wish to demonstrate my intellectual superiority. I must make this clear. And, ah, apparently you have misread me, as we are so wont to do. I do not, by any degree of intellectual reasoning, wish to disregard the opinions of others, even if they are directly in contradiction with my own.

  • (CONTD3) Instead, if you recall, I likened my appreciation of the works of Stanley Kubrick to an innate faith, that which is felt and not deduced, and can be only strengthened by logical thought. There is no rule which can clearly define why I cannot watch Family Guy, except for the fact that I am repelled by it, by the same force, it would seem, which draws me to that which one might intuit to be of a greater value.

  • (CONTD4) Rather like one who acquires a taste, perhaps, I have become bored by such things as, say, action films, and my appreciation for greater art has become stronger in proportion. Perhaps I have digressed, but I feel that this must be said before I close this debate.

    And in response to this rather impertinent comment about my definition of filth, Im sorry, but I dont see any contradiction.Comparing Family Guy to Eyes Wide Shut is like comparing Coldplay to the Missa Solemnis.

  • Comment removed

  • (CONTD6) Finally, though... This last bit really gets me: it is so Thoreau, and yet so unsavoury. But Ive already addressed this, above. I do not disregard the opinions of others. There are certain things I value as spiritual truths. I am not making a universal statement. I am making a reverential statement. You understand this, I hope?

  • As regards the great classics, the works of Kubrick, Tolstoy, Beethoven, and the like, I do not think I ought to have doubts, and I will not apologize for the certainty with which I regard them.

    Its as close, I think, as I'll ever get to "God".

  • (cont. 2)...a film notorious even today for its viciously decadent depictions of sex and violence. Not that I begrudge Kubrick in the slightest for making the film, you understand...my appreciation of art is far too liberal to show offense at a reflection of our own natures, no matter how unpalatable that reflection may be. I do, of course, begrudge Kubrick for the very pointless and very silly (and rather filthy) Eyes Wide Shut...then again, perhaps it just wasn't obvious enough for me?

  • Perhaps not.

  • Do I get a serious answer to my question now, or are you afraid that I will sneer at your cinematic preferences just as you have sneered at mine?

  • Kubrick's favorite TV show was The Simpsons.

  • Chartres? What of it? Go on singing.

    and now here's the latest top hit on American Bandwagon, it's the Sleetles with...

    _Give Me a Reason to Live_!!!!

    [loud applause with screaming girls]

  • This is an especially moving statement coming from someone who was always labelled as a bit of an egomaniac (sometimes through his own fault) and who, toward the end of his life, seems to admit to himself and the world that the only true greatness lies in the human spirit and that, in the end, a man's name may not matter.

  • Sounds like a Beckettian monologue

  • How can you compare Homer Symson to Orson - Oh! Well, goes to show how uneducated today's youth are...........

  • Your desperate attempt to sound intelligent has failed miserably. Comparing the voice not the intellect, try to think next time.

  • I think your a pias arse. How dare you!

  • What does it all mean please?  Many Thanks.

  • Listen to the words and ponder the meaning........When we are dust only God will remain...........along with stone.

  • so it's an attempt at being profound by saying confronting humanity's fear that we will all be dead someday, and God will be left along with the Earth?

    I wonder if it would have the same effect if Homer Simpson were reading the lines. In any event, the words themselves, well, they're hardly groundbreaking.

  • Well now, Homer Simpson have been known as profound in many occasions so its not that far fetched.. ;)

  • BENJAMIN LINUS!

  • orson welles last performance was in transfomers the movie (cartoon) as unicron, an entire planet that was autonomous, congitive and despotic. His last act was to be a role so large, that planet earth could not provide a platform for it - indeed, no actor has every played a 'planet' before or since...

  • Welles never ceases to impress with his perception, wit, and thought-provoking comments on our lives. He is surely missed, but will never be forgotten. At least...not for a while.

  • classic Wells

  • ok...nothing worth going crazy over

  • "Thinking this he wondered if Mozart had had any intuition that the future did not exist, that he had already used up his little time. Maybe I have, too, Rick thought as he watched the rehearsal move along. This rehearsal will end, the performance will end, the singers will die, eventually the last score of the music will be destroyed in one way or another; finally the name 'Mozart' will vanish, the dust will have won."

    From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", by Philip K. Dick

  • "..even in a free spirit who has rid himself of everything metaphysical, the highest effects of art easily produce a reverberation of a long-silenced, or even broken metaphysical string."

