I note, incidentally, that Spielberg bought the sledge for $60,500. To which news, Welles responded, 'I thought we burned it.'
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Citizen Kane
Yesterday I saw Citizen Kane at the BFI. It was the first time I had seen it on the big screen. My previous view of the film was that it was amazing, technically superb and, as an American myth, tremendously potent. Yet, for the most part, I found it unmoving, even meretricious. On the big screen, my reservations were refuted and, immensely moved, I kept tearing up. The point is, I realise, the theatricality of the piece. On the small screen this is lost or it strikes a false note; on the big screen it makes perfect sense and the characters, previously a touch de trop, were seen as florid creatures trapped within the confines of the medium, like the caged animals in the newsreel shots of Xanadu. The central drama of the film is not Kane, of course, it is the reporter's progress through the story. He is the audience's surrogate and guide and it is he who, just before the glorious final tracking shot, drops his professional mask and, having attained wisdom beyond yellow journalism, undermines the payoff by saying whatever Rosebud was it would tell us nothing about the real man, it was just a piece of a jigsaw. Thus the burning sledge becomes everything and nothing. Kane is still not the greatest ever film, but it is up there.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
The biggest beneficiary of WR Hearst's madness was old Willie Burrell, one of the shrewdest cove's of his era, popped over to California and picked up some remarkable bargains from the San Simeon garage sale, can be viewed at the Burrell collection museum. Willie made his dosh by building up a large merchant fleet, flogging it to Lloyd George at vastly inflated prices and buying it back for sod all at the end of the war, cute kiddie, huh.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even sure it's Welles' greatest film. I prefer 'F For Fake'.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great film, not overrated. The structure is so constantly surprising, and it treats its audience like sentient adults (unlike, say, The X Factor).
ReplyDeleteIt could have been improved with the addition of Cheryl Cole though
ReplyDeleteYes but it is consistently quoted as a piece of filmmaking and it' definitely up there in the top five.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer Third Man.
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ReplyDeleteNice post. I agree about the difference between big and small screens. I used to be a projectionist in a revival house, and our screen was over 75 feet wide. You couldn't beat it for seeing the classics. I also have a post on KANE at my blog, THE LAST REVEAL, a blog on screenwriting. If any one's interested, check it out!
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