Editing Orson Welles (section)

=== ''Macbeth'' ===
{{Main|Macbeth (1948 film)}}
[[File:Orson Welles as Macbeth.jpg|thumb|Welles and [[Jeanette Nolan]] in ''Macbeth'']]
Prior to 1948, Welles convinced [[Republic Pictures]] to let him direct a [[Macbeth (1948 film)|low-budget version]] of ''[[Macbeth]]'', featuring highly stylized sets and costumes, and a cast of actors lip-syncing to a pre-recorded soundtrack, one of many innovative cost-cutting techniques Welles deployed in an attempt to make an epic film from [[B-movie]] resources. The script, adapted by Welles, is a violent reworking of Shakespeare's original, freely cutting and pasting lines into new contexts via a [[collage]] technique and recasting ''Macbeth'' as a clash of pagan and proto-Christian ideologies. Some voodoo trappings of the famous [[Voodoo Macbeth|Welles/Houseman Negro Theatre stage adaptation]] are visible, especially in the film's characterization of the [[Weird Sisters]], who create an effigy of Macbeth as a charm to enchant him. Of all Welles's post-''Kane'' Hollywood productions, ''Macbeth'' is stylistically closest to ''Kane'' in its long takes and deep focus photography.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work but decided it did not care for the Scottish accents and held up general release for a year after early negative press reaction, including ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]''{{'}}s comment that Welles's film "doth foully slaughter Shakespeare."<ref>{{cite web|title=Orson Welles doth foully slaughter Shakespeare in a dialect version of his "Tragedy of Macbeth"—or so sayeth Life magazine|url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=729|work=Wellesnet|access-date=September 1, 2011|date=June 19, 2009|archive-date=January 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107192608/http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=729|url-status=live}}</ref> Welles left for Europe, while co-producer and lifelong supporter [[Richard Wilson (producer)|Richard Wilson]] reworked the soundtrack. Welles returned and cut 20 minutes from the film at Republic's request and recorded narration to cover gaps. The film was decried as a disaster. ''Macbeth'' had influential fans in Europe, especially the French poet and filmmaker [[Jean Cocteau]], who hailed the film's "crude, irreverent power" and careful shot design, and described the characters as haunting "the corridors of some dreamlike subway, an abandoned coal mine, and ruined cellars oozing with water."<ref>{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Tony|title=Macbeth|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/cteq/macbeth-2/|work=[[Senses of Cinema]]|access-date=September 1, 2011|date=February 6, 2006|archive-date=January 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114135546/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/cteq/macbeth-2/|url-status=live}}</ref>