Citizen Kane?

[Cane]

I saw Citizen Kane for the first time the other day, and I was unimpressed with the cinematography, the character development, and the majority of the actors. A common device in the film was to have a character's face move into or out of an enveloping shadow, the effectiveness of which was undermined by it's frequency and lack of subtlety in execution.

Orson Welles was excellent as the younger Charles Foster, as was the actor portraying Kane's friend Jed Leeland, but the promising relationships cultivated in the beginning of the film vanished into oblivion as Kane further isolated himself. While this development is a logical progression, it is disastrous from a storytelling perspective. Kane stops talking to us; he snarls and barks and hides his pain behind a stony visage. At least, I assume he does. I don't know what the hell is going on any more, all I see is what his alcoholic ex remembers.

I believe Citizen Kane is #1 on the 100 movies of all time, while Silence of the Lambs is 67th? Heresy.

[Synd D`nys]

Consider when Kane was made. Wells was light years ahead of his time in his cinematic vision. Comparing Kane to Silence of the Lambs is like comparing Mozart to Metallica.

[Cane]

Citizen Kane was innovative and unique when it was made. As was the smallpox vaccine, and the Wright brothers' Kitty Hawk. But we have progressed beyond both of these to more sophisticated methods; why is the same not possible for cinema?

[Ritkhan]

People like to hold on to the past and wont admit that it is possible to have something in the present that is better than what was in the past. Nostalgia for the most part. It's like people still questioning whether Pete Sampras is the greatest tennis player of all time or Rod Laver. When to achive what Pete has done is 10X more difficult now than what an athlete in the 50's accomplished.

[dak]

In the 1940s Citizen Kanes usage of things like:

-unconvential lighting
-wide angle camera for giant field of vision
-creative methods of transition-
-interesting usage of shadow
-lack of facial close ups(Take a hint dumbfucks that made LoTR!)
-detailed camera movement

were all virtually unheard of in mainstream movies of the day. This picture made film making innovations which are still used in almost every modern film hollywood has to pump out today.

Every scene in movies like the matrix are directly impacted by this film.


This picture is a pop example of a early instance where a movie stood up and said THIS IS AN ART.

As for people saying "we have better movies today, let this old ass film go" have to understand that movies like this are trend setters, all those "new movies which are better" are blatent rip-offs of techniques developed in the 40s. By remembering movies like Citizen Kane we are honering the creativity which many "great movies of today" lack.


Outstanding film, beyond any doubt.

[Ritkhan]

dak you make an excellent point to why Citizen Kane is great and will always be and important stepping stone in the history of movies.

[Iannis]

the only thing that annoys me is that you can buy "classic" movies for like, $3 a pop...but when it comes to citizen kane they jack the price all up because every film student has to watch it...=)

I always wanted to see the other Welles movie, but couldn't ever find it...now i've forgotten the name of it =\.

[Millie]

Orson Welles didn't make just one other movie. He directed quite a few, including The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, and a horribly self-indulgent version of Macbeth.

I agree with Citizen Kane's placement in the pantheon of the "greatest movies of all time," simply because it was brilliantly innovative. I won't repeat what's already been said, but I will add that its direction -- and especially its editing -- still hold up as creative, even today. The film's acting and its plot are superficial, but that's to be expected. It's more of a technical masterpiece than anything else.

Would I label it the greatest American film ever made? Not by a longshot. In fact, I hate the concept of having to choose a single "best" movie. There isn't such a thing.

[Szlia]

all those "new movies which are better" are blatent rip-offs of techniques developed in the 40s

You can go even further back since the basic "grammar" of the movie language is allready in place when David Wark Griffith makes movies like Birth of a Nation (1915) or Intolerence (1916).

Something not mentioned above is also the narrative structure of Citizen Kane. Begining by the death of the main character and then investingating his life with flash-backs triggered by the testimony of people close to him was something never seen before.

[200MPHBMW]

Orson Welles didn't make just one other movie. He directed quite a few, including The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, and a horribly self-indulgent version of Macbeth.

Don't forget his role as Unicron in Transformers the Movie, a surprigingly star-studded cartoon film. =)

[dak]

Something not mentioned above is also the narrative structure of Citizen Kane. Begining by the death of the main character and then investingating his life with flash-backs triggered by the testimony of people close to him was something never seen before.

The Power and the Glory, A Man to Remember...alot of aspects of Citizen Cane WERE infact used often in the past, the movies just dont get near as much street cred.



And on a lighter note:

Mrs. Smiths country stye frozen peas...Full of country goodness and green peaness.

My god! They taste even better when you’re DEAD!


- Orson Wells, in his later years.

[Alfan]

The matte photography in Citizen Kane was phenomenal as well.

-Alfan Fat

[Szlia]

The Power and the Glory, A Man to Remember...alot of aspects of Citizen Cane WERE infact used often in the past, the movies just dont get near as much street cred.

I stand corrected