Dear Orson Wells and Other Essays

In this wide-ranging, stylish and iconoclastic book, the acclaimed Belfast filmmaker and BBC author Mark Cousins reflects on his prolific career in documentary-making, meditating on the philosophers, writers, actors and films that have influenced him. From recollections of his childhood in Belfast to practical filmmaking advice for new directors, to the complexities of representing trauma on screen, this is a book that will captivate any readers interested in contemporary film and the history of cinema. Cousins’ essays are in conversation with iconic artistic figures, particularly Pier Paolo Pasolini, an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual; and Orson Welles, an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He is also in dialogue D.H. Lawrence; film-directors Stanley Donen and Agnès Varda; actors Amy Adams, Channing Tatum, Quentin Tarantino, Tilda Swinton, Nicole Kidman and Dennis Hopper; screenwriter Paul Schrader; and last but not least, himself. The book will also feature an Introduction by Fintan O’Toole, a polemicist, literary editor, journalist and drama critic for The Irish Times, and the author of the best-selling memoir We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958.