Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 189: Wed Jul 8

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work Of Orson Welles (Workman, 2014):
BFI Southbank, Studio, 8.50pm


A new documentary, screening in an extended run at BFI Southbank, to coincide with the Orson Welles season at the cinema.

BFI Southbank introduction:
A wonderfully entertaining, illuminating and very touching portrait of Orson Welles. A child prodigy who went on to make extraordinary, often game-changing contributions to whatever medium he chose to be involved in – radio, theatre, film and TV – Welles quickly came to be regarded as a ‘genius’: a double-edged acclamation, with its hints of profligacy and arrogance. The truth was more complex, as shown by Workman’s use of clips from works both familiar and unreleased; testimonies from family, friends and fans, collaborators and critics (from Simon Callow to Steven Spielberg); and, best of all, anecdotes, admissions and insights galore from the great man himself. As Peter Brook says, we shall never see his like again.

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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