Orson Welles: Of Time and Loss

Abstract

His films bulge with preposterously vast spaces: the echoing halls of Kane's Xanadu; the rambling castles of Macbeth, Othello, and Arkadin; the vertiginous offices of The Trial; the cathedral-like palace and tavern of Falstaff. His camera moves with a swagger, craning down through the skylight of El Rancho in Kane and up over the bomb-carrying car in Touch of Evil. When the camera is still, the composition may cry out for attention with anything from multiple reflections (the hall of mirrors in Lady from Shanghai) to a flurry of silhouettes (the battle in Falstaff). The action often runs along the edge of violence, and sometimes topples over with a spectacular splash: Kane destroying Susan's room after she leaves him; Mike's brawl in the judge's office in Lady from Shanghai; Macbeth overturning the huge banquet table after Banquo's ghost appears; Vargas running amuck in the bar in Touch of Evil. At other times Welles expresses his love of spectacle in a show-withina-show: the dancing girls at Kane's newspaper party and the opera in which Susan stars; the magician's act in Journey into Fear;* the Chi-