The Eyes of Orson Welles

In his imaginative take on the life of Orson Welles, Mark Cousins looks at Welles's personal sketchbooks - he was an inveterate scribbler, though he rarely went as far as to produce what we might call finished artworks - and sees the connections to his films, and to his life. This is not just a novel but also an interesting approach: film is a visual medium, but the visual side of a movie is the hardest thing to talk about: the sketches provide a key to the way that Welles conceived his tableaux. The other part of the thesis is that Welles's choice of movies tell us something about his private character. This is more contentious: does someone choose to play Falstaff, say, or film Don Quixote, because the character fits their own self-image? Maybe not, but Cousins gives us a credible speculation of how Welles' own character manifested itself in the work he produced, of how his films reveal the man who made them. Instead of a conventional narrative, Cousins prefers to engage in one half of an imaginary dialogue with the auteur: at times this is less successful, as when Cousins seems to impute a connection of Welles with Ireland that seems more important to him than he manages to convince us it was to Welles. Overall, though, it's a worthwhile endeavor: Welles's story is well known, its arc usually presented as tragic; but Cousins succeeds in making us view it through fresh eyes.

A director described by his portraits, his direction discerned from sketches of memories and memories of sketches. Light is explored in painting and set design, all in an effort to paint Orson Welles in a new light, or figure what light he saw himself in as he positioned figures on a stage. I figure this film goes far enough in capturing the expanses allowed us from Welles' mind and how his lines frame future films. However, I'm a little lost in the repetition of the particular picture with sideburns.

I suppose I am led to see it differently in the different "acts" of this exploration. It feel youthful, then classy, then a marketing shape cut out of virgin clay, then fringe, then cool, then something else entirely. Self-obsessed? Not in a selfish way.

The bee will always make honey.

A doc on Welles that focuses on his drawings? Sounds about as interesting as one on Warhol that centers on his films. And as a number of previous reviewers have observed the director/narrator's droning, second person Irish tones get old five minutes in.

This documentary had potential, but it was ruined by the dull, never ending narration. Very boring, IMO. What a waste.

Mark Cousins explores the life and works of Orson Welles, through the prism of his artwork.

This documentary is structured in the form of an open letter to Welles, as if he were still alive; the conversation isn't entirely one-sided, as towards the end of the documentary there are imagined replies from Welles too.

Burrowing through the remaining archive of Welles' artwork, often in the company of his daughter Beatrice, shows some insights into the workings of the mind of one of the twentieth century's most influential and controversial film-makers. Although nothing can be examined in great detail in the running time (1Hr 40mins as I saw it), his working life, his marriages, and his political activism are touched upon.

This film is both nicely made and is visually arresting in its own right; the content together with Cousins' quiet intensity makes this a must-see documentary for film enthusiasts. For me it underlined the fact that there are lots of his movies which I have yet to see, and there are aspects of Welles that I knew nothing about.

Eight out of ten from me; a longer version would probably have been an easy nine.