Tea at Trianon: Orson Welles' ‘The Magnificent Ambersons': Update on the Search for Lost Footage ...

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, June 10, 2024

Orson Welles' ‘The Magnificent Ambersons': Update on the Search for Lost Footage ...

From World of Reel:

Welles' original notes for how he wished the film to be cut have survived. The extra footage that was left on the cutting room floor has, supposedly, been destroyed. However, some don’t believe that it was, and the more I read about it, the more I’m convinced that it might still be out there, somewhere.
The story goes that Welles received a print of ‘Ambersons’ for him to edit in Brazil while shooting the ill-fated “It’s All True”. According to RKO memos, two groupings of ‘Ambersons’ footage (14 reels and another 10), were shipped to Brazil so Welles could finish editing on the film.
Here’s where it gets interesting. In the ‘90s, Grossberg met Michel do Esprito Santo, an archivist and film collector, who claimed to have seen a Welles cut of ‘Ambersons’ at Cinedia. The Brazillian archivist searched for it later, but it was gone — possibly trashed or sold to a private collector.
Thus began filmmaker Joshua Grossberg’s obsessive search for the lost cut. He went through archives, interviewed collectors and was led to various different areas. There have been hints and clues that Welles’ original cut does, in fact, exist. Many years ago, Grossberg and his team searched through the vast landscapes of Brazil, for almost two months, to find a copy of the lost cut of Welles’ film. Nothing materialized. (Read more.)