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"Orson Welles: “The Boy Wonder” turned enfant terrible of Hollywood. Twice named the greatest director of all time in separate polls conducted by the British Film Institute, and the filmmaker who cinephiles around the world believe to be, if not one the greatest, undoubtedly one of the most consequential of all time. Welles passed away in 1985 at the age of 70, a mere five days after having completed his final performance: The voice of Unicron, the gargantuan planet-eating menace from the 1986 animated Transformers movie. A regrettably undignified end to the career of a man who once revolutionized the film industry and our concept of cinematic auteurship with his landmark debut, CITIZEN KANE.
"Despite KANE’s recognition as a groundbreaking achievement, Welles spent most of his career unable to fund projects of his own artistic control, instead finding himself embroiled in constant battles with studios and producers over the budget, tone, casting, and length of his films. By the 1970s, Welles had turned to self-financing his work, choosing to lease out his famously mercurial, larger-than-life personality to any number of talk shows, commercials, television shows, voice-overs, and cheapie productions willing to offer the money needed to keep his productions afloat. Perhaps jaded by his Sisyphean tenure in Hollywood, Welles eventually grew ambivalent about his legacy in the film industry, lamenting the amount of time spent having to finance his work as opposed to actually working, and going so far as to refer to his time as a filmmaker as “about 2% moviemaking and 98% hustling”.
"Thankfully, that 2% has lived on through continued repertory screenings, restorations, and even the long-belated completion of Welles’ final feature, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, in 2018. But we here at Spectacle believe that it’s important to acknowledge not just the man’s completed films, but the painstaking efforts it took for him to get them to that point— The endless parade of B-movie villains, documentary narrators, cameo appearances, and thankless bit parts that collectively comprise his “hustle”. In that spirit, Spectacle Theater is excited to present this series featuring some of our favorite selections from that 98%." -Spectacle