Details
Movie Description
A dying man's final words send two people to Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles), a mysterious and much-feared billionaire who lives on a Xanadu-like castle. In Welles's noirish MR. ARKADIN, Robert Arden stars as Guy Van Stratten, an adventurer and fortune hunter who is interested in Arkadin's money--and his daughter, Raina (Paolo Mori). Arkadin, overprotective of his daughter, has his "secretaries" prepare a damaging dossier on Van Stratten--entitled "Confidential Report." But Arkadin then makes a deal with Van Stratten--he will pay the young man for preparing a similar file on him, for Mr. Arkadin says he remembers nothing about his past and does not know where he came from. Even his name is a mystery. Van Stratten's search for the truth about Arkadin's past--which takes him throughout Europe and to Mexico and features encounters with a variety of fabulously colorful characters--is highly reminiscent of Thompson's search for Rosebud in CITIZEN KANE.
Shot in black and white, filled with elegant, cosmopolitan party scenes, and extraordinary close-ups, MR. ARKADIN is a visually stunning film. The camera angles and movement, the exotic sets, the playful music, and the quick cuts--as well as the extremely entertaining and metaphorical stories that Arkadin tells--all help make MR. ARKADIN a sublime treat.
Synopsis
Gregory Arkadin, a wealthy but merciless businessman, needs to search through his past. Now he has one goal: to trace the identities and whereabouts of those who know the truth about his life--before someone divulges these sordid secrets to his daughter.
Industry Reviews
"MR. ARKADIN remains a strange, magpie movie, assembled from elements lifted from past films Welles had worked on or been near."
New York Times - Dave Kehr (04/18/2006)
"Orson Welles's globe-trotting 1955 thriller is one of his most peculiar, and hence representative creations..."
Premiere - Glenn Kenny (05/01/2006)
Quotations
"'It's my character.'"--Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles) relating the famous story of the scorpion and the frog
"I do not know who I am."--Arkadin to Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden)
"A fool is a man who pays twice...for the same thing."--Arkadin to Baroness Nagel (Suzanne Flon)
"Perhaps a man like you can't realize what it is to have a conscience and no memory at all. You imagine it pleasant to be ashamed of something you can't even remember?"--Arkadin to Van Stratten
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