Cheap Citizen Welles - The Stranger, The Trial, Hearts of Age (DVD) (William Vance, Orson Welles) Price

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Customer Reviews of Citizen Welles - The Stranger, The Trial, Hearts of Age

Sometimes when I read reviews posted on Amazon I get the feeling that the 'Siskel and Ebert wannabees' mislead the rest of us that just want the straight scoop.

The review by Amazon, although I disagree with some points, is at least more honest...less emotional and more accurate. I suggest that anyone that reads this will learn from my experience that you can never account for another's tastes and we each need to come to our own conclusions.

I won by going with my gut instinct and will continue to do so! ...

Goodies Galore!
"Citizen Welles" is absolutely essential for anyone who is seriously interested in the cinema of Orson Welles. This magnificent 2 DVD package highlights the eclectism of Welles's work -- it illuminates aspects of Welles's career and personality that often get overlooked amid all the "Citizen Kane" hoopalah.

"The Trial" has been marvelously restored. The image detail is clearly defined; the folks at Focus have eliminated most of the artifacts that commonly occur during films of this vintage (ie. excessive dust, dirt, film scratches.) The audio quality is superb; the clarity of the original soundtrack has been restored -- most significanly, the major sych issues that plague most versions of this film have largely been remedied. The film perfectly captures the bleak beaurocratic purgatory of the novel. Welles presents the kinky side of Kafka: the slinky Romy Schneider taunts and tantilizes; Jean Moreau remains luringly aloof; Anthony Perkins must endure it all. Irresistable madness.

"The Stranger" lacks the visual clarity, the crispness of detail, of the restored version of "The Trial." While the image often appears "soft," the version of the film presented in this package is a significant improvement over the Laserlight DVD. The film is a fairly typical Hollywood potboiler: Welles plays the part of an escaped Nazi who becomes a professor at an exclusive New England boys prep school; he befriends the locals, woos the daughter of a Supreme Court justice, and distinguishes himself as a master clocksmith -- Edward G. Robinson tracks him down. This film is significant within the Welles filmography because it presents the director working within the conventional Hollywood framework. Welles plays by the rules and suceeds in producing a well crafted Hollywood genre film.

The short film, "Hearts of Age," offers a rare glimpse at Welles's first cinematic effort.

Film critic, Jeffery Lyons, provides commentary for "The Trial," "The Stranger," and "Hearts of Age." His commentary focuses on the life of Orson Welles. Lyons' approach is anecdotal: he waxes nostalgically about his friendship with the great director -- he offers wonderful biographical tidbits. His commentary provides a cohesive conceptual framework for the enire "Citizen Welles" project.

The menus are well designed and function quite nicely.

"Citizen Welles" is a superb package -- absolutely essential for anyone interested in the films of Orson Welles.

Unbelievably bad DVD transfer
If one reads between the lines of Amazon's editorial review of Citizen Welles, you'll see a serious concern about the quality of the digital transfers of these movies. The Trial is probably passable, although very far from being "pristine". However, The Stranger is truly shocking in terms of how bad it looks. If you've ever seen a public domain movie on VHS from a fly-by-night distributor, you'll have an idea of how bad The Stranger looks on this set. Even if the source materials used for these DVDs were video tapes originally sold to consumers, it still doesn't explain why The Stranger looks this bad.

By the way, there's actually a quote from Jeffrey Lyons (who does two very mediocre audio commentaries on this set) that says "This restoration is in perfect condition. Orson Welles would have loved seeing it." I can't imagine how Jeffrey Lyons could say this, although I'm sure the money he got paid for his contribution to this DVD set has something to do with it. Orson Welles was one of our greatest directors and his movies don't deserve such shabby treatment.