Mr. Arkadin: Aka Confidential Report

Orson Welles

• 15 april 2010
• 9780061689031

Samenvatting:

Set in the seedy underworld of postwar Europe, this novel focuses on the sinister figure of Gregory Arkadin, a fabulously wealthy and influential financier who enlists the services of a small-time smuggler and rackateer, Van Stratten, for an extraordinary assignment.

The only novel by Orson Welles, a witty, madcap, pulp-noir adventure of international intrigue, blackmail, and murder

The mysterious Mr. Arkadin claims he cannot remember anything of his life prior to the moment in 1927 when he found himself alone in Zurich with two hundred thousand Swiss francs in his pocket, a sum with which he subsequently built a vast fortune. Now a fabulously wealthy and influential financier, he enlists the services of one Van Stratten, a small-time smuggler and racketeer, charging him with the task of investigating Arkadin’s forgotten past. Traveling across the world—and through the seedy underworld of postwar Europe—Van Stratten begins piecing together information for his confidential report. But for some unknown and sinisterly suspicious reason, everyone he speaks to soon turns up dead.

The work of an acknowledged genius of the stage and cinema, Mr. Arkadin: Aka Confidential Report is the basis for the controversial motion picture written, directed by, and starring Welles himself—the movie the great auteur bemoaned as “the most butchered film of my career.” Welles’s hauntingly strange and exhilarating novel remains an enigmatic expression of his intentions and an enduring example of his storytelling brilliance.

Set in the seedy underworld of postwar Europe, Orson Welles' novel focuses on the sinister figure of Gregory Arkadin, a fabulously wealthy and influential financier who enlists the services of a small-time smuggler and rackateer, Van Stratten, for an extraordinary assignment. Arkadin claims that he can remember nothing of his life prior to the moment in 1927 when he found himself alone in Zurich with 200,000 Swiss francs in his pocket - a sum with which he subsequently built his vast fortune - and Van Stratten's task is to investigate Arkadin's mysterious past and prepare him a confidential report on it. Welles wrote, directed, and starred in the film version of Mr. Arkadin, which was released under the title Confidential Report in 1955, but believed that only the novel remained the definitive expression of his intentions. A haunting exploration of typically Wellesian themes, it is an enduring example of his unique genius.