As the third volume of his Orson Welles biography is published,the actor and writer discusses his cherish of enormous characters, feasting on history and why a noble souffle is not to be sniffed atYour Orson Welles biography is an impressive and colossal undertaking with volume three (the penultimate book) just out. But how would you explain Welles’s claim to immortality in a sentence?
Orson Welles approached film with the ardour of a new lover. He explored its possibilities with an nearly adolescent excitement that is contained in his films. That is why seeing Citizen Kane makes people want to become film directors and why Welles will live for ever.
He was larger than life, or wasn’t he? Would it be just to say you don’t carry out anything by halves either?
I bite off more than I can chew and end up chewing very tough indeed. I started this damn thing in 1989. Who could have imagined it would take a quarter of a century? I disapprove of long books,you know, but Orson was that kind of a guy.
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Source: theguardian.com