Film

Fade To Black

Cert: 15

Description: In late 1947, with his marriage to screen siren Rita Hayworth all but over and his career in decline, Orson Welles abandons Hollywood and seeks refuge in Europe, searching for inspiration and piece of mind. During this sojourn, Welles becomes embroiled in a murder mystery on the set of a second-rate film. Aided by a local, Tommaso, Orson is drawn into a web of intrigue, murder and politics involving a femme fatale and a shady American compatriot.

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Dir: Oliver Parker.

Cast: Danny Huston, Paz Vega, Christopher Walken, Diego Luna

Country: UK.

Year: 2007.

Duration: 91mins

Italian political thriller

Involved: Paz Vega plays a Cinecitt� actress in Fade to Black

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Twisted sisters

By Derek Malcolm
6 Mar 2008

It can't be easy to play Orson Welles, but Danny Huston has a good shot at it in Oliver Parker's fictional account of Welles, recovering from his abortive marriage to Rita Hayworth, travelling to Italy to restart his career.

He takes over the direction of a film called Black Magic and gets involved both with Paz Vega's Cinecitt� actress and the mysterious murder of a member of the cast.

Fade to Black then devolves into a thriller about post-war Italian politics in which Christopher Walken's producer has a suspicious part.

Huston plays with surprising conviction throughout. However, the whole doesn't really convince. You keep wondering how it would have turned out had Welles made it himself.