I like the sound of Orson Welles at Work, myself.

The Whole Equation MIGHT be good. Thomson still writes well, but he seems to have lost his enthusiasm for film. When he writes about actresses he’s just sleazy and makes himself ludicrous. The more recent edition of the film dictionary has a piece on Kiarostami where he basically says “Everybody’s talking about how this guy’s the great new poet of cinema. I looked at one of his films and, I dunno, doesn’t seem that great to ME.” Based on ONE film! That shows contempt for the filmmaker, for the critics who have praised him, and for the readers of the book. So, yes, although I called him “tired” (I was feeling polite), “lazy” is good too.

I think it shows in Rosebud too — he really just rolls out all the Hollywood cliches about Welles. He’s good on Kane, then increasingly sloppy on everything else. Fortunately Simon Callow’s Welles books seem to be improving, actually growing in sympathy ashe moves through the career, and we have lots of other good stuff like This Is Orson Welles and Whatever Happened to…? and I’m told Welles at Work is terrific too.

I was browsing my local bookshop today and I came across The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood by David Thomson and I nearly bought it but…..you stopped me.Yes you!! I remembered you writing that he used to be good but that he had become lazy or something to that effect. I have Dictionary of Film and read Rosebud when I was maybe 11. Im 22 now. I also read The Guardian in which he has an irregular column. I was just wondering what you meant by ‘Lazy’ and ‘Tired’

I wasn’t sure if this was the right place to ask so apologies!

Thanks

Dieterle is a fascinating figure. His silent Sex in Chains is fascinating. Love Portrait of Jennie and Love Leeters. His Max Reinhardt collaboration on A Midsummer Night’s Dream is spectacular. And he’s quite good in an acting role in Murnau’s Faust.

That is, needless to say, a matter of opinion.

Geraldine Brooks is quite teriffic as the daughter. A Geraldine Brooks film festival would include Ophuls’ fabulous The Reckless Moment and Dieterle’s Volcano — a marvelous piece of nonsense starring Anna Magnani.

It seems that Roberto Rossellini originally wrote Stromboli for Magnani. But then he met Ingrid Bergman. Magnani was dumped from his life and (worst of all) from the film. But nobody dumps Anna Magnani and gets off scot free. So she confected Volcano — a rival production shot at the same time at an adjoining island. Every evening during the shoot Magnani would climb the highest peak of her island and rain curses down on Rossellini and Bergman. Co-starring Rossano Brazzi with a script by Erskine Caldwell, Volcano ain’t bad. But it ain’t Stromboli.

Clever Anna finished her film in advance of Rossellini’s. And there she was at the first press screening ready to answer questions when all of a sudden the news everyone had been waiting for flew through the room — Berman had just given birth to her “love child.” The place emptied out like that, leaving La Magnani to rage curses at the empty air.