Orson welles's personal experience.

Orson welles is the second son of a wealthy family. His father RichardHeadWelles is an accomplished inventor and his mother BeatriceIves is a pianist. Wells grew up in this Roman Catholic family. When he was 0/8 months old, a psychologist declared him a genius. His mother taught him to read Shakespeare and practiced painting, piano and violin since childhood. He also learned juggling skills from his father's company.

When Wells was 6 years old, his parents divorced, and he moved to Chicago with his mother, who died on 1924. Wells's father later became an alcoholic and took him around the world, including China and Shanghai. His father died in 1930, when Wells 15 years old. He has always felt guilty about his father, thinking that his father ignored his existence and betrayed him. This guilt has been with him all his life. After that, MauriceBernstein became the guardian of Wells.

Wells in middle school was highly valued and influenced by the principal Roger Hill. It was during that period that he began to write and direct plays.

However, Wells' rebellious character made him refuse the guardian's plan to send him to college for further study. With his father's meager legacy, he went to Ireland alone, determined to become a wandering painter. In Ireland, he met a woman who discussed naming their future child "Rosebud", but the relationship soon ended in failure. Wells went to Dublin. 193 1 year, Wells found the director of Dublin Gate Theatre and boasted that he was a Broadway star. Although no one believed him, the theater manager appreciated his skills and kept him in the troupe. He became a successful stage actor there. He moved to Spain after having an affair with two female bosses in the theater. This time, he wanted to be a thriller writer, but by mistake, he became a matador. Obviously, his body is not as sharp as his mind. The painful experience of Spain is a signal. We can see that the tragedy that runs through Wells' life is that he has unparalleled talent, but he has a serious tendency of self-destruction. This kind of struggle happens to him all the time, and this kind of conflict can also be clearly found in his later film creation.

It should be noted that Wells' legendary experiences all happened in his adolescence, when he was barely twenty years old. After traveling in Europe, Wells returned to America, and soon he really broke into Broadway. He even took part in KatherineCornell's national tour, and his rapid popularity caught the attention of producer john houseman. 1934, Wells once again set foot in radio dramas and made many friends with "Red Potion". This year, Wells married socialite and actress Virginia Nicholson and had a daughter. Also in this year, Wells and his wife made an 8-minute short film "HeartsofAge". Although insignificant, it is not difficult to find the aesthetic interest in Wells' later film career, including the unstable composition and the close-up of oppressive characters.

1936 As a part of Roosevelt's New Deal, the federal drama program helped some long-term unemployed drama workers find jobs. Wells was employed by john houseman, and his earliest play was a plan to help blacks. Wells faced an almost all-black team, so he arranged a Macbeth. The play was a great success and toured all over the country. This event was later regarded as a milestone in the history of African-American stage play, and 20-year-old Wells was hailed as a genius in the drama circle. After Macbeth's great success, Wells rehearsed Faust and the satire Ma Xi Saudi.

1937, Wells directed another very successful drama, TheCradleWillRock, which was a drama about workers created by Mark Blietz Tan. Out of concern for the leftist forces, the government blocked the performance of the play in every way, but Wells and houseman overcame many difficulties and made a sensation again.

1937 In the summer, 22-year-old Wells and 35-year-old john houseman set up their own Mercury Troupe in new york. They soon gathered around some outstanding talents, including agnes moorehead, joseph cotten, George Calleris, Ray Collins, Frank Lei Dike, Freites Long, Seibert, Justa, Sanford, erskine and Bernard Herman. Many of them later worked for Wells for many years and became his reliable team.

The first play of Mercury Troupe was Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in which Wells added satire and innuendo to the Italian fascist regime, which was a great success.

At the same time, Wells was also active in radio, first as a radio drama actor, then as a producer and director. He played Hamlet in a CBS radio play. His radio plays include Les Miserables.

What really made him famous was the famous radio drama from War of the Worlds: Martians attacked the earth. 1938 10 10 at 8 o'clock on the evening of October 30th, the announcer, in the form of a reporter, imitated the tone of the live report in the form of a documentary story, and told the audience that Martians were invading the earth and massacring human beings. The national guard was wiped out by the Martian army, and the president has declared a state of emergency in the United States. Countless listeners believed this and fled, especially on the east coast of the United States, where people cried for land.

This event is the most famous genius in the history of American broadcasting. According to statistics, millions of people believed this program at that time, which caused serious national panic and countless economic losses. Wells became famous overnight and made headlines in all the newspapers the next day. The radio drama War of the World opened the door to Hollywood for Wells. Lei Dian Hua gave him a very generous contract, even including the final editing right of the film-in Hollywood in the era of big studios, few directors can have this right! In an interview with the film handbook on 1964, Wells admitted that under the Hollywood system, this is an unprecedented "absolute power" for a director. He regards thunder as his paradise, as if he can control everything freely.

