Why Orson Welles avoided watching movies

A tiny quote on innocence and paradox.

Here’s a quote that means plenty to me because it’s applicable to several domains.

I thought I was odd for enjoying producing more than consuming (for instance, I very much adore researching math / physics and creating podcasts but I tend to not watch podcasts myself).

However, I never articulated the reason (and ambiguity) so well. These are the words of Orson Welles as a caution against filling your impressionable mind:

“I’m just in love with making movies. I’m not very fond of movies; I don’t go to them much. I think it’s very harmful for movie makers to see movies because you either imitate them or worry about not imitating them. You should make movies innocently, the way Adam named the animals on the first day in the garden.

I lose my innocence; every time I see a film, I lose something, I don’t gain. I never understand what directors mean when they compliment me, young directors, and say they’ve learned from my films. I don’t believe in learning from other people’s films. You should learn from your own interior vision and discover, as I say, innocently, as though there had never been D.W. Griffith, Eisenstein, Ford, Renoir, or anybody…

…The more virgin our eyes are, the more we have to say. The most detestable habit in all modern cinema is the homage. I don’t want to see another goddamn homage in anybody’s movie. There are enough of them which are unconscious. Now, of course, you must see films, and you must see great films. I said don’t be marinated, don’t soak yourself in films.

The argument against what I’m saying is that the world is full. All the best young directors are soaked in films, and they’ve managed to rise above that and be remarkable cineasts. So, you’re in the presence of a speaker who is not only paradoxical but confused.” - Orson Welles

Of course, there are objections to the idea above, as one wants to avoid being self-absorbed, or worse, orgulous (like some string theorists claiming they’re the only game in town without being aware of the workings of competition).

This can be, in part, assuaged by neither inflating your stature nor deflating others.

- Curt Jaimungal