I can't believe at this stage of the game there's new stuff to learn about Welles but this book blew me away - a series of taped lunch encounters between Welles and his friend, director Henry Jaglom towards the end of the former's life. Welles knew Jaglom was taping him but preferred not to see the device so he could talk freely, and freely he does - spouting off theories, showing a homophobic and slightly racist time, bragging, being insecure, worrying about money (his lucrative ad work was drying up), trying to raise money for The Dreamers and King Lear.
As editor Biskind says in his introduction you really feel like you're there - conversations are interrupted by waiters (they took place at Ma Maison restaurant), visiting famous people (Jack Lemmon, Mrs Vincente Minnelli, Richard Burton, Zsa Zsa Gabor) and Welles' dog; we even hear him pitch - badly - a project to HBO - he throws a tantrum right then and there.
I thought I knew a lot about Welles but I was surprised - he's very bitchy and vicious about John Houseman, continually makes swipes at Larry Olivier, respects Pauline Kael as a writer despite the job she did on him, hates Charles Higham, discuses the books on his life, calls Katherine Hepburn a slut, says Spencer Tracy was mean, says old people all look like Jews or Irish, prefers the company of right wingers to lefties even though he was left, brags about his sex life (including Lena Horne), doesn't rate James Stewart as an actor, prefers Hitchcock's British films, was really hurt by the failure of F for Fake (in a dream world he says he would've made film essays rather than narrative dramatic stories), has a man crush on Gary Cooper, thinks Joe Cotten was a character actor rather than a movie star, claims credit for discovering Van Johnson, doesn't rate Thalberg, talks about Peter Bogdanovich's rampaging ego and mistake in writing Killing of the Unicori, admires Richard Pryor - and many more.
It's sad because he was so worried and frustrated towards the end of his life - low on funds, struggling to get ad work the way he used to, tormented by tax problems; you also get frustrated at his ability to be nicer to producers and for not taking the opportunity to make Cradle will Rock, Big Brass Ring and King Lear - it sounds here he might have had he just done it for less money, or been willing to accept Robert de Niro in the lead of Big Brass Ring. But such is the appeal of Welles - "if only..."
Oh and Jaglom sounds like a really nice guy in these talks and it made me keen to actually see some of his films.
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