Around the World With Orson Welles: The Complete Series

This was a very informative series of films Welles made regarding regions in Europe and their respective cultures. Different segments highlight the Basques and bullfighting. Some of what’s covered is as true today as it was then (Europe’s much higher standards for public school content and curriculum for example). It’s a great series by a man who truly deserves the moniker of “genius.” I only wish he made more episodes.

I love Orson Welles and looked forward to watching this film. I watched the Return to Vienna: Third Man segment. It is embarrassingly bad. I thought it would be about his role in the Carol Reed film, taking us to locations where films were shot, etc. Welles does show two locations, but he says nothing about the film. Almost all of the segment is shot in a cafe. There is one hilarious moment when Welles says "look at the whipped cream!" But the conversations Welles has are just plain boring. He often merely repeats what his interlocutor says. I haven't yet watched more because I'm afraid I will have the same response. I really don't know what Welles thought he was doing here. Maybe he just needed to meet Oja Kodar.

Excellent documentary film about Europe from the master of cinema, Orson Welles... It completes other similar works, as "It's all true" and "F for fake."

A fascinating set of television documentaries from Orson Welles. Not around the world, exactly, as the episodes are set in France, Spain, Austria, and England exclusively. The episode "The Third Man Returns to Vienna" was thought lost when the Image DVD was released and is not included on this edition. It has since been found at the University of Wisconsin and will be released on the blu-ray editions of "Around the World with Orson Welles" that are scheduled to be released by the BFI (in the U.K.) and B2MP (in the U.S.A.). Those editions will also have a documentary on one unfinished episode of the series that had to do with a notorious murder case in France. The French government may have stepped in with pressure to abandon the story.

Okay, "the French" think this is the "missing link" of Welles filmography. Now just think about that . . . who are these "French," and who supposedly speaks for them? The flummery evaporates upon even semi-serious attention, making one wonder whether master film maker (and open con artist) Orson was behind the crack, as the sort of exercise in self-promotion of which he was so capable.Actually, Welles the man is very unusually engaging in these old TV shorts. The first two are the best, and after that you can slowly watch his engagement dwindle. That's the way it is with geniuses, they need to be challenged. Orson was always fascinated by TV, wrestling with it for years until his memorable "F for Fake" got fully engaged with both the stylistic and substantive new dimensions of fakery permitted and encouraged by the medium. These old Brit TV travel pieces were an opening shot, sure. But they are no more the "missing link" than was Piltdown Man (a cosmic con that Orson may well have regetted missing), or, for that matter, poor dying Citizen Kane's "Rosebud."In episode one Orson introduces us to an old, eccentric American artist in Paris. Its a lovely, kind portrait, and one gets a feel of real time travel with roots back in the Paris heydey, for Americans, of the 1920s. There are also a couple classic Wellesian vistas of Paris, of such a touching beauty that only Orson could have shot them. They are too brief.Then a piece on wonderful old Brit pensioners, some widows and soldiers he really hits it off with. The human dimension here, and the seriousness of Orson listening to these old folk make this quite special, and a fine short documentary in itself.Now you expect the bullfight piece to be the best. Its not terribly bad, just dull, Orson letting the critic Kenneth Tynan and his wife do the talking. Orson should have skipped this shot at a mano a mano with Papa Hemingway on this turf. The actual bullfight footage is short, distant, altogether stock stuff -- Snooze in the Afternoon.Some decent opening commentary comes in, and a few nice parting shots, in the two Basque pieces, really one piece edited in two different takes. Again, he basically lets friends speak. Its semi-engaging the first time, much less the second, then that's all, folks.The worst aspect of these shorts is Orson's hammy, almost unpardonable trick of having a shot of him asking questions, then a shot of whoever the interviewee is answering them, and only rarely the two together -- obvious fakery of the most transparent variety. I wouldn't be surprized if this con was intentional. Ultimately, its not unpardonable because the masterpiece F for Fake eventually evolved out of such trickery.Welles was an elusive cat, for all the time he spent on camera. The plus for Orson buffs (or for anyone) here is his genuine humor and compassion, never talking down to people. That obviously isn't trickery.

For those who like 'F for Fake' this is an early and very charming template. Made for ITV television when Welles was jetting about trying to find money for one or other of his projects, the projected 26 programmes were never finished. What was made highlights how much Welles could charm us simply by being interested in things and talking about them. In some ways it's a shame that Welles didn't give up conventional film storytelling altogether and go into television. If he could have been harnessed he would have been far better than Bernard Levin, Michael Parkinson and Clive James. He probably would have been better as a writer and cartoonist as well. But then you never could rain in his enthusiasms and this is a good collection of them.

This is a marvelous collection of short documentary travelogues written and presented by Orson Welles in 1955 and newly reborn in a great must-have BFI package. Made exclusively for TV, Welles threw the rule book out of the window and as usual set about creating something never done before. He bravely took his cumbersome 35mm cameras on a Grand European Tour in a first for documentary production. Often seen in shot, these early camera leviathans are fascinating creatures, but their awkward nature was clearly a hindrance to the process of interviewing Welles’s often bewildered subjects. The resulting films must have been a vision to behold for their 1950’s virgin audience, but the reality was a fractious and lumpy exercise, populated by wooden performances from terrified locals overwhelmed by the abstract vision of a Hollywood movie star! And in this respect, it’s somewhat frustrating that Welles is on screen far more than the wonderful regions he promotes. For example, we long to revisit those indelible Third Man locations on his trip to Vienna, but what little we actually see is largely background support to a screen full of Welles waxing lyrical from a crib board just off camera. Redemption is somewhat achieved by a fascinating look at Viennese café life, where Welles salivates over the array of cream cakes on offer (predictably he eventually cracks). Although this extraordinary slice of documentary history is light years away from today’s fare of overcooked technology, one thing remains remarkably unchanged. Welles’s famous ego dominates the proceedings, and like so many of today’s travel presenters, the real message is…stuff the subject – this is all about me!Roger Hopkins

Wonderful travelogues, postcards from various european locations, from a master who, like Rossellini, took to television and immediately sensed its potential scope and possibilities as a medium.Now over sixty years old but (partly due to the use of film and not primitive video) they put to shame much current output.Genius is a grossly overused term nowadays but I suspect that term belongs to Wells, as long as you preface it with the word erratic. He once, for a brief period, had full use of the greatest and largest train set in the world, and didn't abuse the privilige, as many have done.Here he has a more modest train set but plays with it like the master he always was.Wells can be a hammy, larger than life thespian but a marvellously witty, intelligent and wise host and raconteur, with the thoroughly captivating and engaging curiosity of a somewhat over-sized schoolboy (and not unlike Hitchcock in that respect), and far better than Alan Wicker and Clive James, two that immediately come to mind, among many others, who went on to 'own' the formatAmusingly he pretends to personally film certain shots, with a lovely 16mm camera, but he sensibly allowed his skilled technicians to take the actual shots, and the results are of a very hight quality, with beautiful high contrast monochrome images.In the interview with Bernard Levin he is modest, serious and clear sighted but he may well be a better actor than even I thought and be fooling me. He was a magician and card sharp, after all, so I may well have been willingly hoodwinked.To be savoured. Unfortunately only available on Blu-ray.

Many interesting insights from the maestro, in this collection of episodes for British television, circa 1955. In addition there is an interesting interview from 1967, and documentary about an unpublished episode, as well as the episode itself.Well worth seeing by any aficionado of Welles.

If you are interested in the great OW, this is a must. Fascinating style, years ahead of it time - typical OW.