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Customer Reviews of Working with Orson Welles

There are some screen test shots of Welles from "F for Fake," which would be fascinating if only Graver didn't talk all over them. But that sets the tone for the whole documentary: Graver talking over Welles, and stretching his association with him far beyond any purpose other than to toot his own horn. Included, for no good reason, are the first short film Graver ever made, a preview for Oda Kounar's "Jaded," and various other clips and anecdotes that have nothing whatsoever to do with Welles.

Peter Bogdanovich lends a small bit of credibilty with his comments. He's probably the only person (other than Stacy Keach) you will recognize. Peter Jason needed to dial it down a bit; he was a little too enthusiastic.

I did enjoy one thing: a short clip of Orson from "The Tonight Show," performing magic tricks (with Graver included---naturally---as the supposedly random audience member), which was charming.

As another reviewer mentioned, this one is really for Welles fanatics only. I enjoyed seeing Orson in ways I hadn't before; when I got to see him at all, that is.

Document of the last 15 years of the life
of a filmmaker. As such, this film is of legitimate interest not only to die-hard fans of Welles but also to anyone with a serious interest in the history of film.
The flaws are there: too little Welles; too much, perhaps, of Mr. Graver, whose persona cannot help but seem a little flat compared to the over-the-top Orson. The clips from F for Fake and the trailer for Citizen Kane are available elsewhere. Only the F for Fake trailer is really new. It's the hard-to-find Orson Welles: One-Man Band that apparently contains actual segments from Other Side of the Wind, the "unfinished" film on which Gravers did his most important work with Welles.
However the various Welles stories provide a chronology of the making of a pontentially great film, and provide genuine insight into how Welles worked with actors and camera crews, as well as the "guerilla" filmmaking style of the '70s, normally associated with Coppola, Scorsese and Lucas, but hardly with Orson Welles. Working with Orson Welles helps to sketch one part of an era of American movie-making -- the important years 1970-1985 -- which otherwise might have remained undocumented.

For Welles Fanatics Only
When Orson Welles died in 1985, he left behind a body of unfinished work almost legendary among cinephiles. The cinematographer on most of these projects was Gary Graver.

WORKING WITH ORSON WELLES is Graver's take on that body of unfinished work. Sight unseen, you might expect some clips from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, THE DREAMERS, KING LEAR, and perhaps even DON QUIXOTE. Unfortunately, perhaps for legal reasons, this work is short on such items.

In fact, WORKING WITH WELLES is short on Welles himself. Oh, there are stories...lots of stories...Graver interviews several people involved in the filming of WIND and talks endlessly himself about how much of an honor it was to work with the Man. But in the end, these interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Cameron Mitchell, Frank Marshall, and others get rather dull. And Graver's canned introductions are even harder to take.

There are some interesting snippets of Welles working in Italy, and the inclusion of the trailer for F FOR FAKE is nice, but two of Gravers' short films seem to be here for no other reason than Graver feels that they should be seen (ditto the trailer for Oja Kodar's JADED, a film it seems she was able to make solely on the strength of her association with Welles).

In short, then, WORKING WITH ORSON WELLES is a curio for Welles fanatics only. Others will find it somewhat less than interesting.