Around the World with Orson Welles. Orson Welles, 1955.
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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 164 minutes.
Summary: Sport killing of animals.
Details:
1) The first episode of this short-lived travel series is a visit to Basque. An opening segment explains a traditional pigeon hunting technique that uses nets stretched across a valley. The pigeons are brought down in the net 2:55-3:05, recapped 3:40-3:42.
2) The second episode is another trip to Basque, recycling the exact same footage including the pigeon netting at the same clock time.
3) The 6th and final episode is a trip to Spain, focusing exclusively on the Bullfighting tradition. The actual arena contest begins at 18:45 and the bull receives the death stabbing by sword at 25:28.
What a disappointment, but a disappointment that helps me understand one reason that The Boy Genius’s projects fell from favor. Welles takes us interesting places in pre-McDonald’s Europe but is a camera hog who deprives us of seeing the sites. He tells us about the glorious architecture across the street or the stunning countryside surrounding us but the camera rarely strays from his face, smilingly bemusedly at the spectacles.
When we do get Orson-view instead of view-Orson, too often is it an excruciatingly long interview with a local person who has nothing to say, sounding like an egotistical Great Uncle pointlessly quizzing a stupefied 8-year-old: What were you doing just before we started talking? Oh, and do you sit at the table at about this time everyday? A-ha, sometimes a little earlier. Do you like dogs? What kind of dog might you like to have, if you did like dogs? Ah yes, a friendly one, I thought as much. Can you tell me why you grasp your drinking glass like that? It’s the same way we hold a glass in America, at least in some parts of America, perhaps parts you may have heard of, but possibly not. I’ve heard of them and have been to some of them as well, and am reminded of a short story about a man traveling through Boise with his wife and small child …
The Spanish Bullfight episode is a bit different, more like standard travel documentaries from the 1950s. We see matadors in training and visit a bullfighting museum, hear the local lore and justifications, and conclude in the arena where that poor, poor, heroic gladiator was nearly injured. The episode begins with a lengthy introduction to bullfighting culture by Mr. and Mrs. Twit o’ the Year-on-Trent, who seem a hilarious and appropriately unflattering commentary on the whole affair, and perhaps suggest that the precocious Welles was more erudite in his control of content than the episodes routinely disclosed.
The BFI release also includes Christopher Cognet’s 2000 documentary about a legendary abandoned episode from the series, The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles.