Some credit William Randolph Hearst’s war against Welles for this. Welles was also very keen on rehearsing before shooting, something that was not very common in those days. As the reporter moves from person to person interviewing them about Kane, he slowly pieces together a life, and despite his wealth a very sad one. He believed that the first-time director, who already had a reputation for breaking rules on stage, would come to the set with ideas that traditional Hollywood filmmakers would never think of or have the courage to attempt. Welles wanted the work to be realistic, so he allowed characters to talk over one another, finish on another’s sentences, bringing to the film a startling realism we had never seen before. The echoes of the footfalls in his mansion as he edges towards death, and his whisper of rosebud, spoke in mourning remembrance and loss, of lost hopes, and dreams gone wrong. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. The trunk shots are reminiscent of Citizen Kane as Tarantino has developed an expert shot as a result. We all love that stuff. Is Comedy-Drama for Grown-Ups Dead on Film. And his story, what became Citizen Kane (1941) was of course about William Randolph Hearst, the publishing magnate Welles disliked intensely. I’ve heard the arguments before. No title cards, nothing, just editing. I never inquired. It makes for good conversation. The film is commonly praised for its intricate plot, filled with flashbacks that shuffle the chronology of Kane's life, its extraordinary performances, its marvelous technical stunts, and its deep-focus photography. The film opens with Kane, played by Welles, on his dying bed. Synopsis : A la mort du milliardaire Charles Foster Kane, un grand magnat de … He moves back and forth through time, the entire film essentially flashback to the life of Kane. But the unconventional manner that he proposed for making the film — including lots of handheld shots and first-person narrative — proved unworkable. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. It explains what Rosebud is, but not what Rosebud means. Any film you haven't seen — is a new experience! Directed by Orson Welles. Tentative d'explications. Every film shot in the broken narrative, The Godfather Part II (1974), again, The Sweet Hereafter (1997), so many others…and of course so many more. It helped sharpen the scenes and sometimes led to script enhancements that improved the story. Writer. But, no, hadn’t seen that one, either. RKO Pictures, one of the big Hollywood players of the time, signed Welles to a movie contract that gave him unprecedented control, including the freedom to create and adapt his own material, final cut, the works. Their screenplay tracked his life from humble beginnings in late 19th century Colorado through to immense corporate and political power to his lonely fall from grace. The New York Film Critics were the only awards group to have the courage to name the film the best of the year, which clearly it was. Brilliant use of miniatures, sound, and cinematography. En … Short scenes with lots of camera shots, special effects, bright colors, big soundtracks, big actors, big everything. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep  Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow. I’ll bet I’ve watched it three dozen times since. Many films listed above have surpassed it. Rosebud, of course, is a metaphor for lost youth, for lost happiness, perhaps Kane remembering the last time he was purely happy, which we see at the beginning when he is playing in the snow. The famous mise-en-scene breakfast table sequence which begins with Kane and his new wife sitting side by side at a table, barely able to take their hands off one another, their future still ahead of them, a few seconds later, a few years gone by,  they are a little farther apart, not as loving, a few seconds later much farther apart, their voices strained, obvious displeasure with one another, she makes a nasty comment about one of Kane’s trusted workers, (Bernstein….Jewish) and finally they sit in stone silence, each at the other end of the table, she reading the oppositions newspaper, nothing to say to one another, the marriage over. Notes : Citizen Kane est la première réalisation d’Orson Welles, alors âgé de 25 ans. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. With some having very clear and specific influences on Citizen Kane and others merely fueling a broader idea of what kind of film Welles wanted to create. As Times film critic A.O. Welles had never directed a film before, but he taught himself cinematography by watching the films of John Ford and others. It's a newspaper comedy, a domestic melodrama, a gothic romance, and a … After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. Citizen Kane est l’un des premiers films à s’interroger sur la puissance manipulatrice du cinéma. So much he brought with him from the theatre world, including his own makeup people. Now there’s a screenplay that crackles with dialogue. Not Welles, he felt everything in the frame was important. When I brought up Citizen Kane, he perked up. Here are ten of those films. The twenty-four-year-old artist had already made a name for himself with his Mercury Theatre radio and stage dramas. Orphelin dès l’âge de 6 ans, Welles se retrouva lui aussi héritier d’une immense fortune. How about Double Indemnity? With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead. Citizen Kane’s primary narrative achievement was its use of flashbacks and multiple narrators. From the film's onset, it is evident that it is going to be a tale of woe. When Kane’s creator Orson Welles came to Hollywood in 1939, he was a young kid with a dream. Avid Project for TRF 510, Newhouse School of Public Communications. This is a re-imagined trailer for the motion picture classic, Citizen Kane. Nope. Later in the film, Kane hopes to hire the best of the best of reporters and the camera closes in on a photograph of a group of reporters, suddenly a flash goes off, and Kane is visible among the men, walking into the frame, having hired them all. Surely, North by Northwest. There’s a lot of people who don’t watch “old” movies. Second if you look close at the Florida beach party you will see a prehistoric bird fly into view behind the Black singer, a leftover piece of stock footage they made the mistake of cutting in before they realized what it is was, and when the parrot screams, look close and can see right through his eye….cause it is not there. Welles first wanted to adapt Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which Mercury had produced as a radio play. If you enjoy films that tell a compelling story, films that use lighting and cinematography to enhance how that story is told, a screenplay that flawlessly lays out a compelling non-linear narrative, a