The Hearts of Age

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Audience Member Let me start by pointing out that I do enjoy art films that are truly well-done. Mostly they are pretentious self-indulgent crap. Welles claimed this to be a satire of early avant garde films of the likes of Bunuel, but it strikes me as the pretentious self-indulgent crap that a 19-year-old might create because he found the style fascinating, but didn't yet really understand what factors made quality expressionistic films good. I've seen some talk online that this film proves that when Welles made Citizen Kane, he wasn't quite as unskilled as he claimed to be. Personally, I don't see that at all. Spending a few hours creating a nonsensical film with dad's home movie camera doesn't seem to me to be enough experience to make one into a master filmmaker. Long story short, The Hearts of Age features a few interesting images that doesn't add up to much; it's just a young man experimenting a little, and probably learning something. Welles seems to have been embarrassed that it survived to be seen by anyone who wasn't involved in making it. I would only give it 1 1/2 out of 5 stars except that it *is* a production by an embryonic future master, and that it's kind of fun to try to put the image of the extravagantly made-up character onscreen together with the image in my head of the real Welles. Sometimes I could see it when he made a certain facial expression, but if I hadn't already known that that was Welles onscreen, I don't think I would have recognized him. An extra 1/2 star for those reasons, for a total of 2 out of 5 stars. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A messy and turbulent short debut by the legendary Orson Welles. Not a must see definitely. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member Orson Welles' experimental surrealistic first film is an interesting picture of things to come. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member I don't really know if this short belongs on what is supposed to be an application with real movies to review, but since it is here, I'll give my two cents. The Hearts of Age seems to be a young Orson Welles playing around with cinematography in the form of parody. It's not really a real film, but it remains visually interesting. It's especially interesting to see young Orson using an up-angled shot with an off-kilter horizon; a cinematic touch he would later become known for. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Pur non avendone capito il senso, affascinante! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Early Welles, with some blooming indications of genius in the film's lyricism. However, I couldn't tell at the time if it was surrealism or just damned confusing. I have since learned it was Welles making fun of surrealism, which explains the silliness. The blackface is most regrettable. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Hearts of Age

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