THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SHADOW:
A NEW LOOK AT ORSON WELLES
A 12-WEEK ONLINE FILM STUDIES COURSE
(Autumn, 2024)
PRESENTED BY MATTHEW ASPREY GEAR
This original 12-week online film studies course, delivered via the Google Meet platform, is designed for new and old Orson Welles fans. We’re going to have a lot of fun as we dive deeply into the work of one of the 20th century’s greatest filmmakers.
The lectures cover the key Welles masterpieces — Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, and Chimes at Midnight — but will also explore some of the lesser-known films and TV programs, including many works that have appeared posthumously (and many unproduced screenplays that have never been published). I’m also eager to share the discoveries I’ve made in the Orson Welles archives in Turin, Munich, Michigan, and Indiana while researching my book At the End of the Street in the Shadow: Orson Welles and the City (Columbia University Press, 2016) and other publications.
Each week I’ll give an original fifty-minute lecture presentation on a set film and topic and then lead an in-depth group discussion. All students will have a chance to contribute. The only weekly homework will be to watch a film (or two) in preparation for the session. There will be no final exam or essay. This course is designed for enjoyment and discovery. All are welcome.
The group will be limited to a maximum of 12 participants.
Weekly session: Sundays at 9am PT/12pm ET [North America] (which is 5pm UK time/6pm CET).
Price per student: US$160 (or £125). Please email me at matthewaspreygear@gmail.com to book your place in the course.
LECTURE PLAN
September 1
Lecture 1: Introduction – The Myths and the Man
Movie: MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE AND WORK OF ORSON WELLES (documentary, 2014)
A: WELLES’S STYLE AND METHODS
September 8
Lecture 2: Orson and Film Noir
Movie: THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947)
September 15
Lecture 3: Inventing Independent Film
Movies: FILMING OTHELLO (1978); ORSON WELLES: ONE-MAN BAND (documentary, 1995)
* ONE WEEK BREAK *
September 29
Lecture 4: The Essay Film
Movie: F FOR FAKE (1973); IT’S ALL TRUE: BASED ON AN UNFINISHED FILM BY ORSON WELLES (documentary, 1993)
October 6
Lecture 5: Return to Hollywood
Movie: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (1970-76/2018)
B: WELLES’S WORLD
October 13
Lecture 6: Orson’s 19th Century: Dinesen, Conrad, Melville, and Stevenson
Movie: THE IMMORTAL STORY (1968); Screenplay reading: THE DREAMERS (c. 1979)
October 20
Lecture 7: Orson Across Europe
Movie: MR. ARKADIN (1955); Radio show: THE DEAD CANDIDATE [The Adventures of Harry Lime] (1952)
October 27
Lecture 8: Orson’s Spain
Movies: AROUND THE WORLD WITH ORSON WELLES: PAYS BASQUE I (TV episode, 1955); IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE: TEMPO DI FLAMENCO (TV episode, 1964)
C: WELLES AND LITERATURE
November 3
Lecture 9: Adaptation
Movie: THE TRIAL (1962)
November 10
Lecture 10: Shakespeare
Movie: CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1965)
* ONE WEEK BREAK *
D: WELLES AND AMERICA
November 24
Lecture 11: Power in the Streets
Movie: TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)
December 1
Lecture 12: The Post-Lincoln Republic
Movie: THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942) and CITIZEN KANE (1941)
*
PAST STUDENT COMMENTS
“The Orson Welles online course The Other Side of the Shadow by Matthew Asprey Gear offers an inspiring overview of the work, inspiration, and drives of a world-class filmmaker whose relevance is often reduced to a few early-career masterpieces. I can only recommend it!”
– Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director, European Film Academy
“Matthew is an excellent researcher and lecturer. He put Welles and his films into a fascinating historical context that has greatly enhanced my viewing experience.”
– Charles
“The class was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the lesser known details of Welles’s career and to discourse over his films with like-minded enthusiasts!”
– Tyler, Chicago
“Matthew is very generous in sharing the fruits of the deep archival research he has done on Orson Welles. His expertise about his subject is plain to see and his thorough command of knowledge about Welles reaches well beyond the man’s work as a filmmaker to the many other media he worked in (theatre, television, radio, etc.). Matthew’s lectures are deeply informative and visually interesting. He is particularly good at drawing hidden thematic and historical connections between seemingly disparate projects in Welles’s work, helping to reveal the kernels of new ways to think about Welles as an artist. He is a great facilitator of the conversation portion of the class, helping to keep the conversation lively and guiding us toward stimulating subjects.”
– Jesse
“Matthew Asprey Gear’s 12-week course was an opportunity to have an expert guide lead me through both familiar and obscure corners of Welles’s work. The format was an inviting way for both Welles neophytes and old Wellesians to join in a learning community and explore the unendingly fascinating films and life of a great artist.”
– Josh, Texas
“It’s Terrific! Matthew Asprey Gear brings a wealth of Orson Welles research from firsthand sources and illuminates even the most ardent Welles fans. Come for the informative deep-dive lectures and stay for the lively discussions about Welles’ s many noses, wigs, cheap sets, and bad accents — and of course, the undeniable genius present in most of his films.”
– Christian, Fort Lauderdale
“I highly recommend Matthew’s online Orson Welles course, for both beginners and seasoned Wellesians. The course brings new perspectives and insights to Welles’ extraordinary career.”
– Ronan, Galway
“There was a sense of discovery even for someone who’s been interested in Orson Welles for more than a decade. A carefully planned structure made the course very intriguing.”
–Petri, Finland
“If you are an old Welles fan it is certainly a great opportunity to review and discuss his work and expand your knowledge on unrealized projects, screenplays, literary influences and the diverse facets of his life and work. If you are new to Orson Welles… lucky you! You will be in the right place to have a great overview of his extraordinary work that is certainly not limited to Citizen Kane. In both cases, fun and enjoyment are guaranteed!”
“It was like knocking at the door where Orson is sleeping and wake him up with sweets and going down in the garden with the dog for a walk each Monday. Sometimes we talk sometimes we just walk, and it’s great the same.”
– Emiliano, Rome
“Incomplete projects and hired-gun work in Welles’ filmography have usually worked against his reputation. But Welles scholars and aficionados, Matthew Asprey Gear among them, find in those inexhaustible plans, projects, and versions-of-projects, an artistic strength. If the truism is true that artworks are never completed, only abandoned, then Welles more than most artists gives us a rare chance to engage living projects as something more than a passive viewer. At least this is true of “The Magnificent Ambersons” or “Mr. Arkadin” or “Other Side of the Wind” – and of course Welles has just as many “traditionally completed” films as “Kane”, “Chimes at Midnight”, “The Trial”, etc. (Somewhere in between lay “F For Fake”, a finished film definitively about incompletion and fragmented points of view!) In any case, Matthew Asprey Gear’s class offers a robust survey of the completed and the uncompleted in Welles’ oeuvre, using the former to better understand the latter; and offering details from the archives at Michigan and Indiana and Munich one normally wouldn’t be able to come by (for instance, the weekly “unproduced screenplay of the week” feature). Highly recommended!”
– Marc, San Francisco
NEW LIGHT ON THE OLD CITY: 
MATTHEW ASPREY GEAR 
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