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Title: The Magnificent Ambersons by V. F. Perkins ISBN: 0-85170-373-9 Publisher: British Film Inst Pub. Date: December, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Insightful and Intelligent, but very Academic
Comment: This is an excellent book if you're up to the challenge of reading it.

A one sentence example:

"In long-take technique, as used here, the characters' experience of change, of simultaneity and sucession, convergence and seperation, anticipation, process and consequence is made more dependent on the being and doing of the actors."

And there are plenty more where that came from!

Orson Welles considered "The Magnificent Ambersons" (the film) to be better than "Citizen Kane". Unfortunately it was butchered by the studio (with some assistance by Robert Wise), losing between forty-four and fifty minutes of Welle's original cut. Even more tragic is the fact that this missing footage has never been recovered.

In this slim (74 page) volume Perkins has attempted to analyse not just the film that exists, but to put it in the context of the film that was supposed to be -- not an easy task. He makes most of these comparisons via the reconstructed "editing script", interviews (from other sources) with Welles, and then formulates some assertions of his own. As a result, we get an insight not only into the film that exists, but to the vision that it might have been.

For those who like the more theoretical aspects of film and film history, I think you'll find some interesting ideas. Perkins has studied the material extensively, and makes some telling observations (albeit, many of them worded like the quote above).

But be warned, this book is NOT a catalog of anecdotes about the making of "Ambersons". If youy looking for the gossip, inuendoes, and tales of carnage, look elsewhere.

Bottom line: this is an excellent text-book. But as with all text-books the reader has to make an effort.

Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting range of ideas
Comment: This book offers an insightful study of Welle's most accomplished work. It also stands as a testimony to what could have been had the studio RKO not interfered during the editing stage of the film.

Perkins apparent love of the filmic medium helps to wrap this book into tightly wrought 74 pages which though brief, covers alot of ground.

An excellent companion to the film.

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