    From "Human, All Too Human" NIETZSCHE

  • I don't know who here might have a Bible, but this segment reverberates strongly with the themes in the book of Ecclesiastes.

  • "But what of it? Go on singing."

    great clip.

  • What about the bit in groundhog day where she buys him at the charity auction at the end?

  • no se ingles,pero me han mostrado la prespectiva de ese lugar en menos de 3 mi nutos ,es increible

  • Navel-gazing, masturbatory preening at the beginning but Welles is enchanting. i'm not sure how the most profound moment in cinema history can be one which would have come across just the same as a comic book panel. speaking of which Orson Welles looks a little like Alan Moore with that beard, except over nine thousand times cooler and more attractive.

  • @ntripp whats wrong with a little Navel-gazing, masturbatory preening? That sounds like my usual morning routine! LOL!

    Seriously though....well said comment!

    Also....Orson Welles is a damn sexy man! I strive to one day be as cool as he!

  • @ntripp I agree about the beginning, though it is nice that he kept your comment. I do thank him for making note of this clip, I wouldn't have seen it otherwise, perhaps.

  • mwuuuahhhaaa! The french!!!!

  • An undisputed master of the aural imagination: Welle's Mercury Theater of the mind/soul left us with the ultimate media moments in his fake radio broadcast: "The War of the Worlds"!

  • [Keanu Reeves approaches foreground of screen in trademark scoliosis run and says in closeup shot:]

    "America has had its pinacle moment in history: we've been duped!"

  • cool info

  • profound...poetic...meaningful­l !!!

  • Anyone who looked long enough at Notre-Dame de Chartres would come to the same conculsion, he just simply drew out the words that are the essence of the thought that brought such a work into existence, that one who experienced the place would also experience, if looked deeply and purely enough. Chartres cathedral is made to astonish, to enlighten, Welles remains unoriginal in his observations of it, though he may speak part of its essence and convey its awe, thus better than a mere historian.

  • orson wells is halarious

  • is cool

  • No comment on the cloying, indulgent talk of this being 'the profundest moment' etc., but I agree completely with Welles' line, "There aren't any celebrations." So-called 'modern men' can't celebrate because they no longer bother to believe in anything worth celebrating. The most they aspire to is to distract themselves from time to time with a more or less refined hedonism. No wonder the current age is so bland and tasteless. We need, as the Sermon on the Mount puts it, some 'salt'.

  • i dont think profoundist is a word....

  • It isn't.

    'Profoundest' on the other hand...

  • I love how the internet is the source of so much anger....lol meaning that people watch this video and if they thought it was a waste of time they thought they'd waste even more posting a comment...I thought I was stupid and I have no sound...HA HA so I wasted time posting and arguing..or how ever it gets spelt!! someone reply so I can waste even more time replying.....'phew' my fingers hurt.. 84 characters left

  • Sir,

    Are you serious? You show a complete lack of knowledge, both of Welles AND cinema. Pathetic.

  • I think the most profound moment in cinema would be from an actual movie, not just a slideshow of pictures while a man talks. What distinguishes this from a play or a lecture? Nothing.

  • reminds me of the rumblings of Master of the Universe from "Plan 9 From Outer Space"

  • "It was a dark, dark, and stOHHrmy night..." --that's all this footage is... a fart within a cello of pompous ponderousness... offering no real answer... because any human faced with their own anguish will inevitably ask "Why should I go on singing?", and no religious claptrap will suffice for any human with 3 thinking synapses left in her brain. Even the visuals are the cliche'!: "dark night". And shamelessly gives the trodden truism: "We're going to die." So cliche'ed it's embarrassing.

  • It's deeper than that, it's not a plug for religion, it's praise for the passion and accomplishments of a culture. Our personal beliefs, personal faith, and politics are impermanent. The visuals are not showing the church as a testament of Christianity but as a work of art, of something greater than need or pomp. A symbol of lasting humanity. It's beyond "that we will die" and more than "we have made". For all the more aware and intelligent we think we are makes us cynical.

  • i think there are many other moments in his other films that are better than this, but Orson Welles has the greatest speaking voice of all time! : )

  • Out of all his accomplishments.... calling THIS the "profoundest" moment in Welle's lifetime... is preposterous... ABSOLUTELY Preposterous.

  • I was listening, listening then at about 2.50 it kicked in, yes, it is very profound. Words to make an ecologist sit up and listen.

