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A 100th Blogpost and A 100th Birthday 5/25/2015 7:13:45 PM
I wanted a good way to commemorate that this is my hundredth blogpost and found it when I discovered that if he were still alive, the actor, director, scriptwriter, and media personality Orson Welles would celebrate his hundredth birthday next Wednesday, May 6.
Some years ago, I wrote a novel called The Opinionists partly about a film crew making a movie based on a theological controversy in 17th century colonial America. To prepare for this novel, I rented a lot of movies and bought dozens of videos. Along with countless other movies, I watched every film I could find that Orson Welles was involved with.
He had talent to spare. The director Jean Renoir wrote that Hollywood had produced two geniuses: Welles and Charlie Chaplin. I can't say whether that's true or not, but Welles was surely a compelling presence on film. Images come back to me easily: Charles Foster Kane, Joseph K., Mr. Rochester, Clarence Darrow, Father Mapple in Moby Dick, the sheriff in A Touch of Evil, Othello, Macbeth, and the unforgettable Harry Lime. (Everyone should see The Third Man at least once.) He was brilliant at portraying men who were accomplished and debonair yet well-acquainted with the dubious side of life.
Although I knew he was prolific in many fields, I didn't realize until I checked a Wikipedia essay on him that he left a slew of unfinished works behind, the most famous being a film of Don Quixote, bits and pieces of which are available on YouTube.
What I take away from him now is that he didn't put conformity to trends or a quest for money in first place. Neither did he give way to sentimentality or create automatic happy endings. He had a penchant for tragedy, for the underside of life, and for situations that highlight what some of us call the meaninglessness of life.
I've enjoyed his work and sometimes sat awash in the fruits of his talent and his ability to bring a note of authority to everything he did. His point of view isn't mine, however. I can never say that life is pointless or without meaning.
It took me a while to find words for what I want to say next. Welles made acquaintance with evil a leading note. In my opinion, this predilection lowers his standing as an artist. He had an abundance of ability without the balance of the greatest creators. Shakespeare, whom Welles loved, brought us Iago and Macbeth but also Prospero and Beatrice and Benedick and the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. And Falstaff, of course. (I haven't seen Welles in the role because Chimes at Midnight, which I've read is the greatest of all Shakespeare movies, is unaccountably hard to find.)
Apart from Falstaff, did Welles ever turn his hand to comedy? Did he understand the hope and the capacity for endurance that mark the lives of millions of people?
Welles received a lot of criticism during his lifetime, especially from colleagues in the movie industry.
He persisted nevertheless, and his work will have admirers for a long time.He created a legend. As far as I know, he has had no successors in the English-speaking world. So I express my reservation this way: despite the legacy that Welles left behind, there is still a large gap in the North American entertainment industry that needs to be filled.
