The Magnificent Ambersons

Booth Tarkington's novel The Magnificent Ambersons deals with the transformation of the "good old days" into the modern age represented by the automobile and demonstrated by the Amberson family, whose importance, influence, and fame are gradually fading. Welles' intention was to capture this transformation through a carefully reconstructed environment of the American aristocracy at the turn of the century. In his conception, he elevated the elegant and noble Amberson palace to a symbol of nostalgia, which in its key position determines both the atmosphere of the story and its form – long and smooth shots of a moving camera passing through individual halls, crane shots climbing the staircase, wide-angle lenses, and deep-focus cameras, etc., make the palace one of the main characters in the story. During filming, however, Welles lost the advantage of complete creative freedom. Under the pretext of negative reception at a test screening, the studio drastically shortened the film and had Robert Wise reshoot the final scene to give the entire film an optimistic tone. Nevertheless, this is Welles' second "life's work," which he himself rated higher than Citizen Kane.