A young, brash Orson Welles stormed into Hollywood in 1939 on the phenomena of his great Halloween “trick or treat” to America, his radio play based on H. G. Wells War of the Worlds. The realism of the production proved the power of the young mass medium of radio by causing panic among listeners who tuned in late, missing the announcement that this was fiction and believed that a Martian invasion was really happening. RKO Pictures, seeing Welles’ potential for putting people in movie theatre seats, invited Welles to Hollywood with an unprecedent contract for a first-time, 23-year-old director for two pictures, giving him total creative control and final cut privileges. The result was Citizen Kane, a.k.a. ‘the greatest movie ever made’ that sat atop the American Film Institute’s Top 100 and other best-ever-lists, well into the 21st century.
How do you follow a first picture success like this? If you’re Orson Welles, not easily. His uncompromising confidence in his restless, dramatic genius made it difficult for him to find financial backing within and outside the studio system and may have contributed to his meager career output of 20 feature length films over a 50+ year career.
Nonetheless, we will study six of Welles’ movies between Citizen Kane, 1939 and Touch of Evil, 1958 (rereleased “director’s cut,” 1998), exploring his masterful exploitation of film form and discovering his ideas on human nature and American culture. The other four films to be studied are to be announced.
Each week I will introduce the film to be discussed and send out viewing questions ahead of time. The films will be viewed in the order they were first released and will focus on their meanings, the director’s development, ideas about American culture, and his contribution to classic cinema. All films will be watched individually before class. It usually takes around two hours to watch a film to be discussed in class. In previous classes some students have attested to the benefits of watching a film twice. Viewing questions to help students prepare for discussion will be sent out about a week in advance of the film to be discussed for that week’s class.
Please note that the last class is during the break week.