George Orson Welles: An Inspiration
As an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio, and film, George Orson Welles will always be his innovative works in the latter three industries. From his 1938 broadcasting of “The War of the Worlds”, which caused some panic in the public, to his masterpiece film “Citizen Kane”, receiving accolade as one of the greatest films ever made, Welles pioneered himself in the creative trade of visual style, which he perceived as being unique and relevant. In his mind work was about expressing one’s life. By looking at how the daily lives of others and public system function he would put things into his own perspective in order to get an analysis of how he sees the world in a different dimension from other people who just see things as is.
Although he was born with material comfort, Welles’ childhood wasn’t quite a happy one. His parents were separated. His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a popular bicycle lamp, became an alcoholic and stopped working; his father would die later on as Welles was growing up. Welles' older brother was institutionalized at an early age because he had learning difficulties. Welles' mother died of hepatitis in a Chicago hospital just after his ninth birthday. [1]
Despite the hardship Welles managed to persevere in life. Welles experience in his professional journey can teach us how to live the working life.
At the age of sixteen Welles made his stage debut at Dublin and came back to the USA at the age of eighteen to start his career in acting in a repertory theatre group. As the sole decision maker of his own life and looking for ways to supplement his income, he took on stage jobs with radio shows, thus becoming a popular figure at the stage and radio events. [2]
Welles’s first breakthrough came at the age of 19, when he made his debut as a professional theatre director in Woodstock, while he was a student at Todd School for Boys. Welles’s knowledge of the stage was staggering, and he had a passion for theatre in its most aggressive and expressionistic form. According to actor Norman Lloyd, “he united the performance, the script, the music, the lights, the sound” to create his own “theatricality”.[3]
Going against the expectation of what a movie star should look like, Welles focused more on looks that demonstrate the anxiety and troubles that a human life sometimes must live through. He breaks through the fa?ade of a perfect world and lets our feelings be in touch with the actors trying to make sense of what is happening. Welles declared that everyone acts all the time, and that in each and every conversation we’re busy performing ourselves. [4]
While some would disagree on Welles’ status as a great innovator the fact remains that he utilized what was already there and made some variations that produced effective results to proclaim his own style of directing a film. The cinema is possibly the ultimate culmination of modern art; a universal form that employs elements of music, theater, photography, and everything else that has come since cave paintings. With his first picture, Welles mastered almost every aspect of filmmaking to an unprecedented degree. [5]
Inspired Articles:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles
2. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/george-orson-welles-2488.php
3. https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/magic-orson-welles
4. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/02/orson-welles-a-touch-of-class
5. https://www.orsonwelles.org/2012/10/life-of-orson-welles.html
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6 年Welles was first and foremost an artist in the old fashioned sense, a man who lived an extraordinary life. He dined with Roosevelt, Churchill and (accidentally he revealed later on) with Hitler. An ex bull fighter and magician he never reached his full potential partly because he upset important establishment people in Hollywood and was forced to work in virtual exile in Europe for many years. However he never gave up, and died in bed with his typewriter on his lap. We should remember his ‘The Chimes of Midnight’, where the film's plot centres on William Shakespeare's recurring character Sir John Falstaff, brilliantly played by Welles. A man of integrity, humour and humility.