Mr. Arkadin
Here's the Orson Welles film I've had the most difficulty enjoying, finding it even more impenetrable than his Othello. With the Criterion Collection's restoration, however, I've finally found, after two previous viewings of shorter versions, an experience of Mr. Arkadin (1955) I can appreciate. Earlier versions had run around ninety minutes. There seemed to be something drastically missing from the film--it lacked a sense of continuity, plus its burden of a bad soundtrack made it a strain to hear all the dialogue. Welles's tendency to throw a lot of narrative material at the viewer in brief stretches of his movies also contributed to what I found to be an incomprehensible film the first two times I saw it.
The restoration, fifteen or so minutes longer and restoring scenes not in previous versions, also has a cleaned up soundtrack as well as an excellent picture. Still, the plot is still complex enough to cause a sense of losing the thread unless one pays close attention throughout.
Welles reportedly didn't take the story seriously, much like his work on The Lady From Shanghai (1947), that one a potboiler with Wellesian cinema magic on top, along with a blonde Rita Hayworth. Welles, in that film, Mr. Arkadin, and Touch of Evil (1958), used the dregs of pulp fiction as foundations for high art, something attempted with varying success by Quentin Tarantino, and, in most of his 1960s films, done beautifully by Jean-Luc Godard. With Welles in Mr. Arkadin, it was as if he thought, "Give me a story, any story, to hang a movie on."
Robert Arden plays a man much like the unseen reporter (William Alland) in Welles's first movie, Citizen Kane, except that Guy Van Stratten is onscreen throughout most of the film. He and his luscious girlfriend, Mily (Patricia Medina), run into a dying man on the docks of Naples. The man relates a name, Arkadin, as having had something to do with his death. Guy and Mily begin a bizarre investigation of Gregory Arkadin, tracking him down in the latter's castle in Spain. Arkadin puts on vast parties, tells stories to groups of admiring men and women. The first time we see him at his masquerade ball he wears a mask making him resemble a bird of prey.
Guy wants to find compromising information on the fabulously rich mystery man. He gets involved with Arkadin's worshipful daughter, Raina (Paola Mori). Raina likes Guy, but her father is against her having anything to do with him. Still, Arkadin hires Guy to investigate Arkadin's own past prior to 1927. He says he has no memory of his life before then. Guy takes the assignment even though one condition is that he never see Raina again.
Guy and Mily, both money-motivated, do separate investigations all over the world, seeking answers, running into former friends and acquaintances of Arkadin. One of them, Sophie (Katina Paxinou), knows that Arkadin is actually Polish, that the source of his wealth stems from betrayal of comrades, including the very man who died on the dock in Naples at the film's beginning.
Guy finds out he's been used by Arkadin, who's lied about his amnesia pre-1927. Arkadin wanted someone to act as a private investigator, seeking out and finding his old enemies so that he can eliminate them. It's the same premise as Alan Parker's Angel Heart, three decades later.
The film's weird atmosphere helps propel its narrative. There's a frantic pace to some scenes, characters talking fast, overlapping their words as in most or all of Welles's films. Mischa Auer as the operator of a flea circus is great in his one scene, using his trained fleas to entertain Guy and himself, but also letting them drink blood from his arm, a parallel to Arkadin's manipulation of everyone around him even as he gives them entertainment, parties, wine, an orgy atmosphere of bacchanal.
Robert Arden is quite good as Guy, an actor most viewers these days probably haven't seen before. His voice and demeanor lend themselves to a feel of sardonic skepticism and passive-aggressive defiance towards the Howard Hughes-like qualities of Gregory Arkadin, who starts as a mystery man but is really quite a monster, someone using his wealth and influence to get away with anything.
Paola Mori, married to Orson Welles for a time, is almost as gorgeous as the ravishing black-haired Patricia Medina. I would've liked to see more of Medina's Mily, a delightful character among the whirlwind of a plot that probably requires at least two viewings to grasp.
Overall, it's a fascinating film, almost like watching Orson Welles mess around with the possibilities of cinema without having a Hollywood studio watching his every move. The film, shot in Europe, has a decidedly European feel, much like his version of Kafka's The Trial.
