Orson Welles: Hello Americans

Orson Welles: Hello Americans by Simon Callow


ISBN
9780224038539
Published
Binding
Hardcover
Pages
528
Dimensions
157 x 242 x 42mm

The second volume of Simon Callow's brilliant, definitive biography of Orson Welles.

The reason for the decline of Orson Welles's career is a hotly debated issue, but decline it certainly did. When 'Citizen Kane', his first film, opened in 1941, Welles was universally acclaimed as the most audacious filmmaker alive. But instead of marking the beginning of a triumphant career in Hollywood, the film still regularly voted the greatest ever made proved to be an exception in Welles's life and work. He found it increasingly impossible to function within Hollywood's system. Project after project foundered, either abandoned incomplete - as with his ambitious Brazilian epic 'It's All True' - or, as in the case of virtually every other film he made in America, being released in very different form from the one he intended. Finally, in 1947, he left America for Europe where for the best part of twenty years he lived in self-imposed exile, occasionally and briefly returning to stage a play, make a film or shoot a television drama.

In close and colourful detail, 'Hello Americas' examines the years from 'Citizen Kane' to 'Macbeth' in which Welles's Hollywood film career came apart. It offers a scrupulous analysis of the factors involved, revealing the immense and sometimes self-defeating complexities of Welles's temperament as well as some of the monstrous personalities with whom he had to contend. At the same time, the book gives full weight to the almost bewildering range of his activities beyond Hollywood: his serious but doomed attempts to be a radio comedian and stage magician, his flamboyant and financially disastrous endeavour to revive spectacular theatre single-handedly, his newspaper columns, the political activities into which he so passionately flung himself. And of course the films, as fascinating as they were flawed: 'The Magnificent Ambersons', 'Journey Into Fear', 'The Stranger', 'The Lady From Shanghai'. The thread that runs through this apparently incoherent blur of activity is an often frustrated engagement with his native land, its faults, its dreams, its popular arts, its history. But by 1947, he had said all that he had to say to his fellow citizens; it was Goodbye Americans for two decades of endlessly experimental and innovative but essentially European work.
March Book Frenzy (Online Only)
63.96
RRP: $79.95
20% off RRP


This product is unable to be ordered online. Please check in-store availability.
Instore Price: $79.95
Enter your Postcode or Suburb to view availability and delivery times.

Other Titles by Simon Callow

My Life in Pieces
19.99
15.99
20% Off
Londons Great Theatres
79.99
63.99
20% Off

You might also like

Oh Miriam
34.99
27.99
20% Off
Making It So
55.00
39.99
27% Off
Diddly Squat Pigs Might Fly
36.99
29.59
20% Off
Greenlights
24.99
19.99
20% Off
Shakespeare
36.99
29.59
20% Off
Lies My Mirror Told Me
34.99
27.99
20% Off
The House Of Hidden Meanings
34.99
27.99
20% Off
Love Pamela
34.99
27.99
20% Off
The Big Bang Theory
49.99
39.99
20% Off
The Boys
34.99
27.99
20% Off
Mean Baby
32.99
26.39
20% Off
Ian McKellen
34.99
13.99
60% Off
Honey Baby Mine
32.99
26.39
20% Off
The Quiz Masters
34.99
27.99
20% Off
Home Work
45.00
13.50
70% Off
Yours Cruelly Elvira
29.99
23.99
20% Off
If You Dont Laugh Youll Cry
29.99
13.99
53% Off
More Fool Me
24.99
19.99
20% Off
The Beauty of Living Twice
32.99
26.39
20% Off
In Pieces
24.99
19.99
20% Off

RRP refers to the Recommended Retail Price as set out by the original publisher at time of release.
The RRP set by overseas publishers may vary to those set by local publishers due to exchange rates and shipping costs.
Due to our competitive pricing, we may have not sold all products at their original RRP.