Orson Welles on Watching Too Many Films
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Excerpt from a 1982 interview with Orson Welles in a Parisian film school.
Orson expresses his repugnance for cinematic homages, and is baffled by how the next generation of filmmakers have seen so many films and make good films at the same time.
#orsonwelles
This reminds me of when Hayao Miyazaki criticized younger anime creators for spending too much time watching anime rather than observing real people, real stories, and real relationships.
🤓
@@chrisdawson1776 Downy reply.
@@chrisdawson1776 Bold comment from someone whose pfp is a picture of themselves wearing a fedora and virginity sunglasses.
This coming from the guy who's shut in his studio all day, working on project after project. He didn't even spend time with his own family.
Kinda reminds me of the saying “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.”
"The more virgin our eyes are, the more they have to say."
Immortal words to live by!
The more WE have to say
Also bullshit
I don't know why he thinks that's a wise thing to say. Being ignorant & opinionated in any other circumstance is a problem lol.
and also, not true.
@@aussiejubes yea it just sounds cool
This reminds me of a lot of David Lynch. People always assume he’s constantly watching films but in reality he says he likes to be outside and enjoy nature.
Judging by his work, one could assume he's never seen a film before (or heard a cohesive story). ;)
David Lynch doesn't have autism, he is autism.
But seriously he's a legend.
Lynch is unique but he is so brilliant that he only needs 8 & 1/2, Sunset Boulevard and noir cinema as possible influences to build his personal universe. He is the current Buñuel without having seen Buñuel's films.
What about Wizard of Oz?
Lynch ran out of ideas a long time ago and should have quit while he was ahead. That is, after completing The Elephant Man. After that he became a one man Emperor's New Clothes factory.
Tarantino slips quietly under the table
P.S: He is absolutely spot on, watching too many films just messes your own thinking and execution. Anxiety of influence.
Harold bloom
@@Laocoon283 Yes dude.
But he turned backsies. It's fine to be influenced.
Tarantino is unfortunately not an innovator nor creative, and never was. Every good idea he ever put to screen was lifted verbatim from other, usually superior, films. Orson Welles was right. While Tarantino releases hit after hit, the true art of cinema gets eroded with each picture as audiences settle for that
@@commanderkeen3787 Well everybody steals and there is hardly any film which is purely original. Reminds of that Picasso quote. But the truly great ones take the seed of an idea and turn it in their own style and interpretation. Something like QT's vastly underrated and superiorly talented colleague PT Anderson. Tarantino blatantly lifts and turns it to 11, which may seem fun for one film (Pulp Fiction) but it becomes banal after a point.
Ahhhh the French....
Mahhhh the French…
.... ... ....action, Orson.. please
What, he doesn't say anything? 🥂
444 #Redbar
Champagne is known for its excellence
It's almost as if people didn't watch the final 20 seconds of the clip. He then goes on to say that plenty of young filmmakers have gone on to make admirable work, which makes himself a paradoxical and confused figure. This is more a testament of a person willing to openly prove himself wrong rather than make grand overstatements.
Thank you for saying it instead of me!
old man yelling at clouds
@@r4zi3lgintoro65Please reserve that phrase for when it’s actually applicable, swine.
It was the way he said the first part, by the time he came to give his own counter argument a portion of the viewers listening to him have already stopped listening? Понимаешь?
@@r4zi3lgintoro65or, a wise old man knows a thing or two more about it than you do.
The yelling at clouds thing is such a cliché response, constantly wheeled out by the inexperienced youth who think they know it all.
I've often wondered if I've ever had an original thought in my life. Everything we believe about love, honor, courage has been shaped by people in writers' rooms. A writer's ability to change the world is truly fascinating.
and what of every thought has already been thought? isn't that scary?
That one definitely wasn't.
@@rg78w54 why should it be...u think ur special? Your but one of God's creations, a small pixel in a great picture. We are not self made, we are a design as such we have a designer, who not only made us but gave us the manual how to fully "use" ourselves. By the logic of "I never had an original thought", then we should let all babies be dumb...just feed them, don't teach them how to talk or put them In schools...haha let them figure it out...common man.
That's the problem with philosophy, you try to go too deep into stuff and don't see clear what's in front of you.
Nobody has ever had an original thought in their life. Just a mutated version of something that already existed, sometimes the mutations are extreme, but all mutations of what there already is.
All my toughts are original
this is what i remind myself with everyday in storytelling. What makes people be a great storyteller, is not by reading other people's story (which is good, but you'll not really understand it), but by observing the real world (a.k.a the raw materials). We can't always rely on refined stuff
Aaaahhhh Orson Welles. Just as Paul Masson, he will always be celebrated for his exellence.
mahaaaaaa the french
Lol
He was fermented in the bottle.
He's vintage-dated & inspired... by that same French excellence.
@@todessehnsucht 102, Take 2.
Watching too many films turns you into a critic rather than a creator.
This is spot on. Couldn’t agree with you more.
Every director is a critic in his own way. Like Barthes said, there's no writing without reading, nor is there reading without writing.
Having standards is a good thing.
Exactly, Im trying not to watch too many.
This is spot on, you start criticizing everything instead of enjoying
Even boozed he is sharp and smart.
Wouldn’t the booze just enhance his free thought/ remove his censorship. Then again, this is a 58sec clip from a 1hr meet up.
I think I do the same thing when I’m drinking
I wonder if his talk included the words, "Mahaa, the French!"
@@orbyfan
If there was Californian champagne involved. Most likely.
In vino veritas, or so said the Classics.
what he's saying is absolutely true. if your inspiration for film is a different film then it shows that you've not branched out into the other arts available. Chuck Jones of Looney Tunes said a similar thing for animators. If you want to know why and how he made so many classic cartoons , it's because he studied plays and poems and theatre, not because he watched other cartoons. once again, orson welles on the money
Complete BS. The best source for coming up with original work is other people's work.
You are essentially saying he got inspiration from one thing instead of another which isn’t a novel idea.
Well he did finger Hayworth
John Lawson, you don’t seem to get it.
I don’t want to be misconstrued so I’ll expand on my opinion a bit.
Being influenced by media in the field you’re already a part of is NOT a bad thing. At all. Not only is it very very common in the best of artists but it’s absolutely not a good idea to ignore what others are doing whether positive or negative.
However. I also think that pulling influences from media and properties outside of an artist’s regular surroundings is important too.
I’ll get a little personal if you’re even a little interested.
I make music. Mostly remixes and mashups, but I try to be distinct from my contemporaries and friends who do the same. When I began I was inspired by one particular mashup maker who was the gold standard to every other mashup creator I have ever spoken with. And I kept only his stuff in mind when creating my own stuff for over 2 years. And at one point I realised that I didn’t really know much about music creation outside of my little bubble. So I naturally sought out music that deterred from my main source of inspiration. And now I’ve moved from what could be considered imitations of my idol onto music I consider my own.
So to sum up… art comes from every angle, even if it’s not the interesting kind.
I kinda get what Welles is saying. Whatever you think about his views on homage (directors like Tarantino would disagree I suspect) I get the sense that being a great filmmaker is more than watching or even making films. Werner Herzog for example believes reading is a better tool when it comes to making films, and no doubt any director brings much more than just their filmmaking knowledge to the table - what kind of art they like, their views on politics, people, their lived experiences etc.
reading really forces the imagination of the reader. sure it gave give a person's description, and tell you what is happening, but its up to the reader to imagine all this in their head. because of it sparking the imagination, it lets the readers brain create theories of the story, who was right in what moment, and a million other things.
This goes with song writing and composition as well.
Tarantino is a hack and a foot-fetishist, who thinks over-the-top vulgarity is peak comedy. Why would anyone give a shit what he thought?
Although Alfred Hitchcock famously only ever read the daily newspaper. Rarely read novels or other books. He felt it influenced his work too much.
@@moonchart To be fair, Hitchcock was probably similar to Welles in the sense that he was prone to fibbing (Welles for instance claimed that he'd met Hitler as a teenager before the rise of the Nazi Party, but this has turned out to be nonsense). I mean, Strangers on A Train, Psycho, Rebecca and many of his other films were based on novels which he presumably would have had to read/understand.
Even if this were true (which it might be) we know Hitchcock drew on his own life experiences for inspiration and was also inspired by real life murders/events that he read in the papers. He didn't just immerse himself in films and had other things outside of this that inspired him.
I remember reading a KUBRICK interview, saying he was a movie-goer, really curious and addictive BUT he always stopped watching any movie as soon as he had a subject and began working about it, to concentrate absolutely about his initial idea and preserve its particularity.
Cinephilia can feed your inspiration when you feel 'empty' and Mr K also said watching failed movies can help you to find great concepts ...
so I really understand Welles' opinion,... especially since I had this problem, I write AND watches 2 movies every day, which is the best way to be influenced or lose the faith in what I want to do ...
Kubrick is overrated in the first place. His movies are 20 minute shots of the same thing doing nothing and people think it's artsy so it's good xD
@@robertmusil1107 Rate whoever you want ... It's about creative process.
@@robertmusil1107 You are overrating your opinions.
@@robertmusil1107no, not really. Kubrick has made a ton of masterpieces
Dopamine exhaustion is a thing.
Such a great thinker on movies--and much else, of course. Turning out that "not only paradoxical but confused" retort on the spot is genuine fun.
I love the man, but he is clearly drunk during this entire fit. I wish we had the sober version of him speaking this.
@@stoheha oh the french, the are famous for lj;af j;aeioajfe;
@@CoolGobyFish aaAAHgHhhH! ThaAAhh fRrrrengchshhh chHHhampaagne
To TV fanatics, the word Television is synonymous with "idiot box" hmmm... 🙄
@@dougfredricks2017 that makes no sense
the trick is you have to be strong minded enough to not be influenced too much.
That and also secure enough to not be intimidated by the things that influence you
I feel like this can be applied to everything in life, not only watching films.
And also to have the balls to present your original work, which most probably will not be received well at first.
Or maybe the trick is to simply not overthink it, period. Stop being so self conscious, get out of your head, surrender to your passions, and make art-whether it's dogshit or a sleeper hit!
Ever watch a movie that's big budget with all the right people and a brilliant script, and it turns out to be a total shit-fest? Sometimes all the "right ways" can get in the way of making something wonderful and worthwhile.
But how can you tell what's your idea or someone else's??
“You are in the presence of a speaker who is not only paradoxical, but confused.”
Nobody should read too far into this minute of wisdom Welles is giving us. That last sentence makes it pretty clear that he’s not being fully serious, and it makes it 100% clear that his feelings toward the matter are ambiguous.
yeah, it sounded like he felt strongly about the overuse of homage in film, but made too sweeping a statement and decided to backtrack. not that i don't see where he's coming from. i often search for music where the artist is clearly trying to express something new, and it's difficult! i often wish more musicians would take chances, because there would be more enjoyable art in the world.
i can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for orson, who appeared near the dawn of filmmaking during a whirlwind of innovation and uncertainty, to watch the dust settle and see the well begin to dry up.
Actually he is drunk.
He's just saying, there's a balance. Don't be too much on either side. Don't watch everything, don't watch nothing. If you feel you're copying too many ideas, take a break, get away.
It's still a good point though. Soaking up too much of what your contemporaries are making can lead to a lot of anxiety and less originality.
He realized it was just his opinion
I forgot which rapper said this but it went something like "the best rappers don't even listen to rap" I believe it was in describing MF DOOM's work either way that quote has always stuck with me and feels like the same thing Orson Welles is trying to say here
I don't think so, what rapper are you talking vannila ice? the great ones are always listening to new and old stuff, I think the diference is that they were out there living and experince life instead of the casual listener who stays at home and idolises them.
@@joaopedrogoncalves3861 How would you know?
@@SyndicateOperative what you mean! I just share my position on the subject
Forget about not listening to rap if you’re a rapper, MF DOOM’s partner in crime Madlib doesn’t even listen to his own music!!! That was crazy where I heard that. They also didn’t even communicate when recording. They did everything separately, which is wild to me.
So eloquent
I've noticed since an early age a similar thing regarding rock groups. The best of them are never just influenced by other rock groups, but by much more eclectic and diverse forms of music too.
Picked up a guitar and learnt from nothing then did they? No chords? No music theory? No idea how to tune the guitar? Dont be silly everyone has to learn to play an instrument/make a movie. You cant decouple what you learn in the early stages from later influence. Noone is a blank slate, even if it doesn’t seem like theyre lifting ideas from other music, of course they are
@@DanielS10291everything we’ve ever seen was created by humans in its most basic form. the guitar and the chords you talk about are all a byproduct of someone going out and DOING it. those chords that people OBSERVE comes from someone in the beginning who figured it out themselves and if you only focus on what’s already there. you can only be derivative or reiterate like the endless remasters and remakes. new brains and different thinking spawns new concepts from which some sort of lesson can be pulled from
@@DanielS10291all the chords from every guitar player you ever heard started from one person discovering something new creating something new experimenting. experimentation. if scientists only studied what was already studied then what we understand would be alot more narrow. everything has a beginning
@@maiastniki incorrect, guitars are designed to play chords in a specific and simple way. The western scale is made up of 12 notes which work well together harmonically and modern instruments have been planned and designed to do this. I get where youre coming from, but its an over romanticism
Your observation in the musical world is really spot on. this explains why I love artists/bands of a specific genre (techno, post-punk, pop, rock, hip-hop etc) who're willing to innovate & look for other contemporary or old sources as an inspiration. it's easy to criticize & label them as unoriginal or a "sellout" but I think they're a lot more creative & thoughtful more than what people give them credit for.
" Don't do homages, instead do something that others want to give homage to"
Don't be Daft Punk, be the artists they sampled 😂
I guess what he is trying to say is not to stress over making, what is considered to be, a good film. Because that leads to watching lots of films and trying to emulate what they did.
I think he's trying to tell young filmmakers to make a film they want, they envision.
Taking too much inspiration leads to copying others and leaving less space for one's own art to be applied.
This is what David Lynch gets right. Never once in his career do you get the impression that he's thinking "am I going to please the critics with this one?". He made Fire Walk with Me which at the time was deemed unwatchable and got him accusations of having jumped the shark, then followed that with Lost Highway.
He deserves everyone's respect for the sher artistic integrity he has exposed consistently throughout most of his career.
He’s right. We now live in a cinematic Hurricane of “Reboots” and “are-Imaginings “.
I feel personally attacked
Quentin Tarantino: 😬
Mr homage himself.
The quality of your film will be directly related to your understanding of human behavior. If you don't spend time in the real world with real people, then you cannot be a filmmaker. Some “filmmakers” spend their lives interested only in themselves without ever taking the time to interact with other people. Almost all films now are produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people. It's made by humans who can't stand looking at other humans. And that's why the American film industry is in the shitter !
I wonder what Orson would think of today's environment in which most are not marinated in great cinema but in "content", MrBeast, and 3 second TikTok clips?
He'd stay level 10 Paul Masson shitfaced, I imagine.
Welles would be the first to sign up for a spicy hot wings TH-cam challenge
@@commanderkeen3787 probably true. But he'd have only done it so he could use his fee to try and finish Don Quixote
Honestly, I would wonder what he thinks about videogames.
@@leetorry Arcades were a thing.. and gaming arcades are just an extension of carnival games. Same shit for the most part.
There was a short period of computer games which weren't just carnival tricks but that is gone for the masses.
@Lee Torry I imagine he'd adore it's possibilities.
My man was right.
Tarantino watching this with clenched fists.
Same thing for us all, although it seems a reluctant natural extension to make. It’s taken me until my late 30’s to realize that I have watched so many perspectives and emotions and perfectly articulated thoughts expressed on film that I forgot who I am and what I think and feel. It’s a hollow feeling of leaving yourself behind. Imagine the possibility to be a hunter gatherer and stay glued to the evening storyteller. While your friends and family lived lives. While you experiences become less, less nuanced and more of someone else than of you.
A perfect extrapolation of the phrase "be the best YOU that you can be"
Sounds like the next woke tagline for Gillette.
... you're over reaching into your own fantasy
Yeah reduce everything to a platitude... you're totally the hero Wells was looking for...
Gay
These replies are hilarious. It's rare to see pseudointellectuals get publicly lampooned like this.
Tarantino has been real quiet since this dropped.
All great authors are great readers. All great film makers are great film fans. With the exception of that complete stiff, Quentin Tarantino.
As incredibly entertaining as he is, I find his viewpoint incomplete. I do have something of a fondness for sincere homage, when filmmakers show a level of honesty and humility to acknowledge or pay respect to their artistic influences. But at the same time, I have a thorough disdain for the perverted dependance on nostalgia and referential humour in a lot of corporate Hollywood films, and I also die inside a little watching my own amateur short films, where references and homages got wildly out of hand.
But I don't think this is remedied by watching less films. If there's no inspiration going in, how can anything come out? I also feel something of a moral duty to seek out and support as many filmmakers as possible, precisely by watching as many films as possible. As I may one day wish the same of my peers.
My solution is to widen the range of influence. Don't JUST watch/study film. Do more. Read a memoir, read the local newspaper, visit art galleries, go hiking, watch a stageplay, listen to a radio drama, etc. If all you watch is Quinten Tarantino movies, you'll ONLY ever make Quinten Tarantino movies. But if you widen the range of your influence, draw from unique, unexplored, largely unnoticed places, you'll find your voice.
@@danielmoore7105 wheat from chaff, my friend. wheat from chaff.
@@danielmoore7105 i did
Correct, its more about finding the nuance in what Welles is saying. Watch great movies, but don't reach a line where all you do is consume cinema. Diversify your consumption of all art forms, pay attention to the world around you - the less you're soaked in one art form like cinema, the more you can add to the table that other cinema-soaked artists couldn't have dreamed of.
A perfect example of that would be Citizen Kane lol. Welles came from radio plays and theatre, and then he makes arguably the greatest film of all time.
I get where you are coming from, but I think what Welles is saying is something deeper. It is not about a variety or art forms that you must digest and assimilate - but life itself. I think Welles once identified his own life, in hindsight, with that of a jester - specifically Falstaff from Henry IV. Curiously, even here in India, one of our most renowned film personalities made a very long and somewhat overindulgent film where he explicitly compared his own life to a circus clown, much like Welles own comparison - beloved by the world for speaking the truth of the human condition, but powerless to change it, and hence condemned to repeatedly witness the tragedies around them while being unable to alter their course, the way a statesman or community leader might.
My point here is that they saw their art in a much wider context of the world and humanity at large - and not merely in terms of technique or craftsmanship. So I belive Welles exhortation isn't simply to draw from books, or art, or opera or other such sources - but to draw from life itself. To stand for your convictions, to try to bring about changes you want to see and be a part of the world, rather than just a bystander - and then use your art as an extention of your dialogue with the world itself. You art should be the medium of your truth, and not the message itself. At least that is how I have always interpreted Welles and thinkers like him.
@@sidharthkumar5636 Wow. Wonderful insight. Thank you very much, my friend. I thoroughly enjoyed reading that comment. And yes, now that I've thought about it some more and read some very interesting replies, I see a lot more nuance to Welles' comments than I initially gave him credit for. It's just that from this clip, alone, his conclusion seemed to be that filmmakers should watch less films, which I still don't agree with. But I would very much agree with your take, that art is our expression of the world around us and we should draw inspiration from life itself and view the messages we express through it in a greater context. You've perfectly articulated a thought I haven't quite been able to put into words.
Also, another quick note, I love these long form comments we've got going on over here, this is fun.
Welles once said that the difference between European and American directors was that European directors were literate-they'd actually read something--while American directors had never read anything--they'd just seen movies.
He is absolutely right. Directors from overseas, especially places like France, are fantastic visual artists. Americans just focus on emulating and pure monetary gain.
It's like stealing from another art form which is less known.
It really makes you think, and I think he's got a point.
But then again you have absolutely masterful directors such as Scorsese or Spielberg that are massive cinephiles.
(and yes, I don't even talk about Tarantino because his cinema is all ABOUT the hommage and the "sampling" of other movies)
In fact you often see the best of directors quoting their reference while filming this or that scene (Leone for example is obsessed by John Ford)
Welles was also obsessed with Ford, he watched Stagecoast (1939) countless times at the cinema, while writing Citizen Kane and was mesmerized by it. You can see Ford's influence on his work, with the use of deep focus and innovative camera work
It's absolutely true, modern life is bombarding us with screens and images and that can fuck with your unique vision. The most exciting ideas, storys and films in particular, I have are usually the ones that have no homage quality, the ones where I'm like yo there is nothing like this! defeating the odds. Watching a film a day or reading or whatever doesn't take the originality away from. However commercial screens, brainless comsumption, "clip"-media etc. might (in my experience). Would be an interesting study
Exactly
No wonder Tarantino doesn’t like him 😆
0:09 Orson Wells would hate modern Hollywood
“Yes men” in comments that have never thought for themselves. If it’s black and white footage it must be absolutely true durrrrrrr
He's right though. Just look at Longlegs for instance. An extremely derivative film that is basically older films stitched together into one. Hardly a semblance of originality.
