Orson Welles Films Returning to Irish Cinemas This Week

To mark film scholar and director Mark Cousins' new documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles, the IFI are running a season of films dedicated to the legendary filmmaker.

The first of Welles' movies to screen is his debut Citizen Kane. Directed, written and starring the first time filmmaker, it centres on the death of millionaire tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles). Journalists are left stunted as to the meaning of the celebrity's last word "Rosebud". As they investigate, we see flashbacks of Kane's rise to fame and how power corrupted him.

Originally a cause celebre as the character of Kane was heavily based on American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, the film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, winning Best Original Screenplay for Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. It is now considered one of the most important movies of all time on account of its use of innovative filmmaking techniques such as deep focus still used today.

Also, screening is Welles' second film The Magnificent Ambersons, centring on the declining fortunes of a wealthy Midwestern family and the social changes brought by the automobile age. Although the director was unhappy with the final cut of the film by RKO studio - who cut an hour of footage and added a happier ending - it was also a Best Picture Nominee at the Oscars and is considered one of Welles' best works.

The last of Welles' films to show is Touch of Evil, starring Welles, Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh. A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town, the film is regarded as one of the finest noir films ever and the best of Welles' latter day pictures.

Also, screening as part of the Orson Welles season in the IFI is Stagecoach, a film by John Ford - one of Welles' major influences. While prepping Citizen Kane, the director claimed to have seen Stagecoach 40 times.

The final three films to show as part of the season will be Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 heist movie The Killing, a thriller reminiscent of Welles in framing and lighting; Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic There Will Be Blood, featuring an Oscar-winning turn from Daniel Day Lewis, which echoes Welles’s own preoccupation with corruption and megalomania; and Sarah Polley’s extremely personal documentary Stories We Tell, which takes some of its flourishes from Welles’s 1973 mockumentary F for Fake.

Meanwhile, Cousins's The Eyes of Orson Welles chronicles the multifaceted life and work of Welles, charting his political maturation, unique visual sensibilities, complicated love life and proudly independent working ethics in a visual essay. It's out in cinemas August 17.

The full list of dates for the Orson Welles Season are listed below.

ORSON WELLES: STAGECOACH
Wednesday 15th August 2018
18.30

ORSON WELLES: CITIZEN KANE
Saturday 18th August 2018
15.30

ORSON WELLES: THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
Sunday 19th August 2018
15.30

ORSON WELLES: TOUCH OF EVIL
Thursday 23rd August 2018
18.30

ORSON WELLES: THE KILLING
Saturday 25th August 2018
15.40

ORSON WELLES: THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Sunday 26th August 2018
15.00

ORSON WELLES: STORIES WE TELL
Wednesday 29th August 2018
18.20

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