Wells intends to start with an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel "Black Heart". He even designed the protagonist's subjective point of view during the whole adventure, but after the budget was made, the radio and television company began to calm down and refused Wells' request, which was bound to pay a great price. Then Wells proposed to shoot NicholasBlake's anti-fascist novel The Smiler with a Knife, which also failed. According to Wells, it is because the company's top management has no confidence in his choice of female No.1 Lucille Bauer.

As there has been no theme that can satisfy all parties, Wells is worried that China Radio and Television will shake his confidence. He spent time with the screenwriter Mankaiwei (who had previously written a radio play TheCampbellPlayhouse for Wells) to brew a story, which was first named "John Q" and later renamed "Americans", and George Schaffer, the owner of China Radio and Television Station, decided to change it to "Citizen Kane".

Mankiewicz's idea comes from the life in william randolph hearst, and his mistress Marion Davies and Hearst are good friends. Of course, the protagonist also has some shadows of RobertMcCormick and JosephPulitzer. Wells's idea is to show the different side of the protagonist from the perspective of many people. He drove Mankaiweizhi to write the script according to his own ideas, and houseman also contributed a lot to the completion of the script. Wells added at least three plays to mankiewicz's plays and made great changes. Kane's childhood partly came from Wells' own experience.

The photographer of the film was the best Gertolan in the industry at that time, and the editor was Robert Wise, who would become a great director in the future. Some of the actors are old actors of Mercury Troupe. When the news leaked to Hearst, he instructed his gossip writer LouellaParsons to investigate and finally confirmed that the film was really based on Hearst's life, which made him very dissatisfied with the filming of the film. At the Oscar, Citizen Kane won nine nominations in one fell swoop, but only won the best original screenplay award.

1944, Wells directed a new radio drama. 1945, he and ClaudetteColbert starred in the sad movie TomorrowIsForever. Although he didn't want to be asked to be a director, his reputation as an excellent actor was recognized in Hollywood. During this period, besides continuing to work in radio dramas, he also wrote a column about politics and Hollywood for New York Post.

Wells directed a black thriller about the pursuit of Nazi war criminals after World War II. According to his original intention, his old partner agnes moorehead was allowed to play the role of an FBI agent, but the producer flatly refused. Instead, they found Edward. Robinson, an old traitor who specializes in Warner Bros. gangster movies.

1947, Wells filmed an advertisement from Shanghai for Columbia Company. The film co-starred Wells and his then wife rita hayworth. Wells cut hayworth's hair short and bleached it white, which caused great controversy. Harry Cohen, the boss of Columbia Company, gave Wells many orders in creation. Because rita hayworth's singing in the last movie was well received, he ordered to insert a singing scene, and in order to make the female star shine, he had to add some close-ups. More than that, Wells was extremely dissatisfied with the composer appointed by the company. The scene in the room full of mirrors at the end of the film was not intended to be accompanied by music, but the studio simply turned a deaf ear to Wells' intention. After the film is finished, the director's version is about 155 minutes, which is obviously too long for release, so it is not surprising that it was cut to 87 minutes. In this way, "Miss Shanghai" was finally made. Harry Cohen was worried that the film would ruin his star and decided to temporarily refrigerate it, and finally postponed its release for one year.

1948, Wells finally persuaded RepublicPictures to let him direct the low-budget film Macbeth. This time he cut 20 minutes at the request of the studio, but the box office still failed. 1947, frustrated Wells left the United States, ostensibly because he chose freedom. However, according to the conclusive evidence later, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation thought that he was a producer of * * * under the long-term clamor of the Hearst camp, so it launched an investigation into him. Wells was blacklisted by Hollywood, which may be the main reason why he left the United States.

Going to Italy to shoot "otero: The Moors of Venice", compared with previous films, first of all, this film was exclusively produced by Mercury Company in Wales, and there is no doubt that the director firmly grasped the autonomy in his hand; In addition, the shooting cycle of otero has reached three years, which is obviously a painstaking work. During this period, Wells' film career entered a new stage, that is, in order not to be restricted by big studios, he kept taking movies from other directors and earning his own money for making movies. After 30 years, I still can't get rid of this situation. During the filming of otero, he appeared in four films, the most outstanding of which was TheThirdMan (1949) directed by carol reed, which was rated as the best film in British film history 100 by the British Film Academy (BFI). Wells didn't appear in many films, but he was extremely amazing, especially the lines he personally wrote about the Borgia family and the cuckoo clock.

Outlaw is obviously more successful than Macbeth. It was very popular at Cannes International Film Festival and won the highest prize, but it was not released in the United States until 1955. The performance of this film is remarkable, but the strong stage form weakens the power of the film itself. Most of the scenes are a bit amateur due to technical conditions, so otero is still not Wells' most successful adaptation of literary classics. In his later film career, Wells did not stop putting classic literary works on the screen. He began to plan and adapt his favorite novel Don Quixote in 1950s, and didn't start shooting until 1970s, but it was never really finished.

