VividSimon Simply Perfect

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

alexanderdavies-99382 In spite of what another reviewer thinks, I found "Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" to be an engrossing and fascinating documentary on one of cinema's most original artists. It is the ideal tribute in celebrating 100 years after Orson Welles was born. The interviews offer some insight into the man as well as the director and actor and the contribution from Welles biographer and actor Simon Callow is especially valuable. From the time Orson Welles decided on a career in showbusiness, he was destined to do things his way by being an individualist. Part of this may have been down to his being a Democrat and that his mother was politically very active in helping to establish women's rights. Welles was the kind of artist who would sacrifice his principles for no one, certainly not with his directing career. All this is shown via Welles' infamous clashes with "R.K.O" over his first two movies, "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons" and how Hollywood deemed the director to be virtually unemployable by the end of the 1940s. I enjoyed the section about Welles' career in radio where he created "The Mercury Theatre" which was dedicated to producing dramas of the highest quality (which they did). The discussion over the production of "War of the Worlds" is probably the career highlight for Welles as far as the medium of radio is concerned. It was a pity that Orson Welles couldn't make his version of the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Such a film would have been the equal of "Citizen Kane" in terms of sheer cinematic value and influence. The documentary reveals that "R.K.O" insisted to Welles that he reduce the budget for his forthcoming movie "Heart of Darkness" by so much. After the director told the studio that this couldn't be done, the project was shelved indefinitely. I shalln't talk about "Citizen Kane" very much as a lot has been said about the film many a time. For myself, I have come to appreciate and to enjoy the film a good deal. The documentary shows how Orson Welles struggled to secure any financial support for his later films after his reputation throughout Hollywood proceeded him. Welles took on some acting jobs in England, so as to raise money for his film adaptations based on the work of William Shakespeare. There is discussion about Welles' work on the masterpiece, "The Third Man." It is interesting to note that even though Orson Welles is the one people remember the most from that film, his time on screen is not much and he didn't work for long on "The Third Man." I had a chuckle when the documentary revealed how Welles refused to be filmed inside the real sewers in Vienna and that an elaborate reconstruction was built at one of the British film studios - just to please him! Something that wasn't mentioned to the best of my knowledge, was the fact that Orson Welles worked on the radio shows "The Lives of Harry Lime" and "The Black Museum." Both shows are hugely entertaining and should be better known. Peter Bogdanovich talks extensively about his interviews and discussions he had with Welles and this was fascinating. To read all about their discussions, the volume "This is Orson Welles" comes highly recommended. There is interview footage with the man himself and this is essential in gaining an idea as to what made the man tick. I think the documentary offers insight into the man as well the director. Orson Welles was the kind of person who carried with him an aura of mystery and seemed to encourage people to think of him in that way. A thoroughly enjoyable documentary all round. Fans of Orson Welles should like this.

Prismark10 Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles celebrates the centenary of the birth of the legendary Actor, Director, Raconteur and Foodie. The documentary has no narration, it just uses clips from Welles movies, footage from interviews and Welles himself ends up narrating his life through anecdotes and stories he told throughout his career.The problem is if you want to know about the man just watch the Arena documentary from the BBC that was made a few years before he died where you get Orson Welles, his life and career from the big man himself, many clips of which are used here.Magician feels like a tepid rundown of his career. There are some major contributors such as Steven Spielberg but the only interesting aspect I took from this is a man who became a low budget independent film-maker, forever looking to raise money so he could complete the many films he had in production at any one time, some of them going on for years, many never completed.Orson Welles was an important figure in cinematic history, this documentary is a starter not the main course.

blanche-2 "Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" is a documentary from 2014 about the great filmmaker, actor, magician, and personality. I must have seen and read everything there is on Welles, if that's possible, and this particular documentary borrowed heavily from the best there is -- the BBC interview with Welles, which was one of the best things I've ever seen. Of interest here were the photos of him as a young boy, and interviews with Micheál MacLiammóir, Norman Lloyd, comments by Julie Taymor, his daughter Beatrice, and so many others, some of whom I had not seen interviewed before.Welles was, to say the least, a complicated man. He couldn't deal with the studio constraints, but without them, he often floundered. Spielberg was interviewed here, and I remember very well from one of the books on Welles that he went to dinner with Spielberg with the idea that Spielberg could help him find a distributor for one of his movies. When he came home, the interviewer called him, and he said, they only ever want to talk about Kane. Kane was a blessing and a curse. I think some of the people interviewed didn't give him credit for the fact that he was just as talented as he had always been, but the business had become so much tougher.Documentaries about Welles are always worth seeing. He was one of the most charismatic and interesting people who ever lived, and he'd probably tell you that himself. And the people around him seemed to adore him. So really, as much as I have liked other documentaries better, this one is worth seeing too.

ritzidean Unintelligent documentary about a very intelligent man. No cohesive theme or statement about Orson Wells. Chunks of a better documentary edited together into a bad one. Has some interesting comments about how he made films, otherwise just sycophantic incantations about how great he was. Includes a montage of pictures of Orson Well's girlfriends and wives, how does this contribute to the story? Came off as sexist as these women are regulated to photographs without anything interesting to say about his personal life. Snips here and there of celebrities saying thins about Orson Wells without drawing any meaningful summations about Orson and his art. Smug, smarmy, and depressing in the way it cheapens Orson Wells legacy.