It
wasn’t just his eyes. By all accounts, cinematographer Gregg Toland substantially
contributed to the dazzling look of Citizen
Kane. Yet, that was Welles’ only picture with Toland, but he continued to
display a similarly dramatic visual sensibility in all his subsequent
masterworks and masterpieces. Cinema docu-essayist Mark Cousins speculates it
all started with the original American auteur’s pen, ink, and sketchbook in The Eyes of Orson Welles, which opens
today in New York.
Cousins’
intention is never to compete with Chuck Workman’s competent documentary
profile Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles or They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Morgan
Neville’s fascinating chronicle of Welles’ final film, The Other Side of the Wind. He sets out to make something more
personal and impressionistic, but the discovery of a trove of the master’s sketches,
drawings, and paintings gives Cousins a hook that will still pull in many skeptical
Welles fans.
To
his credit, Cousins also has a sharp eye for visuals. At times, he is like a
human google image search, drawing connections between Welles’ iconic film scenes,
his graphic work, and the sights, locations, and media he would have absorbed
at various stages of his life. Most viewers will happily follow him that far,
but he ventures out onto thinner ice when he starts offering more speculate
psychoanalysis and even presumes to speak for Welles, via a fictional letter
from the subject to his documentarian, during the final chapter.
Still,
Welles loyalists and traditionalists cannot object too strenuously, since his
youngest daughter Beatrice Welles makes supportive appearances throughout Eyes. She seems to have a good sense of
humor, which probably helps when you are part of the Welles family.
Of
course, it is always rewarding to go back to the Welles well, because his oeuvre,
although frustratingly limited as a credited director, is still so rich and
powerful. Arguably, Macbeth emerges
as the surprise leader for screen time, whereas Magnificent Ambersons gets oddly cursory treatment (especially
since Welles was so notoriously excluded from the final editing).
Depending
on one’s perspective, the idiosyncrasy of Cousins’ doc is either its greatest
asset or detraction. He has clearly considered the Welles canon in holistic and
cross-disciplinary ways, but he allows way too much of his personal
subjectivity and bias into the film. That also rather needlessly drags things
out. A tighter, more formalistic ninety-some-minute film would be much more
effective than the current nearly two-hour cut, with its pointless “Citizen
Trump” references. Sometime interesting and sometimes frustrating, Cousins’ Eyes of Orson Welles will be a decidedly
mixed viewing experience for most classic movie buffs when it opens today
(3/15) in New York, at the IFC Center.