punctuated musical score that is in itself a character in the story, then you will enjoy Citizen Kane. Scott recently remarked, " Citizen Kane shows Welles to be a master of genre. The ever-present jigsaw puzzles his second wife is putting together are representative of Kane, solving a riddle, an enigma. He was diligent about blocking shots, and his almost obsessive preparation meant that every time he stepped on set, he knew what he wanted to accomplish, even if it was something that had never been done before. Welles hooked up with screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, and together they came up with a story about Charles Foster Kane, a megalomaniacal media mogul. De tout temps, les ‘faibles’ ont été en recherche d’un chef fort et charismatique, capable de monter à la tribune pour haranguer la foule – comme Mélenchon. It has long scenes with lots of dialogue. Simple answer: who cares.). Using remarkable effects for the time, we see Kane with various world leaders including Hitler. Welles stated his greatest influences were “John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” It is incredible that Welles would be the influence so many filmmakers to follow. John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. In life, people do not wait for the other to stop talking before they do and in early film, as Hollywood learned how to use sound this is what they did. Welles performance is often not given the credit it deserves, for he is brilliant. But they were all veterans of the Mercury Theatre, so they were comfortable working with each other. Herrmann, who would later achieve legendary status working with Alfred Hitchcock and other directors, was given the freedom and time to create separate musical pieces for specific scenes, rather than a complete orchestral score for the entire film as was customary. CITIZEN KANE. (This is the only real hole in this otherwise perfect film. Orson Welles and the brilliant cast and crew of Citizen Kane (1941) forever changed American film. So, how does a reporter or his editor know what Kane said? His Halloween 1938 radio drama of War of the Worlds became famous for supposedly causing a panic in the American countryside. He used his enormous wealth to buy things, and when he could not buy people his world caved in on him. Every modern … They each have very different memories of Kane, yet each saw his flaws as well as his potential for greatness. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. LE COMMENTAIRE. All rights reserved. That should not stop anyone from experiencing the film, not just for the first time, but a few. It is the most critically acclaimed motion picture in history. They each in one way or another are connected to the passing of time. Through his interviews we are treated to a series of carefully woven flashbacks that piece together the story of Kane. There’s a lot on the line. Why should you care about a movie that was made almost 80 years ago, right? Nominated for nine Academy Awards, the film won just one for its near-perfect screenplay. The last word he utters before giving up the ghost is “rosebud.” What can it mean? Citizen Kane a été considéré jusqu’en 2012 (date à laquelle il fut détrôné par Vertigo d’Alfred Hitchcock) comme « le plus grand film de l’histoire du cinéma » dans le classement établi depuis 1962 par le prestigieux British Film Institute (BFI). Today, I'll make the case for why Citizen Kane was influential on the film noir genre that became so popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Citizen Kane was critically well-received when it was released on May 1, 1941. While Hearst may have quieted the film’s public reach to some degree, the real reason that it had a lukewarm box office response may have been due more to the fact that Kane employed a number of filmmaking techniques that were foreign to moviegoers at the time. One time I mentioned that I re-watched Casablanca after many years and how I marveled at how many quotable lines were in the film. Having praised the sequel to King Vidor’s celebrated 1928 silent movie (Our Daily Bread, that was also directed by Vidor) as one of his all-time favourite films, it should not be too … But we’re talking about Citizen Kane here. Hearst, a real-life megalomaniacal media mogul, felt the film hit a little too close to home. One might ask why it is relevant to explore the tortured process of making a film that premiered almost 80 years ago. Or pretty much anything made before 1980. https://footeandfriendsonfilm.com/2018/09/24/the-innovations-of-citizen-kane He banned any advertising or mention of Kane in any of his papers, and he tried to muscle RKO into shelving the picture. While the film owes a great deal to the German Expressionism period, for its brilliant use of lighting and shadow, it also goes further keeping the characters often dimly lit for effect. THE GREATEST AMERICAN FILMS OF THE NINETIES: #29, MAJOR ACADEMY AWARD SNUBS PART III: THE NINETIES, THE GREATEST AMERICAN FILMS OF THE NINETIES: #30. Charles Foster Kane grows up poor, living in a simple rural world. They shot sequences to show ceilings to emphasize the size of the people and the importance of their size at that time in their lives. I have a friend who calls himself a movie buff. He understood sound could be subtle, and all the more powerful for being so. It’s in black and white. The achievement for the American Dream, then gone wrong, because for all he had he had nothing, and did not have what he sought, love and true happiness. Nor any other Alfred Hitchcock films I rattled off. Copyright © 2021 by ThemeREX. If you have seen any of the films of Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Schrader, Richard Linklater, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sam Mendes, Alex Cox, Roger Corman, or countless others, then you should take a peek at Citizen Kane. “Citizen Kane” knows the sled is not the answer. Some of these techniques had never been tried before, and those that had were not applied nearly as effectively as in Kane. Young Charles opens a gift from his benefactor who says “Merry Christmas”, cut to years later with a “and a Happy New Year” and Kane is now an adult. Almost. Par la suite son style cinématographique comme son jeu d’acteur exercera un grande influence sur le cinéma des années 1950-70, en particulier sur Stanley Kubrick. There is a lovely use of theatrical shaft lighting during the reporters’ visit to the museum of Kane’s guardian as he reads the papers. The scope of the story is quite broad, but the writers cleverly used a non-linear narrative to squeeze 80 years of life into two hours. At twenty-four he ages u to his eighties, and does so beautifully, not just looking old, but moving old, his body language suggesting great age. It was “arthouse” before arthouse was a thing.