Synopsis
Real life screened more daringly than it’s ever been before!
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
The Magnificent Ambersons
1942 Directed by Orson Welles
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Alternative Title
위대한 앰버슨가
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*SOME SPOILERS. ALSO, IF YOU AREN'T INTERESTED IN ORSON WELLES, YOU WILL FIND THIS BORING. EVEN IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ORSON WELLES, YOU MAY FIND THIS BORING*
"Something had happened. A thing which years ago had been the eagerest hope of many, many good citizens of the town. And now it came at last: George Amberson Minafer had got his comeuppance. He got it three times filled and running over. But those who had so longed for it were not there to see it, they never knew it. Those who were still living had forgotten all about it and all about him."
But when George Orson Welles, the infuriating, profligate wunderkind of American cinema got his comeuppance - three…
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"J'aime le souvenir de ces époques nues." (Baudelaire) There's no nostalgia like a modernist's nostalgia, Orson Welles on the "disappearing miasma" of Midwestern aristocracy is an ornate procession of engravings, half fondness and half dread. The whirlwind of changing fashions (a Cocteau joke given Keatonesque spark) launches the preamble, an introduction to 19th-century Indianapolis where a smashed bass viol scotches a serenade and halts a courtship. (Minnelli swiftly picks up on its musicality in Meet Me in St. Louis.) The poet turned inventor (Joseph Cotten) and the fragile doyenne (Dolores Costello), keeping them apart is the Oedipal grip of her son (Tim Holt)—willful scion, "princely terror," aspiring yachtsman. The aggrieved frenzies of the maiden aunt (Agnes Moorehead, sublimely pinched) and…
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93/100
"Rosebud" in motion. Within its artificial snowflakes are the rampaging feelings of jealousy and the crumbling foundations of success, and in that sense, it's the film that is inseparably Orson Welles. The Magnificent Ambersons is flawed in a truly fascinating way, and while Welles' original cut could've been, as he claimed, better than Citizen Kane, we will never know. And yet, the tattered vision of The Magnificent Ambersons glows with unrestrained darkness and distinct beauty.
Above all, It proves that the soul of true art can be lessened, but never removed. Family is everything, even if demons roam the shadows.
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*Was a 93, now a 100*
"George Amberson-Minafer walked home through the strange streets of what seemed to be a strange city. For the town was growing... changing... it was heaving up in the middle, incredibly; it was spreading incredibly. And as it heaved and spread, it befouled itself and darkened its skies. This was the last walk home he was ever to take up National Avenue, to Amberson Edition, and the big old house at the foot of Amberson Boulevard. Tomorrow they were to move out. Tomorrow everything would be gone."
A nostalgia for the living. My favorite of Welles' films, which puts it right at the top of almost everything, really. Its cracks and fissures of space, structure (both familial and societal), and movement convey a deep-focus eruption of decay, one which observes like a ghost on its first day, curious and forever yearning.
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"Why, I expect to lead an honorable life, I expect to contribute my fair share to charities, and take part in...well in movements" - George w/o a job,
- Orson Welles Ranked: boxd.it/3KWHC
- 5X5 Director's Challenge ( boxd.it/3IUJC ) Orson Welles (2/5)The Ambersons could kick the shit out of the Kardashians.
Rich people are crazy. In The Magnificent Ambersons, a piece of shit rich boy gets in the way of his mom remarrying because he is a piece of shit rich boy... it's great. Orson Welles can direct the shit of actors and Anne Baxter is fucking great as Lucy Morgan. The star here though is Tim Holt as George, one of the most annoying persons who needs…
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Film #8 of Project 40
”I wrote the script and I directed it. My name is Orson Welles.”
What happened to Orson Welles’ original version of The Magnificent Ambersons is one of the most disgraceful behind the scene stories of the entire history of cinema without a shadow of a doubt. RKO cut almost an hour of Welles’ version,destroyed the excised footage, replaced the original melancholic ending with Disney propaganda, heavily edited Bernard Herrmann’s score and even more shamefully ran this untouchable classic along with vulgar comedies as part of double bill programs. If you’re looking for a story of folly, ignorance and narrow-mindedness you’ll find it here. As a result of RKO’s annoying decision The Magnificent Ambersons has become…
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rly wished there was more too it, they cut out so much of the original run time that it seems to be missing huge chunks of information, so i couldn’t connect with it really :/ the cinematography and acting was brilliant though!!
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It is most likely that we won't get to see Orson Welles' original version of this film, which I think is one of the most tragic lost films we probably have. But even in its modified form, The Magnificent Ambersons remains an audacious, haunting, and visually striking film. (97/100)
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There's a genuine classic in here but RKO can suck a dick for bastardising an Orson Welles movie.
I'm glad that after reading reviews, I'm not the only one who thinks this is a bit incoherent even after whatever they did in the edit.
It's a shame, it has a wonderful cast to boot as well.
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Rich, beautiful and a very intriguing depiction of “American aristocracy”.
It’s such a shame that the studio intervened cause the film is very obviously hampered by it. The least they could’ve done is not give the film this ending.
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Still an amazing achievement, even in spite of it being heavily cut with a tacked on ending.
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Rich and haunting cinematography. Welles displays the extent of his understanding of visual filmmaking. His magician-like use of lighting and blocking are worth the price of admission alone. In the first half we are greeted to a series of awe inspiring scenes played out in single, long, evolving masters. The actors and camera moving in perfect balletic harmony.
The performances are all solid, throughout - though we cannot get a true grasp on them due to the nature of what was cut. Cotten gives an expectedly fantastic performance - his talents outshining the obvious issues.
Said issues, particularly concerning its messy structure, are almost entirely due to its mutilation at the hands of RKO. To say it hinders the film…
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Almost immediately I could tell I was going to love the way this film dealt with its themes on the transitory nature of life; greatness swells like a wave, washes over the shore extending as far as it can up the sands, and retreats into the sea, the next wave that crashes will barely see record of the one that just faded away. This film begins by detailing the lives of Isabel Amberson and her fortune as the camera flows through the town; we get little scraps of gossip as we pass from shop to shop, and many of the characters we see are some we’ll never see again. Simultaneously, a narrator (voiced by Welles himself) tells us about the…
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