奧遜·威爾斯同樣也是好演員，某種程度包裝了其傳奇性；他電影的閹割如今儼然超越電影本身，源源不斷帶給推崇者無限的意淫；他的地位得益於20世紀電影藝術的革命革新，這種作用隨著時間推移變成定見而越來越難挑戰……

在起點上 他就站在電影史的頂峰 但當他準備飛翔 卻被束縛了翅膀 他掙紮著扼住命運的咽喉 他是電影史上最大的天才 因而也是最大的悲劇 “從那之後 他再也沒有和羅伯特·懷斯說過話”

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles looks at the remarkable genius of Orson Welles on the eve of his centenary - the enigma of his career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker. Orson Welles's life was magical: a musical prodigy at age 10, a director of Shakespeare at 14, a painter at 16, a star of stage and radio at 20, romances with some of the most beautiful women in the world, including Rita Hayworth. His work was similarly extraordinary, most notably Citizen Kane, (considered by many to be the most important movie ever made), created by Welles when he was only 25. In the years following Citizen Kane, Welles's career continued to change as he made film after film (some never finished, many dismissed) and acted in other projects often to earn money in order to keep making his own films. Magician features scenes from almost every existing Welles film, from Hearts of Age, (which he made in a day when he was only 18 years old) to rarely-seen clips from his final unfinished works like The Other Side of the Dream, The Deep, and Don Quixote, as well as his television and commercial work.