3/3/2023 0 Comments Orson welles othelloAnd then soldiers toss the wretched Iago (Welles's old friend Micheál MacLimmóir, the second in that role) into a cast-iron cage and raise him aloft, and the close-up of Iago's face behind the bars mirrors that of his beloved, despised victim, Othello. Download this stock image: OTHELLO, (aka THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO: THE MOOR OF VENICE), US re-issue poster, from left: Orson Welles, Suzanne Cloutier. A silhouetted procession like one from "The Seventh Seal" carries him along a parapet on a funeral bier, intersected by another procession, that of Desdemona (Suzanne Cloutier, the fourth actress cast in the role), minute in the distance. The dead Othello's face, upside down, fills the screen, with otherworldly chanting on the soundtrack. From the opening scene the sublime strangeness takes over it is like entering a Cubist painting or a canvas by de Chirico. The result is, if not his best film, then his most uncanny and perhaps his most perfectly realized. Seldom has a director encountered so many frustrations and obstacles, and turned those obstructions into inspirations, integrating them into his vision. He allies himself with Iago, who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. If by "auteur" we mean a director who takes not just the filmmaking process but all the vicissitudes of fate and finances as his medium, then Welles eminently qualifies. Orson Welles’ magnificent screening of Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes it hard. In the course of his production he employed five cinematographers, but few films sustain such uncanny visual consistency. Gloriously cinematic despite its tiny budget, Orson Welless adaptation of Shakespeares classic is a testament to the filmmakers. The effectiveness of such editing on the fly draws on the montage theories of Lev Kuleshov and Sergei Eisenstein, and at the same time Welles's cutting also demonstrated Andre Bazin's concept of mise-en-scene with his astounding juxtapositions, compositions, and use of depth of field. I rate Welles as one of the 20th century's great architects and predict that this film will be mined when we get around to really creating cyberbuilding.He would change locations as the need arose, hopping from Venice to Tuscany to Rome and to Morocco, with a fight scene beginning in Morocco and ending in Rome some time later. Selection aside, how he uses the spaces! View this film at least once in silence. I cannot imagine how he found them, how he could have seen the possibilities. So he worked with the most direct tools, buildings themselves. He understood that great film constructs a space that includes the audience. With Micheál MacLiammóir, Suzanne Cloutier, Orson Welles, Robert Coote. When Welles moved into film, he did so as an architect. Now the shell, and here is what makes this film one of the most important. All else is acceptable (at least to my tastes) so far as the play goes. Welles is the Sinatra of dramatic reading, with phrasing mastered in his radio days. This play is merely about characters, which makes it attractive to actors. His great plays are about ideas, with characters as vectors to prod and activate them. First the inside: this was never a great play, relative to Shakespeare's other works. For three years Welles persevered through sheer obstinacy and sometimes legally dubious resourcefulness to bring. The credits were adjusted to place Lee Dickter (sp?) as Re-recording Mixer, and Ed Golya as Sound Effects Editor.Ĭommenting on Shakespeare films is rather like admiring Easter Eggs. Orson Welles's adaptation of 'Othello' might be the auteur theory's best argument. Basically, the film was retransferred, and the rebuilt sound effects tracks were added. The original mono music was then reintroduced into the final product. This decision was made for the entertainment value of the film. Unintelligible dialogue was replaced with 'sound-alikes'. It was purchased for distribution by Castle Hill, and taken to New York where it went through another transformation before release. Ed Golya, Lorita DeLacerna, and Steve Wilke, were digital editors. John Fogelson, editor, was a major supervisor of the project. When a secret marriage is planned between Othello (Orson Welles), a Moorish general, and Desdemona (Suzanne Cloutier), the daughter of Senator Brabantio. This was a problem as some of the dialogue was distorted and unintelligible. The audio was completely rebuilt, including the score, in Stereo Surround. The film was transferred to, and enhanced in video, (D1 format) retaining it as black and white. This film by Orson Welles, was 'restored' by a group in Chicago in 1991/2.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |