Simon Callow

Vol. 1 traces Welles's portentous childhood; his youth in New York, where he worked with director John Houseman; his notorious radio career; and the making of Citizen Kane. Vol. 2 continues by examining the years from Citizen Kane (1941) to Macbeth (1948). It also looks beyond Welles' Hollywood movie career to his work on radio and the stage during that same period. Vol. 3 reveals what it was like to be in Welles's intimate circle. It opens with Welles's...

Publisher Annotation: Simon Callow, the celebrated author of Orson Welles, delivers a dazzling, swift, and accessible biography of the musical titan Richard Wagner and his profoundly problematic legacy--a fresh take for seasoned acolytes and the perfect introduction for new fans. (Original), 256pp. Richard Wagner's music dramas have never been more popular or more divisive. His ten masterpieces, created against the backdrop of a continent in severe...

The second volume of Callow's definitive biography of Orson Welles examines the years from Citizen Kane to Macbeth in which Welles's Hollywood film career came apart. Callow's scrupulous analysis reveals the immense and self-defeating complexities of Welles's temperament.

Dominating the landscape for centuries, ancient cathedrals and abbeys reflect Britain's turbulent history through their architectural grandeur. The film explores cathedrals and abbeys found throughout England and Wales, featuring interviews with historians and experts and breathtaking footage filming their legendary facades and soaring interior spaces.

In the early 1940s, director Orson Welles navigates his meteoric Hollywood rise. As WWII begins, a Japanese American boy visits abroad, and an African American soldier enlists in the army. As the story heads towards 1947, each character follows their own ambitions in search of their American identity.

Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine, and Rod Steiger star in this adaptation of the Carson McCullers novella. Merchant Ivory veteran Simon Callow's only turn as a director is a twisted Southern Gothic dark comedy set in a rural town in the deep South. Redgrave plays Miss Amelia, the eccentric proprietor of the town's only café and, more importantly to her grip on the townsfolk, the owner of a secret moonshine still. Her domineering hold on the town...

Deep in the passageways below the Paris Opera lives a lonely, talented, horribly disfigured man who revels in terrorizing the theater's employees as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. But when the masked Phantom sees young Christine Daaé, his heart melts. He secretly trains her, transforms her into a star ... and loves her. But when she cannot return his affection, as her heart already belongs to another, all the pain that the Phantom has held within is revealed...

A precious jewel known as The Wolvercote tongue is missing and its owner has been found dead in a hotel room. Morse suspects foul play, despite the pathologist's report that she died of a heart attack.

The final Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, is tasked with overseeing the transition of British India to independence, but meets with conflict as different sides clash in the face of monumental change.