Orson Welles in Paris

A fascinating interview with the eminent Orson Welles, filmed in a Paris hotel at the dawn of the sixties.



When asked if his "magnificent organ" (i.e. his voice) was an artistic hindrance because with it he was capable of "conveying emotion without meaning it," a slightly bewildered Welles replies, "Isn't that acting?"

He also describes the Rosebud mystery in Citizen Kane as "a rather tawdry device" of which he's ashamed.

The only part that annoys me is when he claims he could have made better films than Citizen Kane but had never been given another chance. This makes him sound like a spoiled child with the studio system as a big bad parent. Somehow I can't imagine the younger, feistier Welles of the Mercury Theatre making such excuses. But also, because Touch of Evil, while ostensibly "just" a crime thriller, came damn close.