  • I have just started learning film making and cinematography and everything I read keeps pointing to this movie. Now I see why.

    Thanks very much for the upload!

  • Doh! Just watched Citizen Kane and this post was meant for that. Sorry about that.

  • He has a voice similar to Ken Nordine- not as deep and resonant, but certainly as poetic.

  • Wow... The was pretty depressing, especially the last part of his speech. The more I think of it though, it's actually all true...

  • It is depressing. But there's got to be a way to make the most of our lives while we're still alive. I think it's healthy to take a moment and look at the big picture. We are only here for a short time. But I think that notion can be turned into a strength... help us to appreciate every moment.

    "What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived." - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

  • That was truly moving. Thank you for putting this up.

  • what does everyone have against shawshank redemption? its a good film.

    but that sequence in citizen kane where the camera tracks over that sign and then eventually down through the glass window with rain still falling onto it has to be the best thing ever filmed.

  • Do I shiver and quake from a reply from a dork with the name "Crimson Genius Skull"? Oh dear god, no I don't. Anyone with that handle clearly represents a delusional stance of being "important" when it's obvious they are --- a dork.

    Crimson Genius Skull = Dork.

    Laff it up, genius. When you sell a script to Hollywood, let me know. But until then, you're still --- a dork.

  • I'm curious as to what a Dork named "Crimson Genius Skull" has as his top 10 best movies. I'll bet the first one is "Evil Dead 2".

  • You rurikvred are unworthy of a response... Anyone that thinks "Tommy Boy" and "shawshank redemption" are great moments in cinema history is worth of only mockery...

    I give it too you.

  • haha Tommy Boy is on your top list of movies, that says it all; and so does your immaturity, i dont care how old you are. Name calling is real classy.

  • Compare the music edited within scene transitions, the overall classic comedic lines delivered by Farley, Spade, and Aykroyd, the crowd pleasing ending and the poignant Farley connection with his dad, you have the best comedy this side north of 1970. Not talking about big studio slapstick from MGM or RKO, just lately.

    Those who don't like Tommy Boy are just snobby losers with no friends, or lacking in the ability to appreciate simple human comedy. Name one comedy that beats Tommy Boy.

  • haha i like the movie, but im not going to call it a great movie. I want my laughs I go to the Marx Brothers and Chaplin, though.

  • Hey assholes. This clip isn't from Citizen Kane. Stop reciting what your film studies teacher told you about it and share something relevant to "F is for Fake." Neither the AFI nor IMDb is qualified enough to call any movie the 'best' or most influential. They just watch a lot of movies.

  • Why is this still considered the best film ever made? What the hell?

  • THIS is not considered the best film ever made. THE best film ever made!... is still considered by every important film review board to be...TA DA DA DA DA!!! CITIZEN KANE! watch it and read...learn its history.  learn what kinds of techniques welles brought to his FIRST film. after watching notice the great actors(besides mr. welles) that were in the film. that may start you into the world of people who do not type, "what the hell?" then again...you might be 'kidding', so...whatever

  • You could be the most long-winded ignoramus in youtube history. Congratulations.

  • orson rules.

  • A fine paen.

    A sober man.

  • Thats one of his credo´s: "There aren´t directors, there are only works." Just read it in "This is Orson Welles"

  • 1:35-1:50 and going feral too, I might add.

  • western art loves orson

  • orson welles was grand but some of his films were crap

  • Shakesperean!!!

  • -Just amazingly done, I felt like I was not breathing when listening to this. I miss orson welles.

  • read spielbergs unauthorized bio he saw him begging for a job in his final days, it wasnt a good sight

  • sweet turtleneck

  • we r all ded

  • simply breathtakingly amazing.

  • Good stuff .

  • Maybe less narcissistic, maybe less about ourselves.

    But how about a microprocessor. A "town" of 800 million gates moving from open to closed in the blink of an eye.

    How about the giants upon the shoulders of giants for that one.

    It seems the wonders of tomorrow are just limited by imagination right this moment, so they are basically infinite.

  • A certain great and powerfull king once asked a poet " What can i give you of all that i have ? "

    He wisely replied " Anything sir... except your secret "

  • The work is the only thing that lives on. It's unfortunate, though, that there are multitudes more who didn't leave any tangible remnants other than some bones and a headstone, if even those.

    Still, the cathedral testifies to humanity's accomplishments, past and present.