OW
...because if I had been, there never would have been Joe McCarthy. He was the candidate who ran on the Republican. So I have that on my conscience. Maybe I could have run, and beat him and there would never been a McCarthy.
LM
What happened to that political activity?
OW
The political activity stopped when I had to go to Europe. And earned my money to pay the taxes.
(The Trial's playing)
v.o.
In 1962 Welles was offered his own choice of subject for filming in Europe. He picked the novel by Kafka, The Trial. Anthony Perkins play Josef K., the faceless clerk, prosecuted by incomprehensible legal system. The film was seen by many critics as a kind of contest between Welles and Kafka, with Kafka coming off second best.
(The Trial's playing)
AP (Anthony Perkins)
It wasn't very long into the project before I realized that Orson's view of Josef K. was far from being the innocent victim of bureaucracy that Kafka had written. In Orson version, I can hear his thundering voice, "He is guilty as hell!!" I said, "Why?" He said, "He's guilty because of everything." Well this is certainly a revolutionary view of Josef K. and made it rather difficult to play. Then I said, "I don't it is gonna be a popular concept of Josef K." But it was certainly not one that he's gonna be shaking. So I decided in deference to Orson's judgement I would get right behind it and play it that way.
OW
If you make an opera of Othello, if you are Verde to make a great one, or if you are Bellini to make a good one, or if you are Jack (something) to make a bad one. But you can make your own opera out of that play. And the same thing goes for movies. I don't believe in essential reference for the original material. It's simply part of the collaboration. I felt no need to be true to Kafka in every essence. I thought it was necessary to capture what I felt to be the Kafka's atmosphere which was combination of modern-horror creeping up on the Austro-Hungarian empire. I saw it as a European story,full of European stuffs, with IBM machine lurking in the background. That was the way I want to present the picture.
(The Trial's playing)
PB (Peter Bogdanovich)
It was a strange picture. It was an uncomfortable movie to watch. The most interesting screening I've ever experienced was when I was sitting with Orson, I don't know what year was it in the early 70's, he's in Paris and they gave him some awards. Jeanne Moreau was there, she gave me award. And then they ran the picture, they started, you know it was terribly respectable audience too, like sitting in the museum of modern-art, you know, cinephile, upper-class kind of wealthy people who want to appreciate the finer thing in art. And Orson sitting next to me roaring with laughter! The movie started, he starts screaming! He always told me that he thought it was kind of funny, but I...sitting next to him I started to laugh too. The other man was also laughing, we are all laughing. Then the entire audience kind...you know. We are laughing at this movie that he made. And they think, "Oh, these people don't have appreciation of art." (laughing). It was perfect.
(The Trial's playing)
LM
The humor in the word play, which happen early on, is I don't know ...
OW
That was entirely mine. There's nothing like that in Kafka. It's very solemn. Maybe funny in German, but certainly not in English.
Interviewer
The open sequence for example, is all one long-take. Did that take enormous amount of rehearsal?
AP
Orson coming up at 3 o'clock in the morning in the back of the car where you've been sitting, we have no dressing room or anything like that. He says, "Look, there is only enough film for 2 takes. It's got to be right. You gotta do it perfectly. And let's ..." He has a field-marshal, affection for the troops, in this case the crews, the actors, the extras. He's a wonderful manipulator, and I mean that in the best sense of people, and their soft-spots, the way he get them behind his vision.
LM
You were talking about making love to actors, I think, from what I hear of you from actors you do it far more than any other directors to the extent that you'll came to you actors...really quite unusual. Are we run out of film?
(Chimes at Midnight's playing)
v.o.
Welles as Falstaff, perhaps his greatest performance, certainly one of his finest film, Chimes at Midnight.
(Chimes at Midnight's playing)
JM (Jeanne Moreau)
I was supposed to have scene with Orson. I will wait him one day, two day, three day, and each time Orson would apologize and would come to the hotel and take me out for dinner, then we would talk about all sort of things but the film. So I finally said, "What was going on, Orson?" He said, "Well, I'm sorry my darling. We can't do our scenes yet. I don't have my make-up. My little suitcase. You know my little suitcase with all my make-up has been lost." I said, "You sure?" "Of course, I'm sure! So maybe we'll shoot tomorrow, that we do the shot, reverse-shot, on you without me." I said, "Well, Orson, it's quite difficult. We haven't started, and you are going to start with close-up on me." He said, "What can I do, you'll manage. You'll manage." So, I arrived at the studio, and in one of those little boxes where they were supposed to put cars, that was the make-up room. And then Orson secretary calls me because he want to give me some new line. So I go into this little shabby room. I was looking for the papers Orson had left me, I sat on the floor.
(end of part12)
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