Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

GazerRise Fantastic!

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

mike dewey Our subject film gets underway by showing Mr. Welles in a very inauspicious light, as evidenced by his tepid, if not sarcastic, reception at the Rome airport as he arrived at the terminal almost unnoticed and visibly upstaged by Ty Power's arrival. But what's our guy to do given his current set of circumstances brought upon him by Ms. Hayworth giving him the old heave-ho and thereby ending their marriage? So now he's in post WWII Rome where he shall try to undergo some face saving (he hopes) by attempting to reinvigorate his career by directing his slightly convoluted version of Othello that starts to look like a comedy of errors at the immediate onset of this dubious production.But camp turns to tragedy as one of the actors gets murdered not long into the production. The dying thespian whispers something into Mr. Welles' ear just before passing on, and now a whole new chain of events starts to take place. One mystery begets other mysteries in a sort of arithmetic progression and the serious side of this drama/mystery starts to unfold. And this part of the film shows an understated, realistic Orson Welles who stumbles about looking for murder clues amidst a truly chaotic time in Italy. No star fanfare or ballyhoo here as he undertakes this complex task.After all, it is post WWII Italy and the country is in total upheaval as large segments of the populace live in dire poverty. Added to this is a loose but dangerous amalgamation of ex-Nazis, dope dealers, neo-Fascists, US & other Allied forces' mercenaries acting under the guise of the political umbrella called the Christian Democrats who purportedly want to democratize Italy and make it a safe haven for democracy, out of Stalin's Communist Party's reach. Welles stumbles into these characters as he proceeds with trying to find more facts surrounding the murder on his set and ends up in a bailiwick of troubling surprises in so doing. What he sees, hears and learns from one of his old friend American colleagues (Chris Walken's role) and others in the aforementioned umbrella group is what drives the latter part of the film and pieces together the political ramifications of what transpires here. Was this a true account of what actually happened in post WWII Italy's chaotic time of turmoil? As was said toward the film's conclusion: "You want facts, read a History book!" At least there you will find out one person's view of the facts...Welcome to the real world!!

kuciak Of course this is a fictional account, and as the narrator Welles says, "if you want history read a history book." First for people who will see this film, Black Magic, while having Italian help, was really an American film, and Welles is reputed to have directed his own scenes, and if you see that film, you will be able to see his trademark. The film Black Magic, is also not that bad a movie. I had heard about this film being possibly made in the late 90's, and was surprised to see that it actually had been. The man who directed this film also had ironically directed Othello in 95. the use of Orson Welles in a thriller is something unusual. I love Orson Welles movies, and wonder if we all were cheated that he was not able to do more. I suspect that I like others are part of an Orson Welles cult following, and that is why such a film is made, with Orson Welles as a lead character. It is ironic that seven years before this film was made, Leiv Shreibner, (I probably spelled his name wrong) played a very convincing Welles, and sometimes seemed to look like him,. especially when he moved across to an elevator. I couldn't help but feel that it would have been something of a great sequel if the same actor had played Welles in this film and not Danny Huston.I don't want to suggest that Danny Huston is a failure in this film, but I think that if the film does not really grab our intention and our future memories of film, his performance in the film may be one of the reasons for that. I first remember Danny Huston in the Austrailian film The Proposition, a film in which I feel he gave an excellent performance. In this film however, I think the idea of the filmmakers, and perhaps Huston, was to portray Welles as really an everyman, not a leading figure in a movie that we would like. When he is kissing a woman in a scene, we feel that woman is only kissing him because he is someone important, not someone they find attractive. Even his co-star in the film he is about to do shows scorn for him. Everyone else in the film seems to be more of an interesting person that he is. When he meets his friend from long ago, Pete, (played by Christopher Walken, in a good performance), Walken seems more magnetic than Huston as Welles. This Welles in a clumsy, and has to be pulled out of a few situations by his Chaufeuer, and I guess body guard played by Mexican actor Diego Luna. this Welles, as someone comments towards the end of the picture does not seem important at all. Only during a scene, where Huston portrays Welles doing his magic trick, does the character of Welles really shine through, and perhaps suggests, that Welles was just another guy in this world, but through magic was able to make him on screen and on stage more magnificent than the real person. If the filmmakers had this in mind, make everyone else perhaps more interesting, I think that this was a miscalculation, and perhaps not very flattering on the life of Orson Welles. Hustons portrayal of him, does not make Welles look either interesting or likable. The film which starts out as a murder mystery, leads more to a conspiracy than just a possible murder itself. The idea is interesting, and asks some questions itself, which I won't say because it might give away to much. Though, you can see things in this film a mile away.

writers_reign This is one of those 'what if' conceits that sometimes come off spectacularly and more often than not bomb. This time around we are asked to surmise 'what if' Orson Welles couldn't get arrested in Hollywood in the late forties and in the wake of his separation and impending divorce from Rita Hayworth found himself playing the lead in a cheesy costume picture in Italy and on the side got involved in both murder and local politics. Like all 'what if's there's a modicum of truth here; Welles did exile himself in Europe in 1948 where he did appear in some fairly dire movies and, of course, he was divorced from Rita Hayworth around that time. The film has him lining up an investor for his version of Othello to be shot in Italy when the current film is in the can whereas although he did write, direct and star in Othello it was actually made in Morocco in 1952. Danny Huston really needs to do more than wield a cigar to come over as Welles and perhaps wisely he makes no attempt to reproduce that distinctive timbre though he might have had a stab at that impish twinkle in the eye that was so much a part of Welles. Pick of the rest is Anna Galieni, so great in The Hairdresser's Husband for Patrice Leconte. As a curio this is worth a look but that's about it.

audresonmichael I enjoyed this movie immensely. It captures the sense of Orson Welles as an adventurer, trying to raise money for movies which he understands better than those around him and instead making ones for other people which he knows are rubbish. On his travels in 1948 Italy, he stumbles into a murder mystery connected, perhaps too loosely, with a political conspiracy.It's cleverly made and very funny. I loved the playfulness which nodded at Welles's work without doing anything as crass as obvious references. It's an enjoyable story. Not a great thriller, the insights and revelations weren't surprising but that only made it more real and engrossing.Huston was encouraged to do part Orson and part his Father, John. He's a likable, believable hero matched by a good, mainly Serbian cast. Paz Vega is excellent as the heroine and Diego Luna gives a wonderful turn as the second hero to Welles, reminds me of James Macavoy, only likable.