Unknown Orson Welles - "My Name is Orson Welles" January 17, 2009

Introduced by Stefan Drössler

Orson Welles was fascinated by television and tried to become popular as a TV director and host. He shot several episodes for programs such as Around the World with Orson Welles, People and Places, In the Land of Don Quixote, and Orson’s Bag, in which he is seen as an indefatigable globetrotter visiting European capitals like Paris, London, and Vienna as well as the Spanish countryside, explaining European customs to an American audience. “I am happily married to New York, I’m in love with Paris, but cannot resist London. I return to London again and again, as a man returns affectionately to a past mistress,” Welles said. In Orson Welles’ London, we see Welles playing multiple parts, including a musician, Winston Churchill, a policeman, a flower seller, a Chinese person, four clubmen, a castle owner, and, of course, the host. Also on the program is Orson Welles’ Shylock, in which the Munich Filmmuseum has compiled different approaches by Welles to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.

Official Website: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17287