Latest news with #Welles
Indian Express
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Director of ‘the greatest film ever made' died alone and broke, was forced to beg for money from his peers: ‘Erratic, self-destructive, egotistical'
After a decade of self-imposed exile, the great actor-filmmaker Orson Welles attempted to make a comeback. He wanted to make a movie about his old friend, writer Ernest Hemingway's suicide. But no studio wanted to foot the bill. Welles was hailed as a wunderkind after Citizen Kane, often regarded as the greatest movie ever made. But his career was marked by a certain adventurousness that left him struggling financially, off and on, for the vast duration of it. He cobbled together money for his comeback project using foreign financiers (including the Shah of Iran's brother-in-law), but he ran out of funds midway. Accepting a lifetime achievement award in 1975, he made the most of his stage time by essentially asking the august gathering to give him the funds necessary to complete the movie. The industry that once hailed him as a legend, the finest filmmaker to ever exist, discarded him when he had outlived his usefulness. Welles never directed a successful film during his lifetime, even though many of them are now hailed as classics. Citizen Kane, inarguably his most admired creation, was the number one film of all time according to the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound decennial poll of critics. It was nominated for nine Oscars, winning in the Best Original Screenplay category. Only in his mid-20s and already at the top of the world, he developed a reputation for being a spendthrift. Also read – Legendary Bollywood music composer lived as paying guest in final years, banned family from attending funeral Writing for Guardian in 2009, the film historian David Thomson described Welles as 'most glorious film failure of them all.' According to Thomson's essay, Welles 'died, alone and broke, in a cottage in the Hollywood hills on 10 October 1985, at which point his affairs and his estate passed into a chaos that he had known and engineered for most of his life. In his youth, Thomson wrote, Welles 'worked 20 hours a day, ate double meals to keep going, pursued pretty young women like a demon and lived as if he had no tomorrow.' Welles spoke about his financial struggles in an interview with documentarian Leslie Megahey. 'I think I made, essentially, a mistake staying in movies. But it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like saying I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman, but I did because I love her. I've wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox which is a movie. I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie.' Also read – Bollywood's most celebrated Golden Age writer died penniless, burdened by heavy debts; Javed Akhtar blamed Raj Kapoor In 1982, addressing a group of film students in France, Welles said according to a New Yorker article, 'You are people who have fallen under the spell of the most wicked of all the muses, because it's too expensive.' Asked what the greatest feeling a director can experience is, Welles replied, 'The greatest moment is always when you know the money is in the bank… It's exactly the way you would feel if you were a painter and you had to wait for some fairy to come in the night and give you some paint. Every morning, you wake up and the box is empty. Now, naturally, when you see all those colours in front of you, it's going to be a big moment in your life.' Read more – 'His wife was found begging at railway station': Forgotten composer who launched Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar died penniless Welles reportedly couldn't afford to pay the cinematographer of his final film, and ended up giving him one of his Oscars for Citizen Kane as collateral. To make ends meet, he'd take up acting roles. Famously, he voiced a character in the 1982 animated Transformers film. Once, Welles was hired by director Mel Brooks to narrate some portions of a documentary. He agreed to do it for $25,000. When Brooks asked what he'd spend the money on, Welles replied, 'Cuban cigars and Sevruga caviar. I would have included women, but I'm getting just a little too heavy for that kind of athletic endeavour.' While being honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the American Film Institute, Welles was reduced to asking his peers for money to complete his unfinished film. 'A maverick may go his own way but he doesn't think that it's the only way or ever claim that it's the best one, except maybe for himself. And don't imagine that this raggle-taggle gypsy is claiming to be free. It's just that some of the necessities to which I am a slave are different from yours. As a director, for instance, I pay myself out of my acting jobs. I use my own work to subsidise my work. In other words, I'm crazy. But not crazy enough to pretend to be free. But it's a fact that many of the films you've seen tonight could never have been made otherwise,' he said in his speech. He proceeded to show the crowd a scene from his unfinished film, which revolved around a character needing money. Read more – Star of Bollywood's Golden Era died penniless due to flamboyant lifestyle, influenced Amitabh Bachchan and won praise from Mahatma Gandhi Welles died of a heart attack at his Hollywood home at the age of 70 in 1985. As per his wishes, he was cremated. Only a handful of close friends attended his funeral. Joseph Cotten wrote, 'He did not want a funeral; he wanted to be buried quietly in a little place in Spain.' He had been under treatment for diabetes as well as a heart ailment, The New York Times noted in its obituary, adding, 'For his failure to realise his dreams, Welles blamed his critics and the financiers of Hollywood. Others blamed what they described as his erratic, egotistical, self-indulgent and self-destructive temperament. But in the end, few denied his genius.' Writer Stephen Farber noted, 'Looking back over American movie history – a history of wrecked careers – you begin to see that the critics have a lot to answer for. The classic victim is Orson Welles.'
New Straits Times
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: Orson Welles is back thanks to AI
FORTY years after his death, Orson Welles is still telling stories. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the legendary voice of the director of 'Citizen Kane' will be heard in a new project, this time as a digital tour guide. Open the app, select a point on the map and listen. Are you standing in a dingy Hollywood alleyway? Or on Broadway in the heart of New York City? Every location becomes an opportunity to discover the behind-the-scenes history of cinema and TV series from a new perspective. In a bold initiative, the StoryRabbit app now offers its users the chance to discover this world through the voice of Welles, one of the most iconic directors in the history of cinema. "No matter where you are, Welles peels back the curtain on the hidden architecture of film, television, history and culture that surrounds you. "What may look ordinary is, in his telling, anything but," reads the press release unveiled by Podnews. Launched by Treefort Media, in collaboration with 'Orson Welles Presents' is now available on the app for iOS and Android starting at US$4.99 per month. StoryRabbit uses geolocation to enable travellers to hear contextualised audio stories narrated by famous voices, including, now, Welles, recreated with uncanny accuracy from voice archives, with the permission of his estate. Unlike other AI-based experiences, each script is written, checked and approved by a team of people. "All narratives are human-curated, authentic and responsibly produced," promises Treefort Media, which emphasises its "ethical" approach to AI. "Orson was a relentless innovator, who worked effortlessly across multiple platforms during his long and storied career, so bringing his voice into this new medium feels like a continuation of that legacy," said David Reeder, of Reeder Brand Management, the agency for the Orson Welles Estate. Kelly Garner, founder and chief executive officer of Treefort Media and creator of StoryRabbit, said: "Integrating Orson Welles' voice gives our storytelling unparalleled resonance. Having the opportunity to work with a voice of this caliber is extraordinary. "His timeless perspective offers users a unique lens – simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking – to discover the world as it speaks, revealing incredible true stories." In addition to Welles, StoryRabbit also features the voice of Dominic Monaghan, the British-Irish actor known for his roles in 'The Lord Of The Rings' trilogy and the TV series 'Lost'.
Times
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The Phoenician Scheme review — Mia Threapleton shines in dour Wes Anderson
The best Wes Anderson movies work on two levels at once, the head and the heart. The Royal Tenenbaums, for instance, bursts with cerebral allusions to Salinger, Welles and the films of Powell and Pressburger while also exploring the lingering wounds of family life and of love unexpressed. Even the Wes Anderson films that don't work on the heart level have such head-spinning cleverness that their impact can be dizzying — think of Asteroid City, with its audacious 'play within a play within a TV show within a movie' structure. If, however, a Wes Anderson movie doesn't work on either the head or the heart level, you're in big trouble. And that takes us to The Phoenician Scheme, premiered at the Cannes
New York Post
23-04-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Here's what Russia and Ukraine get in Trump's ‘final offer' peace deal
WASHINGTON — With US officials in London Wednesday for what could be a last round of negotiations to try and end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the pressure is on for Moscow and Kyiv to agree to the Trump administration's 'final offer' peace plan. While Kyiv has been consistently open to President Trump's call for a full cease-fire, Russia has continually rejected the American peace proposals. The latest pitch, as described by one senior administration official, offers Russia several 'carrots' to entice them to come to the table while asking Ukraine to make several major concessions. Here's a look at what each side has been offered, according to administration officials: What Russia gets Formal US recognition of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula as Russian territory — a major departure from the Washington's longstanding Welles doctrine, which refuses to acknowledge annexed territory as belonging to the seizing power. 'De facto' recognition of Russia's occupation of four regions in Eastern Ukraine, meaning the US would acknowledge Moscow controls the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts while formally considering them Ukrainian land. A pledge that the US would not support Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. Lifted sanctions to boost Russia's economy, which has struggled throughout its war on Ukraine. Opportunities for more economic cooperation with the US, especially in the energy and industrial fields. What Ukraine gets Assistance from European military forces as 'a robust security guarantee' following a cease-fire. The US would not be involved in this measure. Russia would return a small portion of Ukraine's Kharkiv oblast currently occupied by Moscow. Navigation rights in the Dnieper River, which runs along the frontlines. Assistance in post-war rebuilding, though it is unclear from where that funding would come.
New York Times
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jesse Welles, a Folk Musician Who Sings the News, Is Turning the Page
In a small home recording studio on a Monday afternoon in January, Jesse Welles sat with a guitar on his lap, dressed head-to-toe in black. Welles, a singer-songwriter with a shaggy, dirty-blond mane and a sandpapery voice, has risen to recent prominence posting videos to social media of himself alone in the woods near his home in northwest Arkansas, performing wryly funny, politically engaged folk songs. He's managed to turn subjects like the war in Gaza, the rise of the weight-loss drug Ozempic and the rapaciousness of United Healthcare's business model into viral hits on TikTok and Instagram, building an audience of more than 2 million followers on those platforms. But the song he was recording in that basement in East Nashville, 'Simple Gifts,' is a different beast. As he delicately plucked his acoustic guitar, he sang its earnest opening lines — 'Slouching towards the sky's extent from the edges of a waste / Was something darker than a hope, something brighter still than fate' — sketching out an imagistic tableau untouched by current events. Welles's new album, 'Middle,' due Feb. 21, is similarly minded. 'The only filter placed on it was I wasn't doing topical songs for this project,' he said. 'These are ones that are self-indulgent, or at least I feel like they are at times. I like to do both. They're two different mediums.' Image Jesse Welles's protest songs deftly blend the whimsical with the serious, turning topics like Walmart and the war in Gaza into viral hits on TikTok and Instagram. Credit... Eric Ryan Anderson for The New York Times The producer, Eddie Spear, rose from behind a mixing board and adjusted the microphone in front of Welles. Most of the songs on 'Middle' are recorded with a full band, but for 'Simple Gifts' and the album's title track, the setup was pared down to a solitary microphone. 'I'm trying to honor what people are enjoying about Jesse,' said Spear, who has also worked with Zach Bryan and Sierra Ferrell. 'We thought getting a really simple capture in this way might tie in where he's come from and honor this particular period of his career.' Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
