(1915–1985)
From 1949 to 1951, Welles worked on Othello,
filming on location in Europe and Morocco.
"A film is never really good unless
the camera is an eye in the head of a poet"
Orson Welles
In the early fifties, the film director and
actor Orson Welles stayed in Essaouira filming
his classic version of Othello which contains several
memorable scenes shot in the labyrinthine streets and alleys of
the medina.
The opening shot of the
film pans the full length of the Scala, the great
sea bastion running along the northern cliffs of the town.
".....I gathered together
my actors and Trauner and my Italian crew,
and away we went to Mogador to shoot it. We
arrived in this condemned area — a little-known, out-of-the-way
port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco — and everybody
checked into hotels. Two days later, we got a telegram says
the costumes wouldn't come because they hadn't been completed.
A day later a telegram came saying that hadn't been started.
And then a telegram came saying that Scalera had gone bankrupt.
So I had a company of fifty people in North Africa and no money
— though we had film and we had our cameras — but
how can you shoot Othello without costumes?.....
From In
which Orson Welles shoots Othello in Mogador (External link)
Orson Welles directing at Scala the Kasbah Mogador
A funny Anecdote from Orson Welles in Mogador (Essaouira)
Otello at Scala the Kasbah
The Orson Welles memorial
Orson Welles's
bust is located in a small square just outside the medina walls
close to the sea.
It
is in a neglected state being covered in bird poop, graffiti
and with a broken nose. In addition, the dedication plaques
has been stolen.
Inauguration the 24 september 1992 by
His Royal Highness Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed
(Mohammed VI)
May 2011
March 2012
The Orson Welles square 2022
Orson Welles stayed at Hotel des Iles
(built in 1948 by Antoine Marchisio) and in this
hotel there is a bar and a suite named after him. It is
said that he met Winston Churchill there, who
also was a guest at the hotel at that time.
Hotel des Iles
built in 1948 by Antoine Marchisio *
"During this time, Welles was channeling his money
from acting jobs into a self-financed film version of Shakespeare's
play Othello. From 1949 to 1951, Welles worked on Othello,
filming on location in Europe and Morocco.
Filming was suspended several times as Welles ran out of
funds and left to find other acting jobs. When it premiered
at the Cannes Film Festival it won the Palme d'Or, 1952,
but was not given a general release in the United States
until 1955."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles
Hotel des Iles
with the Bab Marrakech Bastion Old Postcard
Maréchal Juin Resident General
in Morocco (1947 - 1951) visited Mogador the 4th of May
1951 and inaugurated Hotel des Iles.
* La Mamounia, situated in the old
city of Marrakech, is the most storied of grand
hotels in Morocco. Designed by Henri Prost and Antoine
Marchisio. It opened in 1923 in the nearly 20-acre garden
given to Prince Moulay Mamoun by his father, Sultan
Mohammed III, as an 18th-century-style wedding gift.