Vic Neptune
Here's the Orson Welles film I've had the most difficulty enjoying, finding it even more impenetrable than his Othello. With the Criterion Collection's restoration, however, I've finally found, after two previous viewings of shorter versions, an experience of Mr. Arkadin (1955) I can appreciate. Earlier versions had run around ninety minutes. There seemed to be something drastically missing from the film--it lacked a sense of continuity, plus its burden of a bad soundtrack made it a strain to hear all the dialogue. Welles's tendency to throw a lot of narrative material at the viewer in brief stretches of his movies also contributed to what I found to be an incomprehensible film the first two times I saw it.
The restoration, fifteen or so minutes longer and restoring scenes not in previous versions, also has a cleaned up soundtrack as well as an excellent picture. Still, the plot is still complex enough to cause a sense of losing the thread unless one pays close attention throughout.
Welles reportedly didn't take the story seriously, much like his work on The Lady From Shanghai (1947), that one a potboiler with Wellesian cinema magic on top, along with a blonde Rita Hayworth. Welles, in that film, Mr. Arkadin, and Touch of Evil (1958), used the dregs of pulp fiction as foundations for high art, something attempted with varying success by Quentin Tarantino, and, in most of his 1960s films, done beautifully by Jean-Luc Godard. With Welles in Mr. Arkadin, it was as if he thought, "Give me a story, any story, to hang a movie on."
Robert Arden plays a man much like the unseen reporter (William Alland) in Welles's first movie, Citizen Kane, except that Guy Van Stratten is onscreen throughout most of the film. He and his luscious girlfriend, Mily (Patricia Medina), run into a dying man on the docks of Naples. The man relates a name, Arkadin, as having had something to do with his death. Guy and Mily begin a bizarre investigation of Gregory Arkadin, tracking him down in the latter's castle in Spain. Arkadin puts on vast parties, tells stories to groups of admiring men and women. The first time we see him at his masquerade ball he wears a mask making him resemble a bird of prey.
Guy wants to find compromising information on the fabulously rich mystery man. He gets involved with Arkadin's worshipful daughter, Raina (Paola Mori). Raina likes Guy, but her father is against her having anything to do with him. Still, Arkadin hires Guy to investigate Arkadin's own past prior to 1927. He says he has no memory of his life before then. Guy takes the assignment even though one condition is that he never see Raina again.
Guy and Mily, both money-motivated, do separate investigations all over the world, seeking answers, running into former friends and acquaintances of Arkadin. One of them, Sophie (Katina Paxinou), knows that Arkadin is actually Polish, that the source of his wealth stems from betrayal of comrades, including the very man who died on the dock in Naples at the film's beginning.
Guy finds out he's been used by Arkadin, who's lied about his amnesia pre-1927. Arkadin wanted someone to act as a private investigator, seeking out and finding his old enemies so that he can eliminate them. It's the same premise as Alan Parker's Angel Heart, three decades later.
The film's weird atmosphere helps propel its narrative. There's a frantic pace to some scenes, characters talking fast, overlapping their words as in most or all of Welles's films. Mischa Auer as the operator of a flea circus is great in his one scene, using his trained fleas to entertain Guy and himself, but also letting them drink blood from his arm, a parallel to Arkadin's manipulation of everyone around him even as he gives them entertainment, parties, wine, an orgy atmosphere of bacchanal.
Robert Arden is quite good as Guy, an actor most viewers these days probably haven't seen before. His voice and demeanor lend themselves to a feel of sardonic skepticism and passive-aggressive defiance towards the Howard Hughes-like qualities of Gregory Arkadin, who starts as a mystery man but is really quite a monster, someone using his wealth and influence to get away with anything.
Paola Mori, married to Orson Welles for a time, is almost as gorgeous as the ravishing black-haired Patricia Medina. I would've liked to see more of Medina's Mily, a delightful character among the whirlwind of a plot that probably requires at least two viewings to grasp.
Overall, it's a fascinating film, almost like watching Orson Welles mess around with the possibilities of cinema without having a Hollywood studio watching his every move. The film, shot in Europe, has a decidedly European feel, much like his version of Kafka's The Trial.
Vic Neptune
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