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Rating: A man alone in his hotel room has just finished writing densely filled pages in pencil; these are not notes, and he is not a tourist in a foreign country; those pages are instructions, and he is on a mission.
He looks outside, and the carnival celebration is in full swing. Soon he will have to venture out with his crew to film and please the president, and he will do it; but he would rather be somewhere else, preferably in the editing room reviewing his new feature film; instead, he is in Brazil, shooting a documentary. He is sad and angry, continuing to write his unheard instructions and observing the carnival like someone whose eyes are elsewhere, staring into his own abyss.
That man is Orson Welles.
“The Magnificent Ambersons” is the director’s second feature film following his masterpiece “Citizen Kane.”
This film, shot with fewer financial means, in my opinion, remains worthy if not superior to its predecessor for several reasons; some purely technical, as the film is still full of extraordinary long takes, wide angles, and depth of field, though more refined and balanced, where previously they might have bordered on methodological displays of virtuosity. There’s innovation in sound, with a depth of field never experienced before, and the final sequence with the end credits read by Welles himself as the narrator.
Other reasons are closely related to Welles' personal life and career; this is the film that will close Hollywood's doors to him and open the doors to a human and artistic change with seemingly traumatic outcomes; despite having few financial means, he will still succeed in creating other true masterpieces thanks to his talent and genius.
The story told in the film and Welles' life revolve almost symbiotically around a situation of change. The Amberson family, after their rise, will not manage to keep up with the epochal changes in American society with the advent of industrialization, and Welles, almost resigned to another probable failure and the treatment given to his work, feels that this film will lead to a change; this is his state of mind as he writes the instructions on how to edit the film to Robert Wise (later a successful director with “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music”).
The production company RKO got scared after the test screenings and wanted to re-edit everything; they did, cutting 43 minutes in total, with a different and more reassuring ending by the mediocre director Freddie Fleck. The cut sequences have been lost.
The film is still powerful and in some sequences visionary and prophetic, with the first part showcasing the beauty of cinematic timing and photography by Stanley Cortez, beauty that is subsequently marred by the rushed and optimistic ending.
A pity, but it remains nonetheless a masterpiece.
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