My Name is Orson Welles

… is the name of the excellent exhibition in Cinematheque Francaise in Paris: Film by film examined, posters, documents like scripts, pages from scripts, stills, photos of Orson Welles, clips with him talking about his career, clips from the films – and an excerpt of (taken from Wikipedia): “The War of the Worlds“, a Halloween episode of the radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which was broadcast live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938 over the CBS Radio Network. The episode was directed and narrated by Orson Welles as an adaptation of H. G. Wells‘ novel The War of the Worlds and is infamous for inciting a panic by convincing some members of the listening audience that a Martian invasion was actually taking place.

Orson Welles and “Citizen Kane”, a fiasco when it was premiered, later considered by many film critics and colleagues of Welles as the best film in film history. Gregg Toland’s innovative camera work, Welles formidable acting, the “magnat de la presse” William Hearst and his failed ambition to have the film forbidden (a text in the exhibition compares him to the current President of America!), “Rosebud”…

Orson Welles and “The Lady from Shanghai”, Welles and Rita Hayworth, the mirror scene “reconstructed” at the exhibition, Welles being in constant trouble with the production company, and surveyed for his alleged communist sympathies. Welles with constant financial production problems.

Orson Welles and “The Third Man” from 1949, we all know it, a super-hit, and Welles making the big mistake agreeing to a lump sum fee instead of having percentages of the ticket sales…

Clips, yes, and you want to re-watch his many works, also the Shakespeare films and enjoy the acting when it is at its best. Film is for the actors, he said, the direction is not that important – words to that effect.

I was there with my friend Poul Rude, journalist and film director and film buff, we wanted to smoke a cigar after the visit to the Cinematheque – it had to wait but you should not wait if you are in Paris to go and visit the legendary auteur, adored by Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. It is a visit for hours of joy, information, pleasure, an homage to Cinema!

Photo: Cinematheque Francaise.

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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