Simon Callow: "Orson Welles: The Genius Who Failed"

Recording of Simon Callow's seminar on Orson Welles - part of "Kirill Gerstein invites" hosted by Kronberg Academy. 05.05.2021

Actor/director/author Simon Callow returned to the forum to discuss "Orson Welles: The Genius Who Failed". Simon says: "At 26, Welles made Citizen Kane, his first film: he wrote it, he produced it, he directed it, he starred in it. It was immediately and universally acclaimed as the greatest film ever made. 44 years later, he died, having completed only ten more films, two of them 70 minutes long, and made for television, none of them commercially successful. What happened? A great deal, across every imaginable genre - radio, theatre, musical theatre, even ballet - with substantial diversions into journalism and politics. Welles was one of the great personalities of the 20th century and one of the most intrepid of artistic explorers, whose oeuvre is only now fully coming into focus."

As you may know, Simon Callow has written the most thorough and authoritative biography of Orson Welles. There are three published volumes and Simon is at work on the fourth book covering the epic arc of this great artist.

It is a pleasure to post this talk on Orson Welles' actual birthday (May 6).