Filming Othello (Orson Welles, 1978)

Coming at the end of Welles' career – indeed, only a few years from the end of his life – this film is a sometimes beautiful tightrope walk suspended above a territory composed of what is brilliant about Welles and what is tedious; except that what is tedious can also be fascinating, and what is brilliant can also become tedious. Certainly, Welles is partial to the sound of his own voice (which by this point has exchanged some of its resonance for gravel, without losing its musicality), but he also dramatizes – and thereby examines – this partiality. The conversation with Michaél MacLiammóir and Hilton Edwards balances delicately between actorly pomposity and refreshing insight, and in the question and answer session with a Boston audience it is both striking and moving that Welles genuinely attempts to answer the questions that are put to him.