hello my name is orson welles essay

In Touch of Evil, Welles parts with his usual opening style in favor of a much more dramatic method of introduction; this creates a less obvious, yet more intimate initial interaction be

Hello, My Name Is Orson Welles

Orson Welles liked to reuse certain elements throughout his films He

liked a good deep focus shot He liked low key lighting He liked the

grotesque side of life, blocking actors in groups of three, low camera angles

and especially pointy bras He also liked to open his movies in

a certain

predictable way In Citizen Kane, he used the announcer in "News

on the March"

to introduce the subject and main character, Charles Foster Kane

In The

Magnificent Ambersons, Welles himself dubs the voice-over which introduces the

life and environment of the Amberson family The Irish Welles serves as a story

teller in the beginning of Lady from Shanghai, recalling the beginnings of his

plight and giving insight into his character Welles reads the enigmatic

parable, serving as the basis of Kafka's work, The Trial

However, in Touch of Evil, the viewer can not hear the booming

instruction of an announcer, nor is the primary character

revealed or the plot

introduced by a Wellesian voice over In Touch of Evil, Welles parts with his

usual opening style in favor of a much more dramatic method of introduction;

this creates a less obvious, yet more intimate initial

interaction between the

characters on the screen and the viewer in the seat

Foremost, Welles's legendary long shot opens the film These three

minutes and twenty seconds have many effects upon the viewer in introducing this

movie The primary purpose of this shot is to slowly draw the viewer in to the

story by limiting the viewer's role in the film; he doesn't allow the viewer to

actively enter the world of the film Rather, he constrains the viewer to

simply observe the actions presented without allowing the viewer

to get involved

in the action After the initial focus on the time bomb and its intrinsic

importance to the plot, the camera moves away from the action

At the same

point, Mancini's score begins, providing intrigue and promoting the viewer's

interest in the scenes revealed while, through the rhythmic

ticking of the

bongos, also supplies a constant reminder of the ticking

time-bomb waiting to

explode Stepping back, the camera reveals the wider picture of the town; just

as an establishing shot serves to orient the viewer without

displaying any

intimate action, Welles's camera then begins to introduce the setting to the

viewer However, Welles limits the viewer's interaction by not involving the

viewer in any specific action Rather, the focus of attention shifts

continually between different points of interest First, the focus is the

doomed car driving pulling out of the parking lot, then driving down the street

Then attention shifts to the other activity on the street, then back to the car,

and then on the entrance of Mr and Mrs Vargas Until the end

of the scene,

the Vargases and Linnaker's car battle for attention as they continually pass

each other within the camera's view This shifting of focus keeps the viewer

just that: an observer looking into this world through the

camera Welles also

reinforces this feeling by raising the camera to unhuman points

of view above

the action It eliminates any initial intimacy the viewer could form with the

characters Therefore, the viewer gets a broad overview of the town, the

atmosphere, and the people before gradually entering this world

Welles first invites the viewer into the scene as the camera finally

returns to a human point of view at the border checkpoint This change, not by

coincidence, comes with the first words spoken in the film Welles uses these

two factors to humanize the camera and draw the viewer into this interaction

between the Vargases and the border guard However, the view remains imperfect

for a human participant in the scene The floating movement of the camera, a

left over attribute from the beginning of the shot, remains to remind the viewer

that he is not yet totally immersed in the action Then, with a dolly into the

kissing couple, Welles gains some intimacy between the viewer and the characters

However, still just an outside observer, it takes the violent explosion to

suddenly snap the viewer into the story With the first cut of the film, Welles

shocks the viewer into entering this reality

With the subsequent low angle, hand held tracking shot along the ground,

Welles finally changes the viewpoint of the film The high

amount of energy in

the shot, as opposed to the previous dream-like sequence,

energizes the viewer,

drawing him into the action The shaky style of the hand-held camera lends a

feeling of reality, as associated with documentary style

filmmaking This

energetic reality finally allows the viewer to feel a connection with the action,

