Cornerstone of 20th-century American and European cinema^e In the 20th century, Orson Welles was both a revered master for generations of film lovers and a unique artist, as much sacred as cursed, with multiple, extensively documented, and sometimes legendary lives. A monument who certainly deserved an exhibition all his own. A tribute paid by the Cinémathèque française.

He was a movie star. The director of one of the greatest films of all time. A master of magic. A master of Irish theater. A lover of Shakespeare. A brilliant amateur draftsman. An advertising icon. A bullfighting enthusiast. A radio personality who terrified America. He was the husband of Rita Hayworth and the devoted friend of Jeanne Moreau. He was seen on the streets of Seville presenting himself as a crime novelist, and on those of Dublin inventing his legend. His voice was heard on a heavy metal album. He was spotted, obese and magnificent, smoking a cigar in the back of a limousine outside the Ritz or in a mule-drawn caravan in the poor villages of 1930s Ireland. He died before reaching the age of the characters he played at twenty. 

Citizen Wells

A thousand lives wouldn't suffice to summarize that of Orson Welles (1915-1985). Yet, the Cinémathèque française has taken on the challenge of recounting the extraordinary life of this unique genius in the history of cinema by dedicating an exhibition to him in his own right. Both chronological and thematic, "My Name is Orson Welles" (which is accompanied by a major retrospective) is as playful as it is varied, reflecting the immense body of work, inseparable from the personality of the man who delighted in turning his life into a legend. Through documents and archives, we discover a handsome young man to whom destiny rolled out the red carpet. Accepted on a scholarship to Harvard, he preferred to live the bohemian life and embarked on his grand tour of Europe. Upon his return to the United States, as part of a federal post-World War II stimulus project, he mounted, at the age of 21, a massive production of Macbeth, performed in Harlem with an African-American cast and an unlimited budget. Despite his young age, he is already a Shakespeare scholar: at 19, he published several books on the Bard of Avon with his mentor Roger Hill, and he trained at Dublin's Gate Theatre, obtaining roles in Richard III et Hamlet, after passing himself off as a famous New York comedian to the troupe's directors. « I was born to play kings. » he would say later. On stage, he was made up and aged, and never had middle age suited a cherubic face so well. In 1938, he was 23 years old when he made the front page of New York Times disguised as a proud, bearded old man. That year, he terrified America by telling his story on CBS radio. War of the Worlds, a novel by his near-namesake H.G. Wells. The screaming sirens of Hollywood did not fail to call upon this radio and theatre icon, and at 25, there he was at the helm of a film with outsized ambitions that would soon be considered the "greatest film of all time": Citizen Kane. 

And then, as often happens with those to whom everything comes too soon, comes the fall. But a magnificent and extraordinary fall. Despite conflicts with the studios, the good Orson would still offer film lovers timeless classics like The Lady from Shanghai and, later, The Thirst for EvilBut it's also about exile in Europe, iconic roles as an actor (including one of the finest appearances in film history in The Third Man by Carol Reed), Shakespearean odysseys (Macbeth et Othello) and other masterpieces more radical than those in America (The trial et Truths and LiesFinally, this is the era of unfinished projects, which number in the dozens, and of the construction of a pop persona, Orson Welles, this bearded and chubby genius, not very different from the one we glimpsed on the cover of the New York Times Thirty years earlier, and which invaded the advertising space. Orson Welles is all of that, and much more. A thousand lives in one, recounted by the Cinémathèque française in a rich, fascinating, and entertaining exhibition. Just like Orson Welles himself.