At the End of the Street in the Shadow

Orson Welles and the City

Add to my list

by Matthew Asprey Gear

Type

Studies

Subject

Director > Orson Welles

Keywords

Orson Welles, city, urban

Publishing date

2016

Publisher

Wallflower Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 304 pages
6 ½ x 9 ¾ inches (16.5 x 25 cm)

ISBN

978-0-231-17340-7

User Ratings

(0 vote)

X

Average rating:

0	rating	= We can do without
0	rating	= Good book
0	rating	= Excellent book
0	rating	= Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Book Presentation:
The films of Orson Welles inhabit the spaces of cities—from America's industrializing midland to its noirish borderlands, from Europe's medieval fortresses to its Kafkaesque labyrinths and postwar rubblescapes. His movies take us through dark streets to confront nightmarish struggles for power, the carnivalesque and bizarre, and the shadows and light of human character.

This ambitious new study explores Welles's vision of cities by following recurring themes across his work, including urban transformation, race relations and fascism, the utopian promise of cosmopolitanism, and romantic nostalgia for archaic forms of urban culture. It focuses on the personal and political foundation of Welles's cinematic cities—the way he invents urban spaces on film to serve his dramatic, thematic, and ideological purposes.

The book's critical scope draws on extensive research in international archives and builds on the work of previous scholars. Viewing Welles as a radical filmmaker whose innovative methods were only occasionally compatible with the commercial film industry, this volume examines the filmmaker's original vision for butchered films, such as The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Mr. Arkadin (1955), and considers many projects the filmmaker never completed—an immense "shadow oeuvre" ranging from unfinished and unreleased films to unrealized treatments and screenplays.

About the Author:
Matthew Asprey Gear is an honorary academic at Macquarie University, Sydney. He has lectured in film studies and screenwriting and is the founding coeditor of Contrappasso magazine. Visit www.matthewaspreygear.com

Press Reviews:
An impressive work of archival research and film analysis.... A valuable contribution to the scholarly literature on cinematic places. Mediapolis

Asprey Gear's At the End of the Street in the Shadow: Orson Welles and the City has much to offer anyone interested in the numerous projects brought into being by Welles. afterimage

See the publisher website: Wallflower Press

See the complete filmography of Orson Welles on the website: IMDB ...