Tuesday 6 May 2008

"I Started At The Top And Worked My Way Down"


"I started at the top and worked my way down" is how Orson Welles describes his career in the movies, and today (6Th May) would have been his 93rd birthday if he were still alive today. I wanted to do this as a tribute to him as he is my hero.

There are many people I call 'heroes' and 'influences' and I probably used the two words far too much, but in the case of Orson Welles I mean every syllable of it. My first encounter with Welles was watching 'the Transformers' movie in which Welles does one of the voices, and ironically, it was his final performance that I should see first. I am too young to remember what the film was about (other than robots in disguise) but I do remember watching it. I only really became aware of Orson Welles as my deep passion for movies started up in my early teens, and of course Welles and 'Citizen Kane' is hard to avoid if you're a fan of films. But my curiosity really got started when I was compared to Welles, because I had acted in, written and directed a play for school, and I of course was immensely proud and still riding on my sense of pride years on (it was only last year I dsicoverd that at the age I had done that play was the same age Welles acted, directed and wrote his school play). I watched the great film 'The Third Man; which Welles only appears for 10 minutes but walks away with the film in the pocket. The (arguably) most memorable moment of the film is where Welles's character Harry Lime gives, and his performance is made all the more impressive when it is know that Welles wrote the speech himself-





Welles's name was always in the background, as I said for a classic film fan it's hard to ignore. Then when i was 16 I watched 'Citizen Kane'. To say how it felt is to borrow what Bruce Springsteen said about Bob Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone': "Somebody kicked the door open to your kind." Even though I couldn't view it as 1941 audiences would have viewed it, I knew this film was special It wasn't special it was.... 'Citizen Kane'. For me every myth and rumour about that film's greatest was true. Every time I see it I still find something new in it. What Welles did in 1941 was take the rulebook on how direct a film then tear it up and rewrite it. It's only when you see 'Citizen Kane' you can see how all the Spielberg's and Scorsese's have been influenced. For me there will never be any movie like 'Citizen Kane' that has had such resonance and impact, but still be a damn watchable film.


It cannot be avoided that Orson Welles had the voice. Perfectly suited to radio and theatre, it was a tragedy that as his career slided his voice was reduced to advertising frozen peas. It was distinctive andlistenable. The only other vocie that comes close to it is Richard Burton (but that's another debate for another day.)


It would be a lie to say I would be nothing without Orson Welles and 'Citizen Kane', but it's true to say that I certainly wouldn't be the same person.

No comments: