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The biggest mistake we have made is to consider that films are primarily a form of entertainment. The film is the greatest medium since the invention of movable type for exchanging ideas and information, and it is no more at its best in light entertainment than literature is at its best in the light novel. -Orson Welles Orson Welles was passionate about film. By the young age of 25, he had directed, produced, and starred in what is today considered by most to be the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane. About a year later, Welles began work on his next film project, The Magnificent Ambersons. Based on the novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons tells the story of a falling aristocratic family in a small midwestern town during the late 19 h century. It depicts the sad, rapid industrial growth of the Midwest.
Welles, who grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin and later in Illinois, understood what life was like in this part of the country and the novel allowed him to delve into his roots and examine his personal past. Surviving many risks and crises, this film is still revered today, almost 60 years later, as yet another great work of art by Orson Welles. After finishing up Citizen Kane, Welles search for a second film to fulfill his contract with the Hollywood studio RKO radio pictures was a hard one. He first wanted to make The Pickwick Papers with W. C. Fields, but someone else was already under contract to make the film with another studio.
He also considered trying Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness but RKO considered the project too experimental, and he finally decided to write a script based on Booth Tarkington's novel, which had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1919 (McBride 53). It had been filmed once before as Pampered-Youth, a 1925 silent film directed by David Smith (McBride 53). Tarkington's novels were a favorite of Welles, including the trilogy of which Ambersons was a part of, and he had directed several of them into radio plays (Naremore 19). Welles wrote the script of The Ambersons in nine days (McBride 53). The film was to be financed by the production company RKO/ Mercury. A major problem arouse with the budget before shooting began.
Because of the shrinking international film market, RKO had set a maximum budget in Welles contract of $ 600, 000 for The Magnificent Ambersons (Higham 213). Also, according to the arrangement that RKO had made with its bank, no film from the studio was ever to exceed $ 750, 000. A pre-budget estimate of Ambersons came close to one million dollars. Pared down to more details in its final form just before shooting, the film looked as if it would still cost in excess of $ 850, 000. Permission to proceed with production was eventually granted, but with strict rules to Welles to bring the cost down to under the $ 750, 000 figure (Higham 214). The Magnificent Ambersons is a Historical Epic Drama based on a time almost 70 years prior to its making.
In order to cast the film, Welles read a delineation of the characters Tarkington had given in a 1917 issue of Metropolitan Magazine (Brady 316). The silent star Dolores Costello was brought out of retirement to play Isabel Ambersons. Welles also made the surprising choice of selecting contract player Tim Holt for the role of George Minafer. Holt was considered a mistake by most people (Bogdanovich 113). Although he does give a strong performance, some have wondered why Welles did not take the role of George. Instead, Welles gives the finest narration to have been heard in the cinema (Higham 185).
The Mercury Theatre players filled the rest of the cast. Joseph Cotton, perhaps the most underrated actor in film history, plays Eugene Morgan while Agnes Moorhead gives one of the great performances in sound cinema as Fanny Minafer (Higham 185). Welles began rehearsing the cast of Ambersons for a total of five weeks, discussing with each actor the characters and their role in the story, their homes, their schooling, their backgrounds and the society in which they lived in the script (Cowie 132). In selecting the crew, Welles decided on Stanley Cortez as his cameraman, since Gregg Toland, who had shot Citizen Kane, had gone into the army (Sarris 107). Welles used the rest of Tolands crew from Kane. Cortez was extremely talented, but too slow and particular for Welles taste.
The shooting began on October 28, 1941 and was completed on January 22, 1942. The snow sequence was filmed at the Union Ice House in downtown Los Angelos. Real snow was brought in and below zero temperatures were reached because Welles wanted everything to look as authentic as possible (Sarris 211). According to materials contained in the RKO Production Records, the exterior process photography shots for the sleigh sequence were filmed at Big Bear, California (Sarris 211). Georges last walk home after saying goodbye to Jack at the train station was shot with a handheld camera in L. A. (Sarris 212).
All of the other scenes were shot in the RKO studio. Welles and Cortez used many extreme wide-angle shots as was done in Kane, but this time the focus was much softer, adding a more appropriate feel to the film (Cowie 220). The effect of The Ambersons lies largely in the quiet frustration of the audience. Welles holds each shot a little longer than normal.
Thirty seconds or a minute is such an uncommon length for a shot that we are unconsciously drawn into thinking that it will last still longer. And when Welles does cut, for the most part unobtrusively, there is a slight disappointment - a nostalgia - that the scene is already over (Film Comment). To achieve this requires high concentration in each shot. The overlapping conversations, the continual use of music, and the flowing motion of and in front of the camera achieve the grace and intensity needed for the effect (Film Comment). This film was made in violent contrast to Citizen Kane, almost as if by another filmmaker who detested the first one and wanted to give him a lesson in modesty (Brady 317).
Of all the tricks Welles uses for Ambersons, the most notable is the iris shot of Morgan's automobile driving off into the background with the Morgans and Ambersons on board, singing "Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo. " As the automobile putters off over the snowy horizon, the iris engulfs the world around it, a metaphorically appropriate trick since the Indianapolis they once knew is quickly disappearing. Not only is the Ambersons and the Morgans leaving the frame, they are leaving an era, and it is also appropriate that they should have an automobile as their mode of transportation because the era they are about to enter is one dominated by automobiles. The iris shot itself is an antiquated trick, one that was used frequently in the silent era but hardly at all after the coming of sound. Just as the iris shows the end of pre-industrial Indianapolis, it harks back to the beginnings of the cinema. It is a beautiful shot that captures the film's essence better than any other (Slide). T...
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Research essay sample on Orson Welles Citizen Kane
