|
Me & Orson Welles |  | Director: Richard Linklater
Actors: Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron, Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan
Studio: Warner Bros.
Category: Movie
Buy New: $3.99
as of 9/8/2010 16:22 CDT details
Seller: Amazon Video On Demand
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 475
Genre: Comedy - Romantic
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 114 Minutes
ASIN: B003U48WI0
Theatrical Release Date: November 25, 2009
Release Date: August 17, 2010 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Tell A Friend
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
Add to Baby Registry
| |
| Synopsis:
High-schooler Richard Samuels lucks into a role in a daring Broadway production of Julius Caesar. Cues, staging, rehearsals, romance, rivalries: he has a lot to learn. And the first thing to learn is never upstage Mercury Theatre's genius director, 22-year-old Orson Welles. Zac Efron wins hearts and applause as Richard, the Me of this celebratory curtain call for when dreams - and the theater - were big. Christian McKay offers an uncanny Welles, the imposing, impetuous center of Richard's exciting new universe. Claire Danes is the enterprising stage assistant drawn into both men's lives. And Richard Linklater (Before Sunset, The School of Rock) directs with the vibrant spirit of those for whom all the world is a stage. Bravo! |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
Great flick Great Price September 2, 2010
D. Launderville (CA USA)
Great flick--no movie is ever perfect but this is a great representation of the theatre. DO NOT GET RIPPED off..
This DVD is a TARGET exclusive (only sold new thru Target)--go to any Target in the USA and you can buy it brand new for $14.99. All other sellers bought it from Target for $14.99 and now are passing it on to you at a sharply increased price. NO Target nearby..got to Target's website and order it. I love Amazon but this is bogus trying to sell an in-print $15 dvd for nearly double.
 A bit dangerous August 28, 2010
Flitcraft (Unreal City)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
While Christian McKay's pantomime of Welles is excellent, and in many places the portrayal is accurate, nonetheless this movie merely propagates the Old Welles Myth; that he was a downright egotist, with no consideration for his actors, no empathy -- viz., that Orson Welles = Charles Foster Kane. In fact, I think McKay's portrayal was really of Kane more than Welles.
What is even worse is the portrayal of Joseph Cotten. I seriously doubt he was nearly as much of a womanizer as they made him out to be, especially considering his two long marriages. Similarly I don't think Cotten would ever have made such remarks about Welles as this character made, e.g., that he was a bastard and a "coward." The real Jo Cotten in fact said that he couldn't understand why people always said Orson was so "hard to get along with," and that Welles was the "easiest, most inspiring" person he ever worked with.
If you want an idea of what Welles was "really like," read THIS IS ORSON WELLES, watch interviews and/or "The Orson Welles Sketchbook" on youtube, and watch F FOR FAKE.
I think this movie is, overall, a very frustrating offense against a great man and one of the most brilliant artists of the twentieth century.
 The Best 'Orson Welles' Film, Yet! August 25, 2010
Benjamin J Burgraff (Las Vegas)
Orson Welles was the most charismatic, outrageous, brilliant, egotistical, and fascinating artist of his generation, an 'enfant terrible' who was hailed as a creative genius in his 20s, yet effectively 'shut out' as anything more than an actor for most of the rest of his life. His 'glory years', from the mid-1930s until the release of "Citizen Kane", in 1941, have produced a number of memorable films and great Welles' impersonations, including those of Liev Schreiber, Angus MacFadyen, and Vincent D'Onofrio (who was dubbed), but I must admit, the best film and Welles' interpretion I've seen is Richard Linklater's wonderful "Me & Orson Welles", with Christian McKay, physically and vocally 'dead-on' as Welles.
