The Magnificent Ambersons
1942 Directed by Orson Welles, Fred Fleck
Synopsis
The Magnificent Ambersons is director Orson Welles’ second film which according to him is better than his first film Citizen Kane. The family saga tells the fate of the Amberson family.
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A film haunted by the specter of what could have been. And we film buffs will probably spend another 20 years waiting for the lost footage to surface somewhere (yes, I live in hope). With "The Magnificent Ambersons," Orson Welles proves once again why he's the master of this kind of Gothic melodrama: juxtaposing shadowy, expressionist photography with performances that run the gamut from the naturalistic Joseph Cotton to an over-the-top Anges Moorehead as a spinster aunt.
The film belongs to that unique category of pictures which wax nostalgic for an era its creator never experienced much of himself - in this case, the Midwest before the dawn of the automobile - which provides "Ambersons" with its own particular aura…
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I'd avoided this for years because of its reputation as a quasi-"lost" movie due to the extensive cuts and substitutions made by RKO and without Orson Welles' approval. This was idiotic of me, because I was missing out on a humane, heartfelt, and complex drama the likes of which you just didn't see back in 1941, if you see them with much regularity in the decades since then (which is a debatable point I guess).
Not only that, but Ambersons is a triumph formally as well. Welles does stuff with the camera that I couldn't believe I was seeing in a movie from 1942 - check out the tracking shot of Agnes Moorhead going nuts, it's like something out of…
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**Part of the Best Picture Project**
Editing is one of cinema's greatest tools, and is in fact what makes it so unique. It is essentially responsible for the finished product. When it comes to The Magnificent Ambersons, it turns out there were multiple ones, and the only way to watch it now is by watching merely 88 minutes of the initial 148, and is significantly different from how Welles intended the film to be as a result.
The film is, as a result of this significant cutting, nothing short of a mess. If it weren't for how well acted this film is and how well shot it is, I might have considered giving the film less. The story is nearly…
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Bereft of plot and nearly incomprehensible as constructed.
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My absolute uncontested, TKO #1 favorite film of all time. Not sure I've ever really known how to justify that, as if I needed to. A film that can teach life lessons one can only hope to learn otherwise through terrible hardship and sadness. To see in 35mm was less a revelation than a fulfillment of a lifelong passion.
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The people who claim this is better than Citizen Kane must be trying to rate the non-existent Welles version of the film and not the actual movie that exists. At best this is an okay movie, brought down by Tim Holt as the spoiled brat. Anne Baxter does a good job in a limited role, though.
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I'm not the target market for this particular film, mostly because high society and their romantic troubles are not my cup of tea.
Despite that, I really enjoyed everything dealing with the progress of the Industrial Revolution and with the Amberson's inability to adapt. The film looks gorgeous, of course, which certainly helped smooth out the plot points I wasn't interested in.
I'm not sure how I'd feel about the original ending, but this one was not as drastically film-altering as I'd heard and I'm actually surprised this is considered the "happy" ending.
The end credits are among the best I've ever seen.
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I give up on this film, over an hour of lost footage has left the story incomprehensible. Sure it looks pretty, but I couldn't finish the damn thing.
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My first thought after watching this picture was: AHHHHH!!! Those bastards! Those goddam bastards! It could have been a masterpiece! But, alas, it is simply a very good movie that has obviously been hacked to bits and had a tacky ending tacked onto it. Even after the mutilation, the picture is has power and one of, if not the best, performance from Joseph Cotten, besides THE THIRD MAN. This picture, in its current form, breaks my heart and gets me all steamed up. So much so that I can only watch it every few years for fear of head combusting. Damn!
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A film haunted by the specter of what could have been. And we film buffs will probably spend another 20 years waiting for the lost footage to surface somewhere (yes, I live in hope). With "The Magnificent Ambersons," Orson Welles proves once again why he's the master of this kind of Gothic melodrama: juxtaposing shadowy, expressionist photography with performances that run the gamut from the naturalistic Joseph Cotton to an over-the-top Anges Moorehead as a spinster aunt.
The film belongs to that unique category of pictures which wax nostalgic for an era its creator never experienced much of himself - in this case, the Midwest before the dawn of the automobile - which provides "Ambersons" with its own particular aura…
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The people who claim this is better than Citizen Kane must be trying to rate the non-existent Welles version of the film and not the actual movie that exists. At best this is an okay movie, brought down by Tim Holt as the spoiled brat. Anne Baxter does a good job in a limited role, though.
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My absolute uncontested, TKO #1 favorite film of all time. Not sure I've ever really known how to justify that, as if I needed to. A film that can teach life lessons one can only hope to learn otherwise through terrible hardship and sadness. To see in 35mm was less a revelation than a fulfillment of a lifelong passion.
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While the eighty-eight minute MGM 'chopped to buggery' edit of The Magnificent Ambersons suggests some greatness to be found if Orson Welles' version ever comes to light, I am unconvinced that spending another forty minutes with these vapid, self-centred characters would somehow improve the film. The 'rich but ultimately empty inside' subtext is more nuanced in Citizen Kane too.
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Could have been one of the greatest films of all time.