Orson Welles International Film Festival

[Stefano]

Hello,
during the 58th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival (Locarno is in Switzerland) there was a special retrospective "The Magnificent Welles" marking the 90th anniversary of Orson Welles birth and the 20th anniversary of his death. The Festival dedicated projection of movies and workshops were organized for the public.
As many of you might know Orson was a very talented magician and made many shows during his career. Another of Welles distinguishing mark was his love for magic and illusionism.

I attend at the special lecture for The Magic Show on Saturday 13 August and it was a memorable moment; speakers were Bart Whaley and Abb Dickson.
I really enjoyed every single moment (3 hours!!) some anecdotes told by Abb Dickson about Orson were so fanny. Also Bart Whaley made a very interesting speech.

I saw the entire movie The Magic Show (in this forum you may find other comments) I can not recommend it enough: if you can buy the tape is really interesting.
I also see Orson Welles during his appearance in the movie Follow the Boys great personality. And in addition Stefan Droessler, curator of the retrospective, was so kind to show for the first time some clips directly from Orsons private collection; Orson Welles and Abb Dickson playing the part of the police officer (Abb) against the magician (Orson)
Abb Dickson makes enjoyable comments during the showing, the clips originally are silent.

I do not know if in Genii Magazine there will be a space for an article about who was Orson Welles, but I think most of the magicians will really like it. (I think only Mr Bart Whaley may do this)

Here a couple of link about interviews from Mike Caveney and Jim Steinmeyer
http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue9/magic.html
http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue6/steinmeyer.html

Hope you may find interested too.

Cheers
Stefano

[Richard Hatch]

Great report and great links! At one point Dr. Whaley was working on a biography of Welles with the focus on his background in magic, I believe. Did he mention the status of that project and if/when it might be published?

[Stefano]

Hello Richard,
Glad to read your post, I think Dr Bart Whaley made only a special edition for his work on Orson Welles. But is not for sale.
We only wish to see an article in Genii about it
Cheers
Stefano

[Richard Kaufman]

The portion of Bart's book about Welles relating to magic is only a part of a much larger manuscript which he has been unable to get published after trying for years. It's extremely long and publishers keep asking him to cut it, which he is reluctant to do.
As far as an article in Genii on Welles' The Magic Show--it's already in process.

[Pete Biro]

Those currently, and/or interested in doing TV should watch how Welles put his show together. His staging and presentations are as good as you will ever see. What a great tape!

[Guest]

I picked up The Criterion Collection's DVD of F for Fake, Orson Welles' last film. It is a wonderful documentary, with a very french flair, about fraud and deceit and Orson performs a few pieces of magic in it. Although his presentation is magic alone.