Around the World with Orson Welles (Pays Basque I + Pays Basque II)

Series of 6 chapters (the seventh is incomplete) made by Orson Welles in 1955 for British Television during his tour of Europe and which premiered in the Atlantic Pyrenees with its first two episodes.

Basque Country I (The Basque Country): Documentary on the Basque Country, its people, customs and history. The author aims to bring the spirit of the Basque people closer through their life, jobs, games and special idiosyncrasy. A long interview with the wife of his friend and writer, Charles Wertenbaker, who had settled in Ziburu, acts as the driving thread.

Basque Country II (Basque Pelota): This second chapter focuses on the pelota game, the different types and its importance on Basque society. The surprise and admiration for a woman who dances endlessly, the essence of the yoko-garbi game, the mystery of an ancient language, the problems of smuggling and pigeon hunting using nets, among other things, left the author of Citizen Kane gobsmacked.

ORSON WELLES
(Wisconsin 1915 – California, 1985)

He was an actor, director, scriptwriter and producer. He worked in film, theatre and television. In 2002, he was named Best Director in the History of Film by the British Film Institute. His first success came at the age of twenty-three with the historic retransmission of War of the Worlds, where he recreated an extra-terrestrial invasion, moving the United States so much that the RKO Studios opened their doors to let him film Citizen Kane, his most famous film. In the 1940’s, McCarthyism forced him into exile in Europe, accused of being communist.  He worked there as an actor to fund his productions before returning to Hollywood at the end of the 1950’s.

Filmography:

Too Much Johnson (1938)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
It's all true (1942)
Tanks (1942)
The Stranger (1945)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Macbeth (1947)
Otelo (1952)
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
The Land of the Basques (1955)
Moonraker (1956)
Touch of Evil (1957)
El proceso (1962)
Falstaff / Chimes at Midnight (1965)
The Deep (1967)
The immortal story (1968)
Don Quixote (1969)
Al otro lado del viento (1970)
F for Fake (1973)
Filming Othello (1978)