My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

Toward the end of his life, Orson Welles (1915–85) enjoyed an unlikely friendship with independent filmmaker Henry Jaglom. Editor Biskind (Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film) collects long-lost tapes of Welles and Jaglom's conversations over lunch at Hollywood's Ma Maison restaurant. The wide-ranging talks cover Welles's reflections on food, politics, religion, and his many unrealized projects. The book clearly reflects the man's wit, disdain for the Hollywood studio system, and what one admirer called his "crushing ego." Among the many Hollywood legends Welles disparages here are Charlie Chaplin, Elia Kazan, Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Laurence Olivier, Alfred Hitchcock, Humphrey Bogart, actor-producer John Houseman, and MGM producer Irving Thalberg and his wife, actress Norma Shearer. Some of the people Welles admires include his frequent costar Joseph Cotten, Carole Lombard, Erich von Stroheim, Buster Keaton, and Welles's ex-wife Rita Hayworth.