Viewing notes, September 2016
I’ve recently been dipping into the ’60s and ’70s with two Criterion Blu-rays of major works by Orson Welles, a couple of Robert Altman’s signature titles, and a new J.G. Ballard adaptation from Ben […]
Review: Chimes at Midnight (1966)
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford,
Orson Welles
Keith Baxter
John Gielgud
Jeanne Moreau
Margaret Rutherford
Plot: The culmination of Orson Welles’s lifelong obsession with Shakespeare’s robustly funny and ultimately tragic antihero, Sir John Falstaff; the often soused friend of King Henry IV’s wayward son Prince Hal. Integrating elements from both Henry IV plays as well as Richard II, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
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Recent viewing: miscellaneous disks
A round-up of recently viewed disks from rediscovered classics to throwaway mainstream action; from horror and comedy to […]
The myth of Orson Welles’ failure
Forty years after Pauline Kael wrote her hatchet job Raising Kane (The New Yorker, Feb. 20-27, 1971), the myth of Orson Welles’ arrogance and failure is apparently still alive and kicking. In his August 13 column, Glenn Erickson over at DVD […]