Orson Welles at 100: Looking beyond 'Citizen Kane'

Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915, meaning that today would have been his 100th birthday were he still alive. Welles died on Oct. 10, 1985 at the age of 70, leaving behind a collection of shattered dreams, what-ifs and reels of film that never made it to the public. While it would be easy to say Welles never accomplished anything after Citizen Kane, that would be selling cinema’s most interesting filmmaker far too short.

Citizen Kane was released in May 1941, just as he turned 26. He lived another 44 years, completing 10 more films. Each of them showed that he never lost his innovative spirit or his drive to push the film medium as far as it could go. Kane is littered with shots that no other filmmaker could have even conceived of in 1941 and he didn’t stop there.

After Kane, his next project for RKO was an adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s beloved novel The Magnificent Ambersons. It was also his first film to be butchered by a studio. The film’s dreary tone wasn’t what RKO wanted, so it was chopped up from 131 minutes to just 88 minutes. Still, it was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar of 1942 and has gone on to be considered one of the greatest films ever made. You could even call it better than Kane, with its intriguing juxtaposition of silent filmmaking techniques with then-modern skills. It also features astounding performances from Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten and Anne Baxter.

After Ambersons, Welles went to South America to make a documentary called It’s Not True, which was never completed in his lifetime. Welles did not direct another film until 1946’s The Stranger, a somewhat pedestrian film noir with Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young that preyed on Americans’ fear that Nazis fled to here. It’s not a great film, but it does feature - like all Welles movies - an intense climax.

Next up was probably his most interesting film, 1947’s The Lady From Shanghai, starring his already estranged wife Rita Hayworth. This is one strange movie, with a plot that never makes sense. But the feeling of adventure behind the camera makes it impossible to look away. I’ve seen it four times myself and I’m sure I can’t tell you what it’s about. That makes me want to keep going back to it so I can see what I’ve missed. Plus, it has this amazing sequence in a funhouse.

After that, it was off to Europe. He only returned to Hollywood to direct once for the rest of his life, making the ultimate film noir, Touch of Evil with Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh.

While in Europe, Welles continued to explore the possibilities of film. With his adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, he brought to life the sense of nervousness and claustrophobia that could only be felt in the novel before. His 1948 version of Macbeth proved that you could actually make an entire film shrouded in clouds. Mr. Arkadin put globe-hopping filmmaking - and the patience of the audience - to the test. Chimes at Midnight mashed five Shakespeare plays into one, two-hour film. Othello won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952. There was one thing in common with all these projects - he was never repetitive.

But if there was any more proof one needs that Welles never stopped dreaming, it was his final completed film, 1974’s F For Fake. Is it a documentary? Is it a fictional film? Is it a visual essay? F For Fake is all of these and more, as Welles explores infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally infamous biographer, Clifford Irving, who wrote a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes.

Welles was a creative genius, even if he often got in his own way. Juggling more than one project at a time doesn’t always work. Had he seen many of his projects through to completion, we probably would have had more masterpieces. Welles really was the most important filmmaker of his generation because he proved that films weren’t just plays on a big screen. You can play with cameras, lighting, shadows, angles, storytelling and actors to keep the audience on their toes at all times. Films shouldn’t be predictable and Welles’ movies certainly never are.

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