The Complete Mr. Arkadin (The Criterion Collection)
by Orson Welles
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Akim Tamiroff, Michael Redgrave, Orson Welles, Patricia Medina, Peter van EyckDirector: Orson Welles
Brand: Image Entertainment
Editor: Orson Welles
Producer: Orson Welles
Writer: Orson Welles
Cinematographer: Jean Bourgoin
Editor: Renzo Lucidi
Editor: William Morton
Producer: Louis Dolivet
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Box set, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of The Complete Mr. Arkadin (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Fractured film-noir by Welles, in the best possible package
Summary: 5 Stars
Orson Welles was many things - daring, ambitious, brilliant, egomaniacal - but structured was not one of them. When he was merely 21 he was given the keys to RKO and the right to make any film he wished. He made "Citizen Kane", not only one of the finest and most important pictures ever but also the subject of much wrangling between himself and William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful media tycoons in history. Though the film was released as he intended, Welles paid a heavy price for his hubris - he would never again enjoy that kind of creative control in any of his later films. His next feature, "The Magnificent Ambersons", was famously taken from him in editing and cut by nearly an hour, and the remaining nitrate was later destroyed. "The Stranger", "The Trial", "Don Quixote", and "Touch of Evil", among several others, suffered the same fate (thankfully ToE was at least later restored to his meticulous specifications). However, no film of Welles suffered as much as "Mr. Arkadin", described in his own words as his most butchered movie.
Before I describe the plot of the film or the details of this wonderful Criterion edition, you first must understand what version of the film I am discussing here, and a bit about it's tortured history. "Mr. Arkadin" was never completed by Welles or authorized by him in ANY form - so there is not a long-lost Director's Cut of the film or a clear and precise set of instructions by Welles to be carried out to their fullest intent (like the restored version of Touch of Evil, which was based on a 58-page memo that Welles sent Universal). ALL versions of this film were edited after Welles failed to deliver his cut on time - without his direct input. The assembly process is further hurt by the fact that Welles conceived of an intricate flashback structure to tell his tale just before shooting, and shot the film in fragmented form precisely because he would be the only one who could assemble it properly. Additionally, it was shot over a long period of time over several locations and in varying degrees of quality - there are a number of scenes that freely switch between 16mm and 35mm and a lot of unfinished dialogue track timing and several poorly overdubbed segments. There are at least SIX distinct versions of the film and each contains at least one thing that the others do not - the "Corinth" version found by Peter Bogdanovich in 1960 (98 minutes with Welles' described flashback struture mostly intact; until now generally considered to be the best representation of "Mr. Arkadin"), two seperate Spanish-language cuts, an American linear version that is derived from the Corinth cut, the notorious "Confidential Report" European cut that was done by Louis Dolivet (95 minutes), and finally for this release we get a brand-new "comprehensive" cut of the film done by Stefan Drossler of Fimmuseum Munchen in conjunction with Claude Bertemes. This new 105-minute cut is an attempt to piece together the most complete, coherent and lucid version of the film, using only the most finished shots and Welles' own piecemeal instructions from notes and interviews, and contuity clues from the previous cuts (especially the "Corinth", which is the earliest cut) for the footage itself and how it should be properly sequenced. This is by far the BEST cut of "Mr. Arkadin" available, in my opinion, and since Criterion was thoughtful enough to include the Corinth and Confidential Report versions in this set, it is easy to compare how much improved the clarity of the story becomes in the comprehensive version, with Welles' intricate flashbacks intact and his unique sense of film grammar plainly evident. If you do by this set I would recommend watching this edit of the film first, and then wading into the earlier cuts. Kudos to Criterion for this magnificent restoration attempt (as usual).