During 1950, Wells was looking for a job in England. After HarryLime's radio drama The Birth of the Third Man was a great success, several radio drama series were produced one after another. During 1953, Wells briefly returned to the United States to host a CBS TV program, during which the Commissioner of the IRS kept an eye on him. After the program, Wells went to Britain.

The next opportunity to direct appeared in 1955, and the producer of the film Mr. Alcatin was Louis Dorivert, Wells' political mentor. The film was shot in France, Spain, Germany and Italy. This film was later recognized as one of his masterpieces. In the same year, Wells directed two TV series for BBC TV. From 65438 to 0956, Wells returned to Hollywood and hosted some TV and radio programs. This time he stayed in America for three years.

During the three years since Wells returned to the United States, his most important work was Touching Loveville.

1957, Wells just made a thriller called ManintheShadow for Universal Pictures. He rewrote the scene about his role in the script, which made the company very satisfied and decided to continue to cooperate with him, but no one would think that he was still suitable to sit in the director's position, because the previous heavy box office failure had left a bad impression on Hollywood.

The new film is tentatively named Medal of Evil, and the first hero is the big star Charlton Heston. Heston accepted the role happily because of a misunderstanding. He thought Wells would direct the new film, but this was not the case, so he suggested that Wells should direct it directly. At this time, Universal Pictures' appreciation of Wells played a role, and Wells got the opportunity smoothly. Although the budget is pitiful, it is still worth a try to prove that he is really capable of making money within the Hollywood system. Universal Pictures didn't know what to do after making his 93-minute "Robbery of Beauty". He shelved it for a few months and then released it in a hurry. He didn't even hold a rehearsal for the film critics. It is conceivable that the film ended in failure.

However, with the passage of time, many TV stations and film groups have shown this film again and again for many years, and more and more people realize that The Robbery of Beauty is an outstanding work beyond the times. Restoring the original appearance of Robbery of Beauty has become the dream of many loyal fans and some insiders. First of all, in the 1970s, RobertEpstein of UCLA asked Universal Picture for a copy to be shown in the college, but unexpectedly found this version as long as 108 minutes. He was glad to think that he had found the lost original well. However, according to research, this is only a preview version of the studio, and quite a few shots were not shot by orson welles himself. When Universal Picture released the video in the 1980s, he had no intention of asking Wells, who was still alive at that time, to correct his mistakes many years ago and let the classics return to their original colors. Therefore, there has never been a version on the market that can accurately reflect the director's original intention, and the disappointment lasted for more than ten years.

The real breakthrough occurred in 1992. JonathanRosenbaum, a famous film critic of Chicago Reader, published a review article in Film Quarterly, quoting the words in the Wells memo. Schmidling, a well-known producer in the industry who presided over the restoration of Von Strauhen's Greed, accidentally read this article and moved the idea of re-cutting The Robber of Beauty, so he invited WalterMurch, a top sound engineer and editor in Hollywood and a multi-time Oscar winner. As well as recording engineers BillVarney, PeterReale and picture restoration expert BobO'Neil of Universal Pictures, with the help of JonathanRosenbaum, set out to repair and re-edit The Robber of Beauty. They tried their best to be faithful to Wells' memorandum manuscript. First, they removed the subtitles and music that interfered with the audience's attention in the opening long shot. Then, according to Wells' explanation, they focused on depicting the tragic death of Quinlan, a corrupt sheriff who was mixed with pride and rudeness, decisiveness and sadness-reverting to a typical "Faust" story that Wells always remembered, telling the betrayal and degeneration of his soul. A new version of "The Story of Robbery of Beauty" came out on 1998, with a length of11min, also known as "director's cut version". But no one can know what Wells' own version looks like.

After The Beauty Thief, Wells appeared in several films in the following year, including TheLong, Hot Summer (1958) and Forced (1959). Obviously, he was not satisfied with his life in Hollywood, so he decided to return to Europe. After returning to Europe, Wells continued to shoot Don Quixote intermittently. From 65438 to 0959, he acted in two films in Italy and Hong Kong.

1960, he performed two more films in France and Yugoslavia. At the same time, he returned to the Dublin Gate Theatre where he once stayed and arranged a stage play. This stage play combines five historical plays of Shakespeare, with the aim of focusing on Falstaff, the original supporting role. This is not the first time Wells wants to do this. 1939, Wells wrote the script of The Five Kings, which combined Shakespeare's Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III. But it failed at that time, so the plan has been shelved and has become a worry to him. This time, it was named "ChimesatMidnight" and staged in Ireland.