quickly becoming the viewer's temporary reality for the next two hours

By withholding the story from the viewer, only to suddenly thrust the

viewer into the action heightens the excitement of this initial incident

However, through the movie, Welles reveals the irony of this carefully

constructed opening sequence With the all the excitement

created by these

techniques, the viewer expects that the explosion will be the basis of film's

plot However, Welles makes it eventually apparent that the search for the

bomber serves as a mere foundation for the true plot of the film: the

exploration of Quinlan's character and his downfall at Vargas's hands

Just as he jolts the initial action, Welles also creates atmosphere by

shocking the viewer's sensations The first shot uses a truck mounted crane to

smoothly glide through the air, traveling through the city

raising and lowering

swiftly from an obviously unnatural point of view The camera focuses on

various aspects of the scene, shifting attention like a stream of conscience

exploration of the setting Welles lights the buildings and

characters

relatively brightly This production method gives the shot a dream-like

quality; what the viewer is witnessing isn't a reality, but

rather an illusion

of a reality which Welles soon reveals

With the explosion, the dream instantly transforms into the nightmare that

Welles intended to create in this film The Vargas's leisurely stroll through

the town turns to chaos as the townspeople erupt in a frantic effort to reach

the burning car; actors seemingly run in circles around Vargas just to emphasize

this commotion Mancini's mysterious bongos have been replaced with sound

effects of burning wreckage, screaming Mexicans and eventually wailing sirens

The gentle high-angle floating crane turns to a jarring low angle hand-held run

The formerly bright lit buildings suddenly turn to darkness and shadows envelop

the characters as the run toward the fire In addition, Welles uses the

brightness of the fire and the darkness of the night sky to

create the typical

high contrast shooting style of film-noir

Welles also establishes many of the film's basic thematic elements through

this sequence of shots First, he introduces the relationship between the

Mexican and American border towns The visual lack of security and laxity with

which the Vargases cross the border indicate the close

relationship between the

neighboring towns Even despite the lunatic ranting of

Linnaker's date, they

too are allowed to cross the border The casual relationship between the towns

on either side of the border quickly becomes apparent, yet also a point of

controversy Indications such as the "Welcome Stranger" sign under which Vargas

soon stands show the surface friendliness, yet also reveal the sarcastic element

of racism that will appear

Similarly, these opening shots introduce the forbidden

relationships that

develop in the border situation Specifically, Welles briefly investigates two

couples, neither of which appear entirely acceptable Foremost, Mike and Suzy

Vargas appear as the first couple in the film They walk down the street, with

his arm around her, an apparently healthy couple However, the first

indications of a problem arise when they reach the border

station The border

guard can not accept that the American blond beauty is in fact married to a

Mexican When she corrects him with "Mrs.," he retorts with confusion and the

brief question "what?" Then when Mike mentions that he's "on the trail of a

chocolate soda for my wife," the guard once again questions in disbelief, "Your

wife?"

Though not as obvious, Welles also dooms the relationship between Linnaker

and his date, the stripper By knowing his name and by his quick passage across

the border, the border guards reveal Linnaker's apparent status

in the town

Linnaker's reputation appears nearly as impressive as that of Vargas, to whom

the guards also knew and also granted easy passage In

comparison, Zita appears

not only dumb, but insane with her rantings of the ticking sound

in her head

This forbidden couple, flawed by this apparent personality and status clash, is

doomed by a ticking time-bomb in the trunk; not only will this relationship not

work, the viewer knows that it won't even matter as they're about

to become

"strainable."

Rarely in a film does a director pack so much insight into his movie than

Orson Welles does in the beginning three shots of Touch of Evil With minimal

dialogue and mostly visual elements, he clues the viewer into so many aspects of

the film In a very unwellesian way, Welles manages to introduce the setting,

the characters and some of the thematic elements which will later become

apparent However, although film critics may tag Welles's

methods in the

beginning of this movie as "unwellesian," it nevertheless awes the viewer with

its splendor And what is more "Wellesian" than awesome

splendor?