{"id":7666,"date":"2015-05-06T16:59:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T16:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7666"},"modified":"2015-05-11T13:19:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T13:19:45","slug":"a-nod-from-orson-welles-was-good-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7666","title":{"rendered":"A nod from Orson Welles was good enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"orson<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 I never spoke to Orson Welles \u2013 who was born 100 years ago today and will be the subject of a two-month season at the BFI Southbank \u2013 but he did respond with a nod and sometimes a smile when I signalled respect with a slight tip of the head as I passed him at lunch.<\/p>\n

He was a regular at Ma Maison, the hippest restaurant in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and\u00a0up to\u00a0its demise in 1985, the place at 8368 Melrose where Wolfgang Puck first made his name.<\/p>\n

On visits to Hollywood to do\u00a0interviews for TV Guide Canada, I would invite television stars for lunch there knowing it would make their acceptance more likely. It also was made easy because our L.A. correspondent Sue Reilly, who wrote regularly for People Magazine, knew restaurateur Patrick Terrail, who created Ma Maison and turned it into the hub of \u201cCalifonian nouvelle\u201d cuisine.<\/p>\n

We would eat outside on the colourful astroturf-lined patio and Welles always sat just inside the ground-floor room at the most visible table in the house. The place was awash with famous faces such as Jack Nicholson, Fred Astaire and Marlon Brando. David Janssen (\u201cThe Fugitive\u201d) used to hold court in the upstairs room. I saw Michael Caine there once wearing a heavy jacket in the sunshine.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been shy about approaching celebrities but Welles was so imposing with the element of sadness that shadowed his final years that I chose not to.\u00a0I merely indicated respect as I passed and, no doubt grateful that here was someone who did not seek anything more, the great man gave simple but warm acknowledgment.<\/p>\n

I fell in love with his films at an early age although not until I was grown up did I appreciate \u201cCitizen Kane\u2019 fully. I understood that \u201cThe Magnificent Ambersons\u201d was flawed and I could see that \u201cTouch of Evil\u201d and \u201cThe Lady From ShangHai\u201d were special.<\/p>\n

Having fallen in love with Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cHenry IV Part 1\u201d at school, I thought his Falstaff in \u201cChimes at Midnight\u201d was wonderful. He made it in 1965 and I saw it at a screening in London in 1967. Rights issues have clouded its subsequent showings but the BFI will screen a 119 minute version in August as part of its Orson Welles season, The Great Disruptor, which runs from July 1 to Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

It will include many rare and restored films made by or featuring Welles including a new documentary titled \u201cMagician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles\u201d, which I will review closer to its UK-wide release date on July 3. For more details about the BFI season, see here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"orson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 I never spoke to Orson Welles \u2013 who was born 100 years ago today and will be the subject of a two-month season at the BFI Southbank \u2013 but he did respond with a nod … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1263,9,2257],"tags":[3782,3784,3783,3781,1643,1984],"class_list":["post-7666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-memory-lane","category-news","category-recalling","tag-3782","tag-chimes-at-midnight","tag-magician-the-astonishing-life-and-work-of-orson-welles","tag-orson-welles-the-great-disruptor","tag-bfi-southbank","tag-orson-welles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7666"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7787,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions\/7787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}