Mr. Arkadin

Mr. Arkadin
1955
Directed By Orson Welles



SYNOPSIS

A blackmailer (Robert Arden) wants to get the riches of the wealthy Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles.) He decides to romance his daughter (Paola Mori) but instead falls in love with her. Arkadin finds out about his blackmail scheme and hires him for a job. Arkadin doesn't remember anything that happened to him before 1927 and now the blackmailer must travel all over the world to find out what happened prior to that time.




MY THOUGHTS

Orson Welles is generally considered a film-making genius... Mr. Arkadin proves him to be a mad one.

The film is bizarre, chock full of unique and interesting camera angles, lighting, and a non-linear storyline.
The lighting and the camera angles are so severe at times that they draw attention to themselves. At times, I was drawn away from the narrative so badly that I missed chunks of dialogue which left the film even more confusing.

Arkadin jumps around in time and never lets the audience in on where or when the story is which adds to the confusion.
A typical film would have an establishing shot of a building or location at the start of the scene. Instead, we jump right into the middle of the scene mid-sentence, unsure of what's happening. I'm unsure why Welles would do this, other than to say he's being different. One of the cardinal rules of directing should be "Don't lose your audience." This is violated nearly every 10 minutes.

Many of the supporting performances are so laughably ridiculous and over-the-top they derail any seriousness that Welles may have been attempting.
This is mainly the men and women the blackmailer seeks out when looking for clues to Arkadin's past. One horribly bad performance after another.

There are several different versions of the film and I'm not entirely certain which one this was, but the sound and picture quality was terrible.

If you're looking for a film on the same level as Welles' Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, or the Magnificent Ambersons... look elsewhere. This is made by the same man, but not clearly the same master.