Now I finally know the context of...



I ended up buying it for $7 on Amazon since the rental was $4. It was a very intriguing movie and it was interesting to see how money, media and corruption are as relevant today as it was when the film was made. Even in the 1940's it was understood that the media had the power to start wars.

And all the money in the world can never buy you what you really desire.

I'll have to watch this one a few times to really catch the whole story.

Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

borrow the dvd from your library and watch with Roger Ebert's commentary turned on.

I honestly thought it sucked and didn’t understand all the hype. To each his own.

My 22 yo son watched it this past summer at our house for the first time. He is a film buff, his favorite contemporary directors are Chris Nolan and Scorsese. I watched him, watching Citizen Kane and it was a lot of fun. He was blown away, scene after scene, couldn't believe anything like it could be made in 1940. I was very happy he GOT it, he finally understood my love of the film.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
I honestly thought it sucked and didn’t understand all the hype. To each his own.

As an 80's child, who was raised on sugar, harsh language, and over-the-top action movies, I had try and look at it as a movie viewer from the 1940's who hand-washed their own clothes, cooked all their own food and had nothing more than a radio as a form of modern entertainment. The kids played stickball, rather than video games.

Even before I watched the Roger Ebert clip above, I did notice the camera clarity for a movie of it's time, as well as how they used lighting, camera angles and a large depth of focus during certain shots. Groundbreaking for its time.

I was thinking about the scene where Kane loses it and trashes the bedroom, that for as much as he broke in that scene, they probably had to get it right in one take, considering he was breaking glass and other things. Although throwing a fit and breaking stuff isn't all that hard to do; or maybe it's harder thank I think? I'm not an actor, nor film producer, so I don't really know how hard it is to produce a scene like that from a set maker, to an actor performance.

I also admired how they attempt to age people using the makeup available to them during the 1940's. They really did a good job on Kane. There were a few scenes, that due to the clarity of the shot, I was able to see the headpiece, or whatever it's called, that was glued to his forehead to give hime a receding hairline.

I went back to a film from a comparable time (Gone With the Wind) and the cinematography is completely different. Both effective in their own ways. The cinematography in this movie is similar to Casablanca, in my opinion.

This was a deep dive into character development or simply being immersed in the life story of a single character. I don't know if that had been done before this film, where most were probably centered around a central event, spanning a relatively short time period.

Just my humble observations.

Tony.

I'm guessing the 'fixed-stare-clap" clip is from "Citizen Kane" then?

Always wondered about that.

We found it very boring.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
I'm guessing the 'fixed-stare-clap" clip is from "Citizen Kane" then?

Always wondered about that.

Yup. I always wondered that too. I figured I'd check it out and see what the hype was as well. There's storytelling and then there's entertaining. This was theatrical storytelling. I'm trying to make a point to see some of those old films that were simply outside my generation.

My kid can't really watch a movie like "The Alamo" with John Wayne and appreciate it yet. Good old movies like that can seem boring to the younger generations.

Tony.

I don't consider JW's Alamo to be a very good movie. Try introducing your kid to John Ford's westerns such as his cavalry trilogy with JW. As for Citizen Kane, yes, I was told the same thing, "greatest movie ever made etc". I don't buy it. Yes, cinematography-wise, Wells did some amazing things, but the character is a bit of a nasty jerk and the story is just so-so. John Ford did amazing things with cinematography as well, but his best stuff also had great characters and terrific stories.

To me,the greatest movie ever made was/is “Casablanca”. How can it not be?

Conflicted hero.
Beautiful woman.
Greatest “evil guys” ever.
Outstanding supporting cast of colorful characters.
Memorable lines of dialogue.
Redemption of the human condition.

And it can never be remade, as you can’t recreate that time period as too much History has occurred.

I'm with you 2Bob, Casablanca takes it for me. And my 21year old daughter loved it.

I guess I should clarify "The Greatest Movie Ever Made."

I used that quote because that's what the movie description is on Amazon. I understand "The GOAT" is subjective and a matter of opinion. I can appreciate the movie for what it was at the time.

And yes, I enjoyed Casablanca more than this. I've only watched a few movies from this time era (The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca GWTW a loooooong time ago, and a couple of other Bogart classics).

Although, now I can contextualize the stare-clapping meme when I see it. It's funny that people use it on forums to show approval, bravo, or to congratulate someone on a job-well-done, when in the movie, Kane was clapping intensely for his wife's opera performance, which sucked ass and he knew it sucked ass. He could literally hear audience members mocking her performance as laughable. He was literally clapping out of pride.

Tony.

Despite my wife's protestations, I put "Citizen Kane" at the top of my movie list.

"You just say that because everyone else says it!" (FWIW her favorite movie is "Lady and the Tramp"... yes, the Disney animated movie. I don't equate "favorite" with "best", though.)

"Kane" is an astounding movie:

1) for what it is (an engaging story),

2)for how it was shot (sinking the camera below the sound stage floor! Splitting a table so the camera dolly can track back "through" a table!"

3) how it was edited for characters' points-of-view, filling in the story arc and, finally

4) for WHO did it (Welles was 24 years old when he started Kane.)

Welles played a character from college age to elderly... and was convincing at every moment. The supporting cast was fantastic and fluid. From the opening matte sequences to the final fiery end... there aren't many movies that deliver on all these points.

I also like "Casablanca" which was lightning in a bottle when it was made. Things just came together during the production, the writers were changing things so fast that the actors were often confused on where their characters were "going."

If you haven't seen Casablanca in a real movie theater, with a crowd, you should. It is tremendously funny in spots and they really come through when a few hundred people are laughing along with you:

"Under the circumstances, I will sit down."

"Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to invade."

"That is my least vulnerable spot!"

"Are my eyes really brown?"

At the risk of injecting a political angle, here is Trump, part time film critic, on his favorite movie

I tried to watch a year ago and during the intro segment, I kept thinking - this is a news reel or tv clip and eventually stopped watching.

It came on AMC or something the other night and I tried again. Got thru the news reel and realized there was an actual movie afterwards :-) It was decent. I did notice some cool camera stuff going on. As for "greatest" or even "great" - not to me. I just don't have the historical knowledge to know how "groundbreaking" it is; so I'll just have to leave that to the true film buffs.

I'm more into Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg I guess.

I've tried unsuccessfully several times to watch Citizen Kane. I simple can't make it through the film. On the other hand, I consider Casablanca and The Godfather to be the two best films ever made, having watched both countless times.