Around the World with Orson Welles

Rating:
Summary: Stop the world I want to get off
Review: Five of six episodes of 1955 mini-series Orson Welles created for British television.
The first episode takes place in St. Germain des Pres in Paris. It opens with a very young Art Buchwald at the typewriter providing a typed narration of sorts. The idea was jettisoned for the remaining episodes. We catch a quick glance of Jean Cocteau and Simone de Beauvoir waving at the camera and running away. Most of the episode is taken up with Welles interview of an old American expatriate in a tunic.
Episode two takes place in London and splits its time between Welles interviewing a handful of old women who live in a home for destitute widows and the Chelsea pensioners - retired soldiers, interviewed in a pub.
Episode three is a loving look at the Madrid bullfight, with much history and explanatory narration supplied by writer Kenneth Tynan and then-wife Elaine Dundy.
Episodes four and five take place in the land of the Basques, an `aboriginal' people living on the border of Spain and France.

You can probably file this one under "Failed Experiment." In the first two episodes Welles seems to think that the audience will find his tittering eccentrics as interesting as he does. Either that, or more likely, he went into this project without a plan or purpose and ran the camera at the first thing that wouldn't run away.
The third episode - the bullfight - seems to support this argument. Not only is it the only interesting episode, it's the only one that seems to have been thought out beforehand. (Why was bullfighting so popular in the '50s, anyway?)
The final two episodes show a real loss of whatever steam this project had. Marginally interesting to begin with, episode five repeats two full scenes from episode four.

Recommended only for die-hard fans of Orson Welles.


Rating:
Summary: The missing part...
Review: "Around the world with Orson Welles", is great material for film buffs! Welles is directing himself, with usual flamboyance and visual flair. It does, though, seem somewhat overprized, especially considering that one of the six shorts is lacking! The back cover claims that "the last episode (Third Man Returns to Vienna) has been lost". This is not true. I taped it from the German television station ZDF some years ago, in excellent condition (better sound/picture quality than the materials on the DVD, sadly.) There it had the title: "Viva Italia". Apart from the misinformation and incompleteness of the release, it's especially sad for Welles fans because the Vienna episode is probably the best and most interesting of his semi-documentaries! Returning to the Harry Lime persona is just one of the highlights.. I still recommend the DVD though; thes travelogues are great fun!

Rating:
Summary: The missing part...
Review: "Around the world with Orson Welles", is great material for film buffs! Welles is directing himself, with usual flamboyance and visual flair. It does, though, seem somewhat overprized, especially considering that one of the six shorts is lacking! The back cover claims that "the last episode (Third Man Returns to Vienna) has been lost". This is not true. I taped it from the German television station ZDF some years ago, in excellent condition (better sound/picture quality than the materials on the DVD, sadly.) There it had the title: "Viva Italia". Apart from the misinformation and incompleteness of the release, it's especially sad for Welles fans because the Vienna episode is probably the best and most interesting of his semi-documentaries! Returning to the Harry Lime persona is just one of the highlights.. I still recommend the DVD though; thes travelogues are great fun!

Rating:
Summary: Viva Italia
Review: A small retraction: the Orson Welles documentary "Viva Italia" is NOT "Third Man Returns to Vienna", but another great episode! It centers on Italy by telling the story of Gina Lollobrigida, also presenting a.o. Vittorio De Sica, whose great actor/director skills is implicitly used as a Welles parallel. It's a dynamic and truly wonderful episode, and should have been on the disc. The Image disc is still overprized, with it's sadly sloppy transfer and sparse presentation.

Rating:
Summary: Viva Italia
Review: A small retraction: the Orson Welles documentary "Viva Italia" is NOT "Third Man Returns to Vienna", but another great episode! It centers on Italy by telling the story of Gina Lollobrigida, also presenting a.o. Vittorio De Sica, whose great actor/director skills is implicitly used as a Welles parallel. It's a dynamic and truly wonderful episode, and should have been on the disc. The Image disc is still overprized, with it's sadly sloppy transfer and sparse presentation.