Orson Welles' "Voodoo" Macbeth

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.

check out my macbeth rap, it's pretty funny and informational

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.

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.

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.)

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!?

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.

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

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.

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