131: Chimes at Midnight (a.k.a Falstaff)

            There is little that I could write about Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight (1965) that could not be given better words by Roger Ebert.  His "Great Movies" Essay on the rarely seen Welles masterpiece is the best place to look for information and excellent prose on the film.  I’ll simply give you a few highlights and say that it is a tragedy that Welles is so forgotten.  How so? He wrote, directed, and starred in what is widely critically regarded as the greatest film ever made.  Indeed he did, but the legend of Citizen Kane (1941) and it’s William Randolph Hearst-lead backlash has grown to include that Welles never again directed a film.  This simply isn’t true, and in fact he directed several other pictures that are arguably just as good.  Welles helmed no less than nine more completed feature projects after Kane, all of which that I have seen are either good or great, and only one of which to my knowledge is currently unavailable on region one DVD.

            Disputes with the Welles estate have left Chimes at Midnight a difficult film to see.  I had to resort to Youtube after finding no other affordable recourse.  I can think of few other films that so rightfully deserve the Criterion treatment.  Even on a pixilated stream, Chimes at Midnight is magnificent.  Here Welles plays Falstaff, the fat and drunk knight with whom the heir to the thrown of England enjoys company.  The film is comprised of segments of Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Henry V and is a clinic in how to restructure the words of the bard, better so than the modernization approach taken by many a director.

            If you read the Ebert piece note the comparison he makes between Welles and his character.  Similar comparisons are often made, and rightly so, between Welles and Kane, but I’d like to offer another.  When you see the film, watch the respect that Welles gives to his Henry IV (John Gielgud).  Like Henry, Welles was a man anointed with respect so quickly that he never really got the chance to enjoy it.  By the time he realized what he’d achieved it was already being taken away from him.  He was the king of Hollywood at age 25, and heavy was the head that wore that crown.  This, by many accounts is Welles last great film.  After this it became too much.  It’s fitting though that it was Shakespeare.  Welles adapted much of his work, I suspect because he was the only other man who could write characters big enough for him to portray.

Language: English

Runtime: 113 Minutes

Available @ Youtube.com

Grade: 3.5 Hats Off

Note: The score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino is fantastic, and the only thing Ebert neglects in his piece.