Details

Subject(s)

• Welles, Orson 1915-1985—Criticism and interpretation [Browse]
• Welles, Orson 1915-1985—Themes, motives [Browse]
• Cities and towns in motion pictures [Browse]

Contributor

• Gear, Matthew Asprey [Browse]
• Gear, Matthew Asprey [Browse]

Gear, Matthew Asprey [Browse]

Summary note

The films of Orson Welles inhabit the spaces of cities—from America's industrializing midland to its noirish borderlands, from Europe's medieval fortresses to its Kafkaesque labyrinths and postwar rubblescapes. His movies take us through dark streets to confront nightmarish struggles for power, the carnivalesque and bizarre, and the shadows and light of human character.This ambitious new study explores Welles's vision of cities by following recurring themes across his work, including urban transformation, race relations and fascism, the utopian promise of cosmopolitanism, and romantic nostalgia for archaic forms of urban culture. It focuses on the personal and political foundation of Welles's cinematic cities—the way he invents urban spaces on film to serve his dramatic, thematic, and ideological purposes.The book's critical scope draws on extensive research in international archives and builds on the work of previous scholars. Viewing Welles as a radical filmmaker whose innovative methods were only occasionally compatible with the commercial film industry, this volume examines the filmmaker's original vision for butchered films, such as The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Mr. Arkadin (1955), and considers many projects the filmmaker never completed—an immense "shadow oeuvre" ranging from unfinished and unreleased films to unrealized treatments and screenplays.

Notes

Includes index.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Reproduction note

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Source of description

Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed July 5, 2016).

Language note

In English.

Contents

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER ONE. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE LINCOLN REPUBLIC
• CHAPTER 2. AN EMPIRE UPON AN EMPIRE
• CHAPTER 3. THE DARKENING MIDLAND
• CHAPTER 4. DARKNESS AND FEAR
• CHAPTER 5. THE RAUCOUS RAGGLE-TAGGLE JAMBOREE OF THE STREETS
• CHAPTER 6. RATLINE TO MAIN STREET
• CHAPTER 7. PORT TO PORT
• CHAPTER 8. THE BORDER
• CHAPTER 9. RETURN TO THE PERIPHERY
• INTERLUDE. A FREE MAN IS EVERYWHERE
• CHAPTER 10. SKIES AND RUBBLESCAPE
• CHAPTER 11. LOST IN A LABYRINTH
• CHAPTER 12. TO ADORE THE IMPOSSIBLE
• CHAPTER 13. IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE
• INDEX

Show 16 more Contents items

ISBN

• 9780231850902 ((electronic bk.))
• 0231850905 ((electronic bk.))

Publisher no.

EB00640555

OCLC

• 945078556
• 951474174

Doi

10.7312/gear17340

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