Color is where it's at
Everyone: “Such wise words!”
Same people *continues doom scrolling YT shorts all day everyday with Netflix running in background for comfort noise*
😅
Wise man speaketh. Sweat trickles down his yelow head
Quentin Tarantino has left the chat.
Tarantino has left the chat.
Never really thought about it until now, but this guy would have hated Tarantino
...as he should.
This is a great clip, thanks for uploading!
True. we always complain about having np original ideas but reality is vastly more complex varied and wonderful than any school, homage, or great director could simplify. there's always something new to be understood from experience
Tarantino in shambles.
All diretors are stealling, why is Tarantino the guy who writes and directs his own movies who get's criticised?
@@joaopedrogoncalves3861 Because unlike them, he was actually worth a damn and should've not fell into their same error.
"You were supposed to defeat the sith not join them!" comes to mind.
He made some money, he got a big head
Same thing applies to books. All art actually. It stops being enjoyable but an obligation. Thats why I take a few months from film and books sometimes to rewire my appreciation for them.
Or, as Victor Hugo once said when asked why he wasn't reading other authors : "Les vaches ne boivent pas de lait". (Cows don't drink milk)
"You have a speaker who's not only paradoxical, but confused."
Thank you for saying it first, Mr. Welles, because I have no clue what you're saying here.
@@jpc2470 Yep. It seems simple to me. It is actually a common tip for artists and creators. I am sure it is more true than ever these days as well, what with the mass amount of media and content we all consume.
The paradox is that to create a good movie you need a lot of experience, but experience at the same time can make the movie worse, because of things like the aforementioned "homage".
Couldn't disagree more
Dude I kinda always had a similar thought. If you want to make a horror movie, don’t get inspiration from watching a bunch of horror movies. The true inspiration to make a horror movie would be visiting insane asylums or hanging out in seedy areas, having conversations with people about their traumatic experiences. etc. Real world terror
...the "hommage"... Aaahhh the French
This same concept is very much applicable to other entertainment mediums like books, art, music, and most importantly Video Game Design. Sadly, most video game developers will pay "homage" to earlier titles -- when in reality, they simply imitate, clone, copy, or outright steal.
There are three types of making it / or three stages of idea realisation as film:
* new idea
* upgraded idea (this one is tricky as it only works once)
* meta/satire films (challenging to do and its basically redoing the entirity of idea which is by itself new idea, but are awesome like Q. TARANTINO movies or Starship troopers is exactly one of those. It is the most mature state of movie idea. I actually wrote a short story myself some years ago in this matter)
And probably that is all
The real problem in game design isn't the obsession with homage but the obsession with emulating cinema.
I wish game developers would understand this too ... so many remakes being made today, so many indie developers paying homage to older games, where has the originality gone? where are the fresh new ideas? it's so tiring.
Orson Wells, not only an Iconic Voice, great Actor, notorious Drunk and expert orator, he was great at parties.
World traveler too.
And he was a good friend.
Orson Welles' final feature was itself obsessed with film and one of his best: F for Fake. Welles had not released a single feature film in 9 years at the time of this interview and had multiple projects languish in development, so I think there is more going on than this clip suggests.
Are you saying that Welles was projecting?
@@darkscienceyt Not projecting, I think by the 1980s he was just disillusioned towards the film industry and harboured a kind of resentment. Again, it was nearly a decade since his last major release and during that time he had many failed projects. This was wine commercial era Welles.
@@KonkeyVG there might be a lesson in that period of languishing work. caving into the temptation to pay homage and submerge yourself in content will probably make producing your own content much easier, but often taking the more 'organic' approach to art takes more work as you cull more from your own insides than anything. good work comes from either way, it's just a matter of what you are satisfied with your work being in the end
@@KonkeyVG wine commercial era Welles? He always admittedly did all types of side things to finance his personal projects. If they paid him more to do those types of ads than other things then why wouldn’t he do them?
@@KonkeyVG i am always amazed at how many times the Welles’ wine commercials are mentioned in ytube comments... it’s as if that defines his work... the guy does 3-4 of the best films ever and in the end 90% of the people remember him for some drunken outtake of a commercial he did for (yes...) money...
