Orson Welles: The One-Man Band

Orson Welles' archives of unfinished/never released movies and the last years of his life from the perspective of Oja Kodar (life and artistic partner Of Orson Welles in his last years).

What is Orson Welles? Is he a visionary, an artist, and a constant creator? Yes. This is a man who was only 26 when "Citizen Kane" was made, and continued to make brilliant work for decades. Perhaps some day we will see more of it (rumors abound that "lost films" will turn up).

Why does this film have Muppets? Because it should. And why is the narration in German? This is a bit of a shortcoming. Because so much of it is in English, having the voiceovers in German does not seem to make a lot of sense. At the very least, it could have multiple sound options. (Subtitles are preferable to dubbing, but this would not even be dubbing because the narrator is never on screen.)

Orson Welles fans, this may be the best you'll get in terms of 'lock-box' finished films from the prolific, perpetually f***ed over father of maverick-style cinema (i.e. few films made in Hollywood, with Europe his only safe place for his very independent ways as an actor/writer/director/producer/editor). Like an author who's smaller, in-the-vault kinds of works put together by an editor into one compilation, One Man Band, like the documentary It's All True, is a sort of collector's item in and of itself. Along with giving the fullest possible glimpses (as far as we Welles fans know) of the films as part of Welles's un-official scrapbook, there are some revelatory insights from his longtime companion Oja Kodar, and clips from a public interview in an auditorium (a very funny one) that shines some light on a couple of issues. The director here is the editor, assembling the pieces at times in the essay style of F for Fake (and this film is now included with it on the brilliantly packaged Criterion DVD), though not as frantic in style and purpose.

Here we get something very special, in spurts, and even when the interest is a little more low-key than expected (though fun, the novelty isn't exceptional of Welles reading excerpts from Moby Dick and The Merchant of Venice), one can't look away. The best parts include the intact scenes from the Deep, London, the filmed excerpts of Merchant of Venice, the little moments of Welles's odd, hilarious imitations, and the one that still could be completed, the Other Side of the Wind. That last film is maybe the most fascinating film of the lot, as it goes even further with montage and experimental style than F for Fake. It's wild, it's rambling, and I could only get an idea of what was going on, but that's all I could've asked for anyway. The veneer of Welles's personality, as well, is stripped a bit away through Kodar's insights, how he was more of a modest man than the overwhelming, megalomaniac personality people made him out to be. At the end of the day he was, as the film makes clear without a shadow of doubt, one of the true poets of 20th century cinema, and like other controversial artists his major works were practically all censored, while the minor works barely left his traveling-alongside film cans.

To see a filmmaker at work, at least in retrospective, can be many things, from dull, to over-indulgent, to really passing all of that and showing a man at work. While there isn't footage of Welles at work on a set like with Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie or A.K., the footage here compensates for that. One can see through the little bits of film done, the ones that showed his determination to keep rolling along instead of getting stuck in the past, that it isn't too much of a surprise that he got a little sick of people tipping the hat to Citizen Kane and nothing else he did in his career. His story is one of the tragedies of the artist's world, though it's good to know that he never got too depressed to not quit at the magic and voices. It's a real treat.

When a person slowly disappears, nobody seems to notice. This is probably what happened to Orson Welles when his film career stumbled into a downhill slope. The man who was arguably the most brilliant filmmaker to emerge on the American scene, ended up doing narration, wine commercials, and magic shows. He died in poverty, leaving behind masterpieces, but also leaving behind dozens of unfinished films. Films that could have been just as magical as his earlier works. 'Orson Welles - The One Man Band" takes a look at those struggling later years when Welles was a ghost hovering around the Hollywood movie scene. Many people knew he was trying to make movies, but many people also knew he could never get them finished. Because of his inability to finish films, no major studio would try to finance him, so he became a gypsy-like filmmaker. Even still then many projects were not finished.

Although it is sad to see a legend struggling so badly, the film does not feel sorry for him. In fact, the film has a very positive outlook on Welles later years. The film is narrator by two people. One is the filmmaker. The other is Welles' companion, Oja Kodar. She had spent a considerable time with Welles in his last years and knew him probably better than anyone else. The image she shows of Welles was not of a burned-out has-been, but of a strong man who still had plenty of creative spark. When watching the snippets and short clips from his unfinished films, one can see exactly what Oja Kodar was seeing. Either it was bad luck or it was his conflicts with studios that could not get his films finished. Or maybe it was both. Regardless, one can see even in his later films, Welles still had incredible film-making talent and vision. One can see that he was also a versatile actor. He could play a wide variety of roles and play them as good as the best actors. When we see how creative he still was, we cannot help but think it was the Hollywood that ruined his career. There could be a lot of truth to this because many people feel he was never the same after 'Citizen Kane' because Welles might have stepped on too many big toes after his brilliant debut feature. But the unknown remains just that. At times, it is the artist who ruins his or her career with their own bare hands.

It is hard to say what happened, but this film does not try to explain that either. It tries to focus on Welles the artist. And he was just that until his death. An artist who had no audience. How frustrating, but we have seen this example time and again throughout history.

This is a loving film essay on Orson Welles and his unfinished films. Its an interesting look at the man who was just trying to make the films he wanted to on his own terms. Made with the assistance of Welles' longtime companion Oja Kodar this film lets us see a number of his unrealized projects for the first time. Its a treat for anyone who has been interested in Orson Welles and heard stories of these lost treasures; or for any one curious to what end he was putting the money got from his numerous film and television roles. While I'm not sure what I would have thought of some of the films (The Dreamers for example) I find that I'm very interested in where he was going with other (his Moby Dick, which consisted of him simply reciting passages from the book is an interesting idea). I especially loved some of the short humorous bits that Welles put together, his Churchill film is very funny, as his is bit with two English tailors. As a person who has been very critical of Welles of late, due in large part to extreme disillusionment with his Don Quixote (which I found to be a crashing bore) I find that this film re-awakened my respect for the man. Its not a perfect film, most of the pieces we see only awaken a desire to see more of the unfinished films and at times it seems to go on too long. Still this is a must see if you're interested in Welles or cinema, especially its lost treasures.

Orson Welles: The One-Man Band (1995)

*** (out of 4)

This is an interesting documentary from Oja Kodar who served as Orson Welles life partner. This 60-minute documentary takes clips from various unfinished films by Welles and presents them as parts of his work that simply for one reason or another never got finished. Throughout all the clips we get some stuff from Welles giving interviews where he talks about his craft. One such clip comes from his AFI Lifetime Achievement award and another comes from a Q&A he was giving and he gives an interesting answer about his unfinished films including DON QUIXOTE. We get clips or notes to films such as THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, MOBY DICK, THE DEEP, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, ONE-MAN BAND, The Orson Welles Show, THE DREAMERS and a bizarre extended trailer for F FOR FAKE. Needless to say, the ones who will enjoy this the most are fans of Welles because they'll get a chance to see all of this footage, which went pretty much unused for years. I'm sure the success of IT'S ALL TRUE helped get some of this out there. While there's nothing ground-breaking in terms to the quality of the film, I think it remains entertaining as long as you don't mind watching this footage of Welles. I must admit that I thought it was rather sad watching this thing and seeing such a great artist doing stuff that would never come together and eventually sit on a shelf for decades. Kodar is shown on-camera as she shows off some items of Welles as well as some of the paintings that he did. Of course, a more detailed documentary about the life of Welles is certainly something that we need but until then this here is a nice introduction to the work he never completed.