Call number
DVD-DRAMA 379
Collection
Publication
Warner Bros. (2011)
Description
Citizen Kane: Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. The battle over Citizen Kane: American experience documentary about the making of Citizen Kane and Orson Welles estate. RKO 281: Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, despite the opposition of the film's de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.
Subjects
Media reviews
It is one of the miracles of cinema that in 1941 a first-time director; a cynical, hard-drinking writer; an innovative cinematographer, and a group of New York stage and radio actors were given the keys to a studio and total control, and made a masterpiece. “Citizen Kane” is more than a great
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movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound, just as “Birth of a Nation” assembled everything learned at the summit of the silent era, and “2001” pointed the way beyond narrative. These peaks stand above all the others. Show Less
Within the withering spotlight as no other film has ever been before, Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane" had is world première at the Palace last evening. And now that the wraps are off, the mystery has been exposed and Mr. Welles and the RKO directors have taken the much-debated leap, it can be safely
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stated that suppression of this film would have been a crime. For, in spite of some disconcerting lapses and strange ambiguities in the creation of the principal character, "Citizen Kane" is far and away the most surprising and cinematically exciting motion picture to be seen here in many a moon. As a matter of fact, it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood. Show Less
‘Citizen Kane’ is a film possessing the sure dollar mark, which distinguishes every daring entertainment venture that is created by a workman who is a master of the technique and mechanics of his medium. It is a two-hour show, filled to the last minute with brilliant incident unreeled in method
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and effects that sparkle with originality and invention. Within the trade, ‘Kane’ will stimulate keener creative efforts by Hollywood’s top directors. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member comfypants
The life of a newspaper tycoon who can't love.
It's nice to look at, but I just don't know why I'm supposed to care about this guy.
Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: C plus
GPA: 3.0/4
It's nice to look at, but I just don't know why I'm supposed to care about this guy.
Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: A
Enjoyment: C plus
GPA: 3.0/4
LibraryThing member paulsikora
If you are wondering where to direct your attention in your fifth or sixth viewing, watch how Welles dramatizes light.
LibraryThing member jgcorrea
Simon Callow's biography of Orson Welles makes Welles sound like a real bluff and bull artist.
Awards
Academy Award (Nominee — Best Original Screenplay — 1941)
National Board of Review Award (Best Picture — 1941)
Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time (1 — 1982)
National Film Registry (1989)