Orson Welles and bullfighting in Ronda

'I think I have a right to speak about bullfighting, because I was, for a while, I don't quite know why, but I was, an aspiring bullfighter.'

Orson Welles in 1955

In ' Around the world with Orson Welles', Orson is directing himself, with usual flamboyance and visual flair. This masterpiece of journalism evokes subjects as :'The Bask Country', and 'Bullfights in Spain' Its style surely was an inspiration for the recent and critically acclaimed travel documentaries done by Michael Palin, for example the six episodes document about the life of Hemingway.

Shooting the episode about bullfighting ,Welles meets various famous toreros of that age and comments:I think I have a right to speak about bullfighting, because I was, for a while, I don't quite know why, but I was, an aspiring bullfighter. For me a bullfighter is an actor facing real things. I spent a good deal of time around the ranches where fighting bulls are raised. But don't be worried, you don't have to approve of bullfights, I don't ask you to, and I certainly wouldn't dream of defending the spectacle. I, was personally fascinated by the spectacle as a 'whole' but whatever your attitude may be, remember that you can plug for the bull and there will be no hard feelings about it.

Welles becomes very personal friends with Antonio Ordoñez, assisting the legendary 'Goyescas' in Ordoñez' birthplace Ronda. Years back, Orson played and directed together with Marlene Dietrich, a theatre piece of Hemingway's novel , 'The sun also rises', inspired on the father of Antonio Ordoñez, El Niño de la Palma. During a visit on the finca of Ordoñez, the director spots a well and comments ironically to his chap Antonio: 'I would love to have my ashes buried in your pozo(well), so my name will be always present in your garden. A man is not from where he is born ,but from where he chooses to die' In the mid eighties Welles daughter Beatrice actually brought the filmer's ashes to the Ordoñez family in Ronda, where they now forever rest.

- Andalucía Personal : Press


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