|
Directed by Richard Linklater |
Me and Orson Welles It’s
a rare film that can capture the unique magic of the theatre. “All About Eve” is one;
I’m not sure there’s been another until this brand-new Richard Linklater film “Me and Orson Welles.” The film is set during one week in
1937, when Welles’s troupe of Mercury Players is confronting the
imminent opening of their first production, Shakespeare’s “Julius
Caesar.” Like many of his
later productions, Welles has in fact cut Caesar out of this one, but no
matter. What does matter is the
intensity, the constant sparks that he’s generated among all his
players. The show is set in
Mussolini’s Italy – not Rome – and has many unspoken
references to fascism. We
see much of this through the eyes of a stage-struck high-school kid named
Richard Samuels (played by Zac Efron,)
who tries hard but vainly to play the role Welles has assigned him. In the meantime he first finds a girl
– a poet – whom he picks up at the 42nd-street
library, but he then drops her for the older woman who mans the box office
for Welles – Sonja Jones (played with sexy wit and infinitely more
sophisticated smarts by Clare Danes).
She initiates Richard into sex, but then, like most 17-year-olds in
that situation, he falls in love with her. He has a lot to learn. But
the person who holds it all together is Welles himself, played with delicious
brio and unmatched confidence by Christian McKay, an almost unknown British
actor whom Linklater found and who is perfect in
every way as Welles. The fact
that he doesn’t look quite like Welles doesn’t matter; this is
Welles exactly as we would like to remember him. He commands the stage, he commands his
troupe, he has that wonderfully imperious voice that
simply cannot be ignored. And
then, after many trials and tribulations, we see the last scenes of
“Caesar,” and the triumph of great theatre as the audience comes
to their feet as they do when they feel the presence of greatness. It happens only in live productions,
of course; film, for example, is already set and in the can long before
people can see it; only in music, opera, dance and theatre can these moments
be savored. This is one of
them. “Me and Orson
Welles” is now playing in Spokane at the Magic Lantern Theatre. |