Totally Orson: Mark Cousins on how Orson Welles and other movie icons continue to inspire his life and work

THEY say to never judge a book by its cover: however, Dear Orson Welles (and other essays) written by Co Antrim raised film-maker Mark Cousins appears to be an exception to the rule.

“I think the cover is definitely saying something about what’s to be found within,” laughs Mark.

“Some people when they haven’t met me expect somebody quite tweedy and academic but when you’ve got a book where you’re lying in a slightly sleepy/dreamy, quite camp state I feel like that’s a much more accurate representation.”

Published by The Irish Pages Press, this latest literary offering from the mind behind the acclaimed 2011 documentary, The Story of Film: An Odyssey, takes a look back through Mark’s prolific career in filmmaking, reflecting on his rise to success and those who inspired him - including the titular Orson Welles.

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“When I was eight, I watched an Orson Welles film called Touch of Evil on TV, and I can see now it’s about racism and misogyny - but back then I just saw it as this dark, fascinating labyrinth which I just got lost in it,” explains Mark, lifting a large black boot out of his bag, which he says used to belong to the influential film-maker.

“You can touch it if you want,” he laughs.

“I carry it with me as a talisman. When I entered the Orson world it was through his daughter, and I got to know her very well, but it was because I bought this boot on eBay and it came from her.”

Similar to Welles, Mark is best known for his innovative approach to filmmaking, having produced over 24 feature-length films and 30 shorts.

“Typically, filmmaking for me is going out in a city, either on my own or with actors, and just filming what I see.

“And when I put my camera down and press record, you hold your breath – sports people talk about ‘the zone’ - I feel like I’m in the zone and the rest of the world disappears. It’s a magical feeling, I’m addicted to it.”

However, although this is his fifth foray into the world of writing, he admits that it isn’t something he feels comes naturally to him.

“If you’re not a natural word person - and at the beginning of this book I say that I’m not - then writing something like Dear Orson Welles is more of an effort.

“It’s not my natural mode. To do a book like this I have to push my brain harder. It’s not relaxing, it feels like I’m drawing buckets of water up from a well and I’m exhausted after writing – it’s a very different creative process.”

Compared to the epic visuals that have defined much of Mark’s career the book stands as a direct contrast, instead offering more personal “moments of introspection”.

“I did a book and film called The Story of Looking - looking has been a theme throughout all my work. Any time I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps, I just jump on a double-decker bus and go people watching,” he explains.

“I’ve always been delighted by the fact I can use my eyes to get out of myself, but writing a book like this is more about getting into yourself. It’s the opposite mechanism, but I have completely loved it.

“Rebecca West said ‘I write to work out what I think’ and that’s what happens: for example, in the book there’s any essay about Nicole Kidman – only by writing about Nicole Kidman did I work out what I think about Nicole Kidman.

“Only by writing about Channing Tatum do I work out what I think about him and his anti-macho message and gentle masculinity, and it was a real pleasure to have the time and space to do that.”

In addition to writing and film-making, Mark has also dabbled in presenting, most notably hosting BBC’s cult film series Moviedrome and interview-based show Scene by Scene, which enabled him to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in cinema, from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Lauren Bacall, to Jane Russell, Janet Leigh, Jane Fonda and Rod Steiger - some of whom he credits as being significantly influential to his career in Dear Orson Welles.

“When I first started meeting big movie stars, it was for the BBC when I did Scene by Scene. I got to choose who I met and all the stars I chose were quite old and they influenced me a lot because they had been through life’s ups and downs.

“All these older movie stars had had some sort of existential crisis and that’s what I learnt from them – obviously, I learnt about cinema from them a bit, but what I really learnt was how to survive the ups and downs of life.”

In particular Mark recalls having dinner with 1960s American movie star Rod Steiger and his wife as being a particularly poignant moment in his early career.

“Rod and his wife came to Edinburgh, where I now live, and we went to into a lovely restaurant and he spent ages ordering the wine.

“When I order wine, I either go for the first or second cheapest but his finger went down and down and he got to the bottom and ordered a really expensive bottle of wine and when it came over he said ‘no only one glass’ - he and his wife didn’t drink, but they wanted me to have beautiful wine.

“In that story there’s so much, it’s about a man’s pleasure that he can no longer have because he was an alcoholic, but it’s also about generosity – you learn a lot from people like that.”

“It was similar to the time I stayed with Jane Fonda. When I got to her house I’d flown in from Japan and I was knackered, and the first thing she said was ‘are you hungry?’.

“I said yes and she said ‘let’s make guacamole’, and that was my first experience with her. And she asked me about me - she’s so interested in other people.”

Mark hopes that he has inherited this trait during the course of his career and that Dear Orson Welles will help to inspire the next generation of cinephiles and film-makers.

“When I was coming up, there was a book called The Story of Art by EH Gombrich which was written in a super accessible way, and that’s what I want for this book. I want anyone, but especially young people who are falling in love with cinema, to have something that will really draw them in.

“I write about the best advice I was ever given in my letter to Orson in the book, and it’s ‘try to show that which without you might never have been seen’, which basically means show people something they’ve never seen before - and that can be applied to any walk of life, not just film.”

Although the collection of essays within Dear Orson Welles predominantly focus on Mark’s love of cinema and film, it also in part feels like a love letter to his old home city of Belfast as he reflects on his childhood growing up in this “intense place.”

“There was a while when I left and the Troubles were still on, I didn’t re-engage for a long time - I wanted to escape.

“But then I started reconnecting when I got involved with the Belfast Film Festival and I made my film I Am Belfast that was a real reconnection, and then through this book and working with Irish Pages is another.

“As you get older you reflect differently on your home patch, so I feel that there’s no way I can escape what Belfast is for me or what it means emotionally, so the release of this book definitely feels like a homecoming.”

Dear Orson Welles (and other essays) is available now, published by The Irish Pages Press. For more information see irishpages.org.