World Cinema Saturdays

To watch UCSD-TV movies, tune in to your local cable station Saturday evenings from 4pm to midnight.

Orson Welles once remarked, “They’ll love me when I’m gone.” An outsider to the studio system which dominated American filmmaking, Orson Welles never condescended to play by Hollywood's rules, and consequently his arduous forty-year career was pocked with moments of brilliance, excess and waste, as well as two decades of European exile. Nevertheless, when asked late in life if it was all worth it Welles replied, "It is when it works." Welles emerged as the quintessential “filmmaker’s filmmaker,” as evidenced by Jean-Luc Godard’s contention that CITIZEN KANE inspired more careers in cinema than any other movie.

This Saturday (12/16/2023): ORSON WELLES

4:00 PM
The Stranger

Wilson of the War Crimes Commission is seeking Franz Kindler, mastermind of the Holocaust, who has effectively erased his identity. Wilson's search takes him to a small town in Connecticut. (USA, 1946, B&W, 95 mins, dir. Orsen Welles, with Edward G. Robinson, and Loretta Young)

5:35 PM
The Trial

Orson Welles' screen adaptation of the novel by Franz Kafka. Josef K. wakes up in the morning and finds the police in his room. They tell him that he is on trial but nobody tells him what he is accused of. In order to find out about the reason of this accusation and to protest his innocence, he tries to look behind the facade of the judicial system. But since this remains fruitless, there seems to be no chance for him to escape from this nightmare. (USA, 1962, B&W, 118 mins, dir. Orson Welles, with Anthony Perkins & Jeanne Moreau)

7:35 PM
Mr. Arkadin

An American adventurer investigates the past of mysterious tycoon Arkadin, placing himself in grave danger. (Spain-France, 1955, B&W, 98 mins, dir. Orson Welles, with Orson Welles, Michael Redgrave, Patricia Medina)

9:15 PM
Magician - The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles

A look at the life and work of the great theatre, radio and film artist.

11:30 PM
Chess Fever

With an international chess tournament in progress, a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. (Russia, 1925, B&W, 28mins, dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin & Nikolai Shpikovsky, with Vladimir Fogel & José Raúl Capablanca)