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A few words about “Citizen Kane”

September 28th, 2008 by Scott Marks

WTF?

Why, tell me why the f do I have to go to imdb.com to research CK only to find Alan Thicke and Arthur Hiller’s pictures below the title? Ooooohhh!

Matt Wilson writes: “…sometimes I wonder if maybe it’s time we all take a break from shoving “Citizen Kane” down everyone’s throat.”

NEVER! WE MUST NEVER FORGET!

Kane is everything. It’s the first film noir (screw The Maltese Falcon!) and contains elements of just about every genre. It’s a goddamned history of cinema class! You have traces of comedy, melodrama, romance, newspaper pictures, there’s a musical number, even a reference to westerns when Jed exits the dusty swinging bar doors. While it may not contain a spaceship, there is a brief visit to Kong’s Skull Island to keep the fanboys happy.

On a performance level, it showcases a Stooge player (Phil Van Zandt), hack-tor Alan Ladd’s best performance, and Kane remains the only studio film made in the 40s that doesn’t contain a cameo by Bess Flowers! I told you Welles was a genius!

I won’t even start on the nonsense that Kane was the first sound film to show ceilings and explore the possibilities of deep focus cinematography. I’ve seen Scarface and Stagecoach and besides, James Wong Howe did it a decade before Gregg Toland. Welles is to talkies what Griffith is to silents. Kane is the first modern talking picture in it’s use of sound as a means to tell its story. In that sense, and so many more, we all owe it everything!

If there was a better photographed black-and-white film released by a major studio send a copy up on that dumbwaiter tout de suite. Forget about pretty pictures or that painterly MGM crap. Go back and watch how the camerawork tells the story during the flashback to Kane’s Boarding House. We start on Young Charlie outdoors playing with Rosebud. In a moment we realize that the camera is shooting from inside the house. In six or seven shots Welles and Toland give the illusion of an unbroken take. Through subtle movements, the camera continually comments on the dialog. It could be the single greatest scene ever committed to film.

A decidedly beige Orson Welles during a 1940 makeup test.

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