CITIZEN KANE. He will sling quotes from movies or dive into extended monologues about recent films he’s seen. We all love that stuff. Nope. It was the first feature to have a story so heavily dependent on flashback sequences. The ever-present jigsaw puzzles his second wife is putting together are representative of Kane, solving a riddle, an enigma. For the better part of 80 years, film enthusiasts have considered Orson Welles' Citizen Kane to be the undisputed greatest movie of all time. Tentative d'explications. People remain so fixated on the film's mystique that David Fincher's Mank, which follows screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz's journey to writing the script for the movie, has released on Netflix to critical acclaim. The film's construction shows how our lives, after we are gone, survive only in the memories of others, and those memories butt up against the walls we erect and the roles we play. Orphelin dès l’âge de 6 ans, Welles se retrouva lui aussi héritier d’une immense fortune. (If you want to read about how another great filmmaker adaptated Heart of Darkness, then check this out.). Public reception was a little more tepid. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. Welles performance is often not given the credit it deserves, for he is brilliant. One might ask why it is relevant to explore the tortured process of making a film that premiered almost 80 years ago. Citizen Kane is a timeless story about absolute power corrupting absolutely. But the unconventional manner that he proposed for making the film — including lots of handheld shots and first-person narrative — proved unworkable. Citizen Kane est un film réalisé par Orson Welles avec Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten. I’d like to hear your comments. 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. I’ve heard the arguments before. 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. He gets excited for new releases like a kid, and is always looking to compare Netflix queues. He’d never heard of it. He is alone in the room, the doors to the room are massive, the nurse enters and we see her come in on a shard of broken glass, but the butler only claims to be there, and we do not see him. Watch the genius of close-ups after the opening of his second wife’s’ opera, a nightmare, as he rises and applauds, the camera comes to his hands, then his eyes, obsessed with seeming to will her to sing better and be accepted. Maybe it was a religious thing. 10. Ce film placera Welles comme une figure incontournable du cinéma, Citizen Kane étant aujourd’hui évalué par la critique comme l’un des dix films les plus importants du XX ème Siècle. This is a re-imagined trailer for the motion picture classic, Citizen Kane. Though the American Film Institute and Sight and Sound magazine routinely name Citizen Kane (1941) the greatest film ever made, it no longer is. 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. Brilliant, just brilliant. 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. But we’re talking about Citizen Kane here. Together they experimented with light and shadow, deep focus, and camera angles to tell Kane’s story. Nor any other Alfred Hitchcock films I rattled off. Citizen Kane certainly isn't a standard film noir. Orson Welles was just 24 when he made the film, and broke all the rules because to him there were no rules within art, to create was paramount, to find new ways to communicate was intoxicating to him, so he simply went out and did it without any consideration for anything other than finding new ways to tell a story. Many films listed above have surpassed it. They met at a dinner, among the other guests were Charlie Chaplin, and the arrogance of Hearts bothered Welles at once, though ironically, he himself was known to have a massive ego. From the film's onset, it is evident that it is going to be a tale of woe. No other film prior to Kane had used makeup effects to such a great degree on so many major characters. A Spotlight on Jeff Daniels’ Portrayal of Colonel Joshua L. The Other ‘Mank’: Joe Mankiewicz and the Wildest Night in Hollywood History. When Kane’s creator Orson Welles came to Hollywood in 1939, he was a young kid with a dream. The film opens with Kane, played by Welles, on his dying bed. We NEVER see the face of the reporter trying to solve the mystery of Rosebud, and the lighting gets darker as Kane loses his empire and friends moving into Xanadu, his mansion. Coming from a background in radio and the theatre, Welles understood how important sound was to a story. Yet another first for Citizen Kane. He’d heard of it. But don’t let that keep you from seeing this movie if you never have. The Godfather Part II (1974) is arguably the greatest of American films, with its astounding artistry and complex themes, followed by The Godfather (1972), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) , On the Waterfront (1954), Raging Bull (1980), Schindlers List (1993), Apocalypse Now (1979)The Wizard of Oz (1939), and The Searchers (1956), each in one way or another drawing on the many innovations brought to the screen within Citizen Kane (1941). Turns out my “movie buff” friend didn’t watch black and white movies. Makeup techniques were applied and invented to age the actors across many years. Citizen Kane is still, and will always be, movie magic at its finest. (This is the only real hole in this otherwise perfect film. No title cards, nothing, just editing. With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead. Citizen Kane (1941) though still magnificent in many ways is now dated and out of touch with today’s audiences. 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. There are so many great examples of superb editing the film, too many to list here. 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). Scott recently remarked, " Citizen Kane shows Welles to be a master of genre. When even a romantic comedy can’t be made and marketed for less than $50 million, filmmakers have to pull out all the stops to make a movie sell. Citizen Kane broke new ground across many fronts to tell its story. He used his enormous wealth to buy things, and when he could not buy people his world caved in on him. 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. Cinematographer Gregg Toland was eager to work with Welles. The Crowd. Hearst, a real-life megalomaniacal media mogul, felt the film hit a little too close to home. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. The last word he utters before giving up the ghost is “rosebud.” What can it mean? 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. They each in one way or another are connected to the passing of time. Citizen Kane est l’un des premiers films à s’interroger sur la puissance manipulatrice du cinéma. Arguably Citizen Kane is defined by its ability to move across decades with simple editing techniques and its use of several varying narrators. And his story, what became Citizen Kane (1941) was of course about William Randolph Hearst, the publishing magnate Welles disliked intensely. Through his interviews we are treated to a series of carefully woven flashbacks that piece together the story of Kane. They each have very different memories of Kane, yet each saw his flaws as well as his potential for greatness. 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. Orson Welles's Citizen Kane has had a lasting impact on cinema and continues to influence directors to this day. 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. Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film produced and directed by Orson Welles, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz.The picture was Welles's first feature film.Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane was voted number 1 in five consecutive British Film Institute Sight & Sound polls of … GREAT PERFORMANCES: BRUCE DERN IN COMING HOME (1978), REVIEW – MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (****), The Ten Commandments (1923)/(1956) and The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille (2016), Cleopatra (1963): The Sets Behind the Epic. There are times the indispensable Mr. Bernstein appears irritating, often annoying with his constant presence and comments, though his speech about seeing a woman one morning on the Staten Island ferry is legendary. It was also the first film to use multiple narrators, thereby stripping the viewer of their omniscience in the story: each of the six narrators describe their time with Kane through the filter of their … Historian. Inspiré de la vie du magnat de la presse William Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane trouve également un écho dans la vie de son réalisateur. And it is told in a way that uses the best techniques that cinema has to offer, then or now. But, no, hadn’t seen that one, either. 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. 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. 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.