"Mr. Arkadin" is the story of Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles), a shadowy figure with enormous resources who built himself up from humble beginnings, but cannot recall any of the details of how his initial fortune came to be. The story is intentionally told in fragments. In the opening shot we see an unknown figure lying dead on a beach. Suddenly, two men are hiding out from the police, one of them is desperate to tell his tale. His name is Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden), a smuggler who was kind to a dying man in his last moments (he was knifed to death). The man tells Guy and his girlfriend, Mily, the names of two people - Gregory Arkadin and a woman named Sophia - information, he says, that is worth a fortune. Van Stratten, now unemployed with nothing but time on his hands, is curious and decides to search for the elusive Arkadin - in the hopes of blackmailing him. He discovers that Arkadin has a beautiful daughter, Raina, and uses her as a means of entrance into his world. But Arkadin is one step ahead of him; he knows everything there is to know about Guy through his vast network of spies. Eventually, Guy is hired by Arkadin to discover the truth about his life and fortune (and the mysterious Sophia, who's last name no one remembers) because he is an army man and has access to all kinds of confidential information; but Arkadin is merely using Guy as bait - he follows him every step of the way, interviews the same figures that Guy does, and eventually kills each one of them as the story of his life begins to unravel; he is ashamed of his secrets and is driven to protect his daughter's innocence before Van Stratten reaches her and tells her the truth. Soon, only Van Stratten and Arkadin are left, and as Guy races to find Raina in time Arkadin is right on his tail. The conclusion of this excellent thriller is exciting and also very revealing about Arkadin's character, much like the final moments of "Citizen Kane". It is a worthy addition to the Welles noir canon alongside "Touch of Evil" and "The Lady From Shanghai" and others.
Even in mangled form, it is easy to see why the film is so admired. It bears all the hallmarks of Welles' unique visual style - extremely low angle shots at or even below ground level, deep focus all the way from the foreground to the background, long tracking shots, dramatic visual compositions (with a face filling the foreground and a figure far in the background, for example), characters looking directly into the camera from a higher position in order to mythically exaggerate them, etc. and since it is a noir it also features the typical flair in lighting and shadows. Welles, as Arkadin, is often photographed in shadow, silouhette, or even in masks. The story itself is pretty fascinating on a number of levels. For one thing, just about every character is crooked and unlikeable at the start - including both male protagonists. The plot deals with the secrets and possible redemption of such a character, Mr. Arkadin, and only in the ending of the film is he really humanized - this is more than a passing resemblance to the central idea behind "Citizen Kane", of course. Also, the dense labyrinthine plot and the atmosphere and realistic sound design (even with a fractured score) contribute quite a bit of atmosphere and thrills to the film. As stated eariler, this amazing Criterion release contains three distinct cuts of the movie and several worthwhile and informative special features - film critic Johnathan Rosenbaum and author James Naremore provide commentary on the Corinth version, there are outtakes of Welles acting and directed from the assembly cut of the rushes, and on the Comprehensive version there is a great 20-minute documentary fully explaining the reasoning behind the new cut and the various differences in the previous versions. There is also a novelization of the story, credited to Welles but in reality a ghost-written translation of a French version of the tale. In addition, all versions have been significantly cleaned up in terms of aural and visual debris and down-converted from a 1.33:1 full frame HD transfer, with the comprehensive cut and the "Confidential Report" version being the cleanest. All in all, if you are a fan of Welles and curious about his incomplete works, or you love noir, or even just like film in general and wish to learn from a master, I can't stress how awesome this Criterion Edition of The Complete Mr. Arkadin is. It's a great thriller, visually and thematically impressive, that was never completed - but this "best guess" is probably as close as we'll ever get. And as typical for Criterion, it's pretty damn good.