At the same time, he finally finished the early filming of Don Quixote, but he did it for several decades later, and it was not really finished until his death. 1992, Spanish director JessFranco edited a version based on some negatives left by Wells, and the response was not good.

196 1 year, Wells directed a TV series for Italian TV. 1962 Wells adapted Kafka's TheTrial, which was shot all over Europe and starred by anthony perkins. During that time, he met the actress OjaKodar. 1965, Wells finally put "Midnight Bell" on the screen, and he personally played Falstaff, which was a great success. At the age of 50, he is not fat in middle age. He needs clothes and old makeup to get close to Falstaff's image. More than twenty years later, Wells is a Falstaff without any disguise.

1966, Wells directed the TV movie TheImmortalStory for French television, which was later shown in French cinemas and was very popular. Four years later, Wells and Ojakoda reunited, and they never separated in life and movies.

In the later period of Wells' film career, his success is always fleeting. He spent most of his time in all kinds of good films and bad films, endlessly acting as a supporting role, a walk-on and a commentator. Wells spent most of his time traveling back and forth between Europe and America, during which he also cooperated with some important European directors, such as AbelGance, HerbertWilcox, JulienDuvivier, SergeiBondarchuk, ReneClement and ClaudeChabrol. More important American directors, such as JohnHuston, FredZinnemannNicholasRay, RichardFleischer, JackArnold and so on.

Wells is not without a chance to bring his career back to life. Coppola and Paramount also considered Wells when they chose Vito in The Godfather. His age, posture, voice and acting skills are undoubtedly the best choice, but after repeated weighing, Coppola chose Marlon Brando. As a result, the man who came back from the dead became Brando.

A few years later, Wells was invited to voice Darth Vader in Star Wars directed by george lucas, but this time, he refused. On another occasion, Coppola planned to shoot Revelation Now, and the role of Colonel Courths was originally his. Coppola initially chose Wells to play Colonel Courths, but finally chose Marlon Brando who had worked with him, which made Wells miss the role of darkseid again.

In Wells' poor old age, the rising stars of New Hollywood still have great respect for their predecessors. He played the role of brigadier general in Catch-22 by mike nichols, and met the new director Peter Bogdanovich. They hit it off and became friends from then on, and bogdanovich became the spokesperson of Wells. Wells has never written an autobiography, but he had a long talk with Peter Bogdanovich, and the later publication I am orson welles is one of the most important ways to understand Wells.

1969, Wells authorized Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA to build a cinema in its own name-orson welles Cinema until 1986. Because he has been invited by American TV stations and studios, and European tabloids have never let go of his personal relationship with OjaKodar, Wells resolutely gave up the editing of Don Quixote and returned to the United States on 1970.

He no longer works for a big studio, but only participates in some small investment film and television shooting. He also found himself a talk show star. During this period, his main experience focused on completing the filming of "The Other Side of the Wind", which lasted for six years, but it was not completed in the end. Many seniors and sisters who helped him appeared in it together. The film tells the story of the old director's difficulties, but it is only a reappearance of Wells' own experience. Wells paid 1 million dollars for the film and raised 1 million dollars from an Iranian company in Paris. The boss of this company was named MedhiBoushehri, who was the brother-in-law of the Iranian king at that time. During the filming, a Spanish investor disappeared after taking away about $250,000. Iranian companies promised to fill the funding gap, but they also got 80% of the copyright of the film. They finally refused to edit Wells' film. At the same time, the revolution broke out in Iran, the king stepped down, the copy of the film fell into the hands of the new government, and the film left Wales. Today, many people are still working hard for the fate of this film. PeterBogdanovich, a close friend of Wells in his later years, has been running for more than 20 years. At the beginning of 2006 10, PeterBogdanovich said that "things are going well now, and there will be a definite news release in two or three months." 197 1 year, he directed a shorter version of Mobidick, which was not finished in the end. In the same year, Ampas awarded him an honorary award. Wells pretended not to be in Los Angeles and asked JohnHuston to get it for him. JohnHuston criticized AMPAS as a hypocritical award.

Well 1973 completed gas production.

1975, AFI, just a few years old, awarded Wells the Lifetime Achievement Award. He showed the other side of the wind at the ceremony.

1979, Wells made a documentary about FilmingOthello. It was filmed for the West German TV station and later shown in the cinema.

In the late 1970s, Wells appeared in some TV advertisements, such as an advertisement for wine, which was very famous.

In his later years, apart from appearing on TV programs, Wells could not raise enough money to start shooting a large number of plays he wrote. In addition, he also teaches at several film schools in Los Angeles.

1985 101month10, Wells died of a heart attack. Although he said he didn't want to be cremated before his death, his body was cremated under the auspices of his wife and daughter, and his ashes were finally buried in a dry well in a friend's house in Spain.