The Eyes of Orson Welles

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.

I've found this documentary with its slow paced narration and editing quite apaising and somewhat poetic. I really enjoyed it, it's rather unusual in these times of fast cuts and over-feeding of information to adopt this counterpoint. I must confess I can not say I've seen a lot of Orson Welles' movies but after seeing this documentary I definitively plan to watch more of them. I also was impressed by how good he was at drawing, in summary a great all-around artist.

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.

It's listed as a documentary, on the life and works of orson welles, who lived from 1915 to 1985. Writer, director, producer, stage manager, casting director. Mark cousins and welles' daughter beatrice describe various items from the welles collection archive. Drawings, letters, papers. Lots of scenery of new york and chicago. Discussion of themes like beginnings and endings. Some politics. Cousins addresses many statements and questions to orson himself, as if he were in the same room. And sums of welles' work as a series of shapes and lines. Contradictions, as any poet has. There's a very complete page of information at wikipedia dot org as well. It's mostly good. Written, directed, narrated by mark cousins. He has won numerous film fest awards. It's quite interesting. I wish cousins had spent more time with beatrice on camera! She must have had tons of interesting stories about her father's life and work. And i don't remember any discussion of welle's project (uncompleted, during his lifetime) other side of the wind... which was also released in 2018!

This is constructed in a different way than most looks at a life, with a focus on art and drawing to see things the way he saw. It mostly works really, really well, with some great attention to tiny details from his life that only a real scholar would know. It stumbles a bit with the part where he has orson talking back, but that's only 10 minutes of a 100 minute movie that really does offer something for even the person who already has read everything there is to read about Welles.