Summary of The Complete Mr. Arkadin (The Criterion Collection)
Orson Welles?s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) is one of cinema?s great mysteries. How did a globetrotting narrative of espionage, amnesia, and backstabbing come to be itself marked by these qualities? In the film, small-time American smuggler Guy van Stratten is hired by elusive billionaire Gregory Arkadin to investigate the tycoon?s past. What follows is a dizzying descent into the Cold War landscape of a Europe trying to erase its history. In making the film, Welles was ultimately banned from the editing room by producer Louis Dolivet. As a result, many versions exist, none of them definitive. The Criterion Collection is proud to collect the many faces of Mr. Arkadin into one box for the first time?from the story?s beginnings in radio to the novel published under Welles?s name to an all-new "comprehensive version" of the film.Something of a remake of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles's 1955 Mr. Arkadin is a knowing and self-reflective variation on one of Welles's pet themes: the search for a defining secret of a powerful man. Welles plays an important financier who tries to discover his own past by hiring a man (Robert Arden) to research it. Did the seemingly haunted Arkadin simply forget who he is or where he's been? Or is he seeking his own Rosebud--a crucial, lost thing from his life that can serve (if identified) as a mythic key to former happiness? The film, a European coproduction, was made under the typically difficult and extended conditions Welles had to navigate after leaving Hollywood, and the bumpiness shows. But the entire project is really an act of Wellesian deconstruction--it's Welles making a film about the kind of film Orson Welles previously made--and that approach is more electrifying than one might imagine. The editing in this film, for instance, is not quite like in any of Welles's other works, with bursts of linear action literally disappearing between frames, as if the fabric of reality itself was vanishing. As far as the titan Arkadin is concerned, it might as well be. --Tom Keogh
Will the "real" Mr. Arkadin please stand up? Probably not. However, thanks to the folks at the Criterion Collection, we may now have a version of Mr. Arkadin that is as close as it's going to get to Orson Welles's original vision. Part Citizen Kane, part The Third Man, Mr. Arkadin is another Wellesian Post-War Noir tale about the unraveling of the defining secret of a powerful and wealthy tycoon. Welles plays the ruthless financier Mr. Arkadin who hires small time smuggler Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) to investigate the amnesiac Arkadin's lost past and create a confidential report of his findings. Did the mysterious and elusive Mr. Arkadin simply want his criminal past uncovered? Or is his motive to erase a key missing piece of his past? As many fans know, the story of Mr. Arkadin's post-production and ascertaining which of the many versions is the most "Wellesian" is almost as mysterious as Guy Van Stratten's search for Gregory Arkadin's identity. Since the film is unfinished it does have an incomplete feel to it. For instance, it is very choppy with a few awkward jump cuts, there are lots of annoying overdubs that are not cleanly matched, the supporting cast is fairly weak and some scenes clearly needed to be reshot. However, the gems of the films are so precious, such as Welles's picturesque shots, unique camera angles, flashback story telling, and intricate plot, it's easy to overlook the shortcomings and classify Mr. Arkadin as essential Orson Welles.
Mr. Arkadin may have been written, directed and starred Orson Welles, but it sure wasn't edited by him. So the story goes, since it took Welles too long to complete the editing process, producer Louis Dolivet banned him from the editing room and never allowed Orson to get the final cut. Welles, who was known to say "All of the eloquence of my film is created in the editing room" disowned the film claiming it was the most butchered of all his works. There were many cuts made of the Mr. Arkadin film stock over the years, none of which are considered "definitive", all of which contain pieces to the overall puzzle. Fueled by their passion for film, along comes the Criterion Collection. Their mission, to take all the pieces of Mr. Arkadin's troubled past (the best available versions of the films, documented timelines, a reprinted version of the novel, scholarly documentaries and feature length commentaries), compile it and present it to fans in one incredibly comprehensive set letting them decide which is the real Arkadin. The Complete Mr. Arkadin (A.K.A. Confidential Report) includes digitally restored transfers of the two well known versions of the film (the flashback "Corinth" (99 minutes) version and the notorious linear "Confidential Report" (98 minutes)). In addition, there is a newly edited "comprehensive" version (105 minutes) pieced together by top Welles scholars who have an intimate understanding of his style, his creative direction, and thought process in the editing room. This new "comprehensive" version is the crown jewel of the set and without a doubt the best version of Mr. Arkadin ever released. While no one will ever know what Welles intended, you can?t help but feel this comprehensive version has got to be pretty darn close. Inevitably, purists may feel this is another instance of someone mucking with Welles's film stock, but in all honesty, the end result is stunning. So who is the real Mr. Arkadin? No one may ever know, but with the help of this set you have all you need to piece together the puzzle and draw your own conclusion. Enjoy. --Rob Bracco