Family matters.

The Magnificent Ambersons  (Orson Welles, 1942)

When I hear or read the name Orson Welles, it transports me to that semester where we had a short course on basic photography where the principle of rule-of-thirds became the most overused term. Everybody was so caught up with it that our professor ends up with all submitted photographs smudged with rule-of thirds self-consciousness you can almost smell it. During one of the introductory sessions, our prof let us watch Welles’ Citizen Kane as an immortal example of how brilliant photography works; though it’s kind of weird to start with the film medium and I doubt if my disinterested classmates would even remember Welles’ name. Unfortunately, and due to my ‘untapped’ passion towards the cinema then, much as I try to relive that film in my memory I totally forgot what Kane was all about.

Then I would later learn that Citizen Kane would end up as the THE greatest film of all time in numerous film circle surveys both highly-acknowledged and those that are spread www. The Magnificent Ambersons, on the other hand, is less popular and considered by some as a ‘great lost film’. It was probably due to fact that there were controversies surrounding the release of the film – reportedly it was cut down to a considerable length by the film distributor. Of course, every sane director would go nuts if commercialistic meddlers hack their way into a film’s production.

Magnificence is not only seen in the grace of the camera but how much Welles achieve in tackling a subject matter which in that period of America may not be the popular cup of tea that would normally end up in a jovial tête-à-tête. It is both a testament to time and change but more importantly it is a great examination of the complexities of family life, the inexplicable connection and its effects on our external relationships. Most likely we are tempted to refer to the Greek myth of Oedipus or to my memory a rather similar filmic version of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers.

This is manifest in the mother-and-son tandem of George and Isabel –George (Tim Holt) being the spoiled grown-up that he is and Isabel (Dolores Costello), somewhat frustrated wife who pours out her love and affection to her son. A close relative, Aunt Fanny is also a spoiler. The tension mounts when George learns the impending marriage of her mother to Eugene (Joseph Cotton), an automobile dealer who has a daughter (the lovely Ann Baxter) whom George will have the time to flirt about. But as the dynamics of their relationship, George and Isabel would end up with either of daughter and father: Isabel, mired in her own insecurities and George, well, as spoilt as he is stagnates in his self-importance.

The magnificence of the Ambersons would soon diminish. After their trip around the world, which is supposed to cover up the truth of their long absence, they found that much of the place has changed (seeming to suggest the era of industrial revolution). Here we see a very significant contrast –their self-absorbed world as opposed to the prevailing progress, which they have not bear witness. There’s a certain quality of nostalgia in everything even in Welles’ voice filled with longing and passion who turns out to be the narrator who opens and ends the film.