Based on Robert Kaplow's novel, the film traces the birth of the Mercury Theatre, in 1937, and 22-year-old Welles' unorthodox staging of their first project, a fascist, Nazi-themed version of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", in the final days before the debut. As seen through the eyes of a 17-year-old novice actor, Richard Samuels (Zac Efron, looking very much like a young Tyrone Power), Welles is a force of nature, verbally fencing with his creative partner, John Houseman (Eddie Marsan), chasing women as vigorously as actor/pal Joe Cotton (an equally dead-on James Tupper), and dealing with tempermental 'Mark Antony' George Coulouris (Ben Chaplin, icily droll). Samuels is befriended by funny, unpredictable Norman Lloyd (Leo Bill, in yet another 'dead-on' portrayal), and becomes involved with two remarkable women, young writer Gretta Adler (Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of Elia Kazan), and Welles' assistant, Sonja Jones (Clare Danes, in a very likable performance). The glue that holds everything together is clearly Welles, and Christian McKay is simply mesmerizing, a slightly pudgy, saucer-eyed, self-centered, yet undoubtedly brighter person than everyone else. He has his Mercury company completely in awe (despite more than a few secretly hating him), and he pulls the entire theatre world of the time to a level no one had ever experienced before (not even Welles!)...His vision would change the world, and the film captures the times, perfectly.
If you are a Welles fan, or 1930's Broadway, or the actors of the era, you are in for a treat...Don't miss this one.
"Me & Orson Welles" is a winner!
Nostalgia and a Backstage View of Orson Welles August 19, 2010
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are many things to love about ME AND ORSON WELLES, a dip into the past of the USA circa 1937 when despite the Great Depression and the imminence of WW II life upon the wicked stage held the fascination for a group of people determined to become stars. Adapted from the novel by Robert Kaplow by Holly Gent Palmo and Vincent Palmo Jr. and directed by Richard Linklater, this film reminds us of what the movies of the 1940s were like - hazy, musically inclined, optimistic views of the future played out on the streets and backstages of New York. It is not a deep film, but it is delivered by an excellent cast, and if the first half drags a bit, the second half more than makes up for those flaws.
Orson Welles (played brilliantly by British actor Christian McKay) is fixing up the old Mercury theater for a performance of Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR. His crew of actors understands the idiosyncrasies of the brilliant theatrical genius and realizes that despite his at times vicious steaks of grandiose personality megalomania that he is indeed a genius and to work with him 'close enough to be sprayed by his spit' is an honor. His secretary Sonja Jones (Claire Danes) is wise and knows what it takes to step up the ladder in show business. When a young student Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) appears, Jones helps him land an audition with the great Welles and Richard is given a bit part in the play. The story concerns the machinations of backstage drama that surrounds theater life: the cast members include Ben Chaplin, Kelly Reilly, James Tupper, and Leo Bill among others and the theater manager John Houseman is played by Eddie Marsan. There are the expected sidebars of love affairs - Efron and Danes, Efron and Zoe Kazan (playing would-be writer Gretta Adler), confrontations of strong personalities, opening night decompensations, superstitions that surround the theater - and these asides are just that: unnecessary moments of digression for the appreciation of what Orson Welles was all about. The true glory of the film is the manner in which the magician Welles is able to tidy up last minute details and present a production of JULIUS CAESAR that is far ahead of its time and praised by the press and the public. After opening night the tension among the actors alters and the choices each makes creates a fine ending for the cinematic biography.
The musical score is rich in excerpts from the period popular songs as well as a fine score by Michael J. McEvoy. The cinematography that captures the flavor of the 30s - long shots down on the streets from high buildings, the creaky dank theater mood, and the choice of bathing everything in a slightly umber tone - is mastered by Dick Pope. The cast is uniformly fine, but it is the performance of Christian McKay that, just as Orson Welles dominated the world in the places he stood, proves that McKay is a brilliant actor to watch carefully. It is a very good show, not a great one, but a solid look at the life and colleagues of a great man. Grady Harp, August 10
Avalible at Target only August 17, 2010
Allison Brothers (The WOODLANDS, TEXAS United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Went to Target and found this movie was so excited so any one looking for it can find it there
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Powered by
Orange-Hat | |