This man watched John Ford’s Stagecoach over and over before making Citizen Kane. Welles was an amazing filmmaker but listening to this old alcoholic’s advice should be taken with a grain of salt: he liked to give big meaningless opinions about all sorts of things, especially when he got older.
"I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create."
--William Blake
Nietzchean...but apart from the whole sytsemizing stuff. How do you create a system beyond reason and comparison, it ceases to be a system. Nature is creation. I aim to be natural. Naturally what i am.
Talking to you Netflix
Boy he would have loved Tarantino
Not to mention Brian De Palma, under whose direction Welles worked in "Get to Know Your Rabbit."
I get what he's saying.
There's a difference between an apiring young director and the normal consumer.
One is watching a lot of movies with the intention of learning from them and the other is just trying to entertain his brain.
The way I see it as a normal guy you should watch a movie with both intentions.
Try to understand why you like / dislike a movie and why, but dont forget to have fun while doing it.
And as Orson Welles said, don't soak in too many movies.
Vincent D'Onofrio should portray Orson in a biopic. The resemblance is incredible 🤔
He portrayed Orson Welles in Ed Wood (1994 movie) starring Johnny Depp.
Orson Welles would commit suicide if he had to live and work in today's film world full of nothing but sequels, remakes, requels and adaptations.
Completely besides the point but David Harbour could absolutely play Welles in a biopic or something
"You are in the presence of a speaker who is both paradoxical, but confused." The unreliable narrator in a nutshell.
What a legend. He had such a great sense of humour
This a basically the problem with modern filmmaking, games, books, etc…
Great things used to be made by people that lived real lives and then went on to create art from their experiences.
Now most movies are made by people who really haven’t done anything beyond watching a lot of movies and going to film school.
What he's saying is wholesome, if you think about it. He's saying that YOU are special the way YOU are. Dont wash away your unique, singular identity.
No, he's not necessarily saying that.
@@siler7 oh yeah, he is. In his own words, but he's pretty much saying that many movies will influence your vision and consequently removing your unique style that will be shattered by influences.
practically the opposite way of thinking to Tarantino. curious, both being cinema geniuses in direction.
Tarantino copied a lot of films in his directing.
I don’t like movies but I love great films. His idea is what I have been feeling for a long time.
Lucky bastard never watched a Disney Star Wars Story or an Alien™ sequel.
When he said how much he hated homages, I could not stop thinking of him watching Ready Player One
How much is too much? Can somebody quantify this. One movie a week? One movie a day? One movie a month? Herzog said, he is watching 3 movies a year.
"Did J.J. Abrams spin straw...Into bronze? When he got handed Star Wars?" "...Aluminum."
That's an insult. Aluminium would be less creatively bankrupt than him.
Fascinating but Welles did watch Stagecoach every night while making citizen kane
Dilla had the best way of putting it in how hearing amazing music inspired him to, not pay homage or do it like it's been done, but to utilize the sudden creative energy great art gives him to create something wholly new.
Of course there is nothing wrong with homage or inspiration, literally every film is reminiscent of another in some way shape or form. It's formed that way beautifully in my opinion
I love your comment because your thoughts seem original look at the rest of the comments here and the highest rated ones are the followers following orders 😂😂😂 the irony is hilarious
@@Saulgoodmane I appreciate that lol, it just seems everyone flipped the script just cause Orson said so. There's nothing wrong with inspiration and homage, it's literally why people make movies - they've seen something so special and close to their hearts that they decided to they wanted to be a filmmaker.
@@Saulgoodmane yup
Dilan was(yes, he stayed in 60es) western artist, music was nothing, lyrics were amazing I am told, if you spoke english. Product of an idea of which we se the results today in the west.
And he gets the Nobel prize🤦♂️
@@caveman1334 are you talking about bob dylan? this guy is talking about J Dilla, a hip hop musician.
He would have a heart attack looking at the state of modern day Hollywood. Or he would be shocked by it. What those two options aren’t that different. Oh well.
We aren’t reinventing the wheel when it comes to art, literature, music, and film. Humans were made to consume and I shall
in excess.
This is a really valid point when you think of the consequences of being embroiled deeply in the fantasy elements of cinematically curated dialogue, scenario, and character responses. These elements piled on with no soul can confuse the audience regarding the meaning of Cinema as an artform, and ultimately the world that consumes it and synthesizes the content into their own life experience. It can be devastatingly inauthentic, manipulative, and devoid of essential artistic value for a film to be merely an iteration of the elements that bestow the greatest arousal to its audience, and terrible for directors to lose a sense of humanity in the films they make.
Watch more BAD films.
you wont do an homage but you will still be inspired
I think there is some truth to what Welles is saying but not it's entirely practical to enforce. I believe that all art, hell all human creation, is on at least a subconscious level influenced by that which was before it. Someone can be influenced by something they didn't even have direct exposure to because they were influenced by something that was influenced by it.
Of course artistic stagnancy can be obvious, endless remakes of a production that did not require its story to be retold or have its assets blatantly recycled in the hope that people find merit in seeing them a second (or a hundredth) time but if we try to be too vigilant in pointing out what copies what then we're going to be stuck with only the cave paintings having true original and artistic merit. The pressure "not to copy" in itself can be as much a hindrance to the artistic process.
He is speaking to a bunch of film school graduates. Mind the context and the audience.
@@agnidas5816 Contextually it applies, I've not delved into making film really but I have found worrying about being derivative or influence being obvious a hindrance at times in my other artistic pursuits.
Yeah I wonder if that's a tactic to distract upcoming filmmakers 😂
damn the way he pronounces words
With his mouth like most.
Oof. Disney/Marvel has been hiding from this
“Don’t watch too many films and don’t watch too few. Watch the right amount.” - Captain Genius; signing off.
It's funny because no we have zoomers soaked in content who think they have everything to say about anything, without having a personal thought enter their mind.
He really was the best to ever do it, never gave advice that wasn’t right on the money
Quentin Tarantino is personally attacked. 😂
ahhhh the french
Welles point would be better made if it was specific to a problem in filmmaking. It's nonsense to rely on the idea that more understanding not a subject is bad. All art is derived from another source nothing we make is truly original. If you don't like homages cool but youre absolutely not better than people who do.
@Jonathan Birch neither are inherently bad.
This explains perfectly the trend of remakes and reboots in modern film. No one has an original thought anymore. No one is willing to do something new.
I partially blame the never ending copyrights that the corporations bought up.
Well some people try, its just not great art at the end of the day. There should be a level of clarity and virginity of thought when making something original. The problem today is that what you think is original is probably influenced by something you've seen or read without even realising it.
Remakes and reboots aren't a modern thing. It's been happening since cinema first started, and not just a few remakes here or there. There's also plenty of modern movies with original thought, you just have to look beyond roller coaster cinema.
@@switchp8286 I know but when reboots and remakes were done, the artists would at least incorporate their own vision and use new actors. Reboots now, they are literally shoving in the original 70 year old actors into the film, or even resurrecting deceased actors with CGI, for fan service. Also, there is this nauseating trend of making everyone relatives in the film. Like it's this guys daughter or son or mom or dad from the original film. It's unbelievably lame. Nauseating really.
@@roybatty- Look elsewhere, man. Big movies all suck.
Don't be marinated, of course he was thinking about food.
Him, Alan Moore, and Hayao Miyazaki would get along real well
He.
I understand the temptation to make films about films. Reality has gotten so freaking stupid.
I disagree. You just need to be honest about which films have value to you, rather than being pretentious and pretending to like all the “great” films. If I didn’t soak myself in films, I wouldn’t have found the films that matter to me, and I would be worse off.
I don’t think Welles would like Tarantino much
Fella speaks wisdom even when soaked and marinated in another sense
me sending me this my friends who have thousands of films logged on letterboxd
Now films are applauded for how many references to other films they can squeeze into theirs. It works when you have nothing of your own, and it makes for something to say on the commentary track.
Trope films are the worst. Although purely homage films are pretty terrible too.
Films like that spielberg ready player one... just make me want to vomit with cringe. yes we know the 80's happened! You don't have to make a film that sole purpose seems to be that, with what the film is actually about taking the sideline!
@@finlaymcdiarmid5832 In all fairness, Ready Player One is a book and 80s nostalgia is what the book is about. You can't really put that on Spielberg.
@@Mickey-1994 well he chose to direct a adaptation. Its not like the books were good, for the same reasons.
@@finlaymcdiarmid5832 It's decent fast-food entertainment. There are far worse things coming out.
I wonder what he would say about watching too much videos on social media