Old school with this one, but it is simply an amazing piece of cinema. Some people today feel this movie isn't very good, but they are wrong wrong wrong. Circular storyline, Wells is awesome in it and the directing and cinematography is film 101. It was so groundbreaking and amazing at the time that it was a bomb. Hell, the studio tried to burn the film (or the negatives were lost in a fire, as they claim).
This movie is grand, and beautiful. So many shots are simply amazing, from a technical point of view. As a story, it is good, but as a piece of work it is top notch. Watch it just to understand the way film can be done, and see its influence on movies today. Wells was so original in the way he took shots, and did so many ingenious tricks to get the desired result, such as taking out floorboards in the stage to put a camera underneath in order to make Kane look toweringly enormous. Simply genious at work. Not to mention completely pissing off William Randolf Hearst to the Nth degree as it is basically based on him.
It remains one of my top 10 favorite movies. Rosebud baby, Rosebud.
Plot:
Multimillionaire newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his extravagant mansion, Xanadu, speaking a single word: "Rosebud". In an attempt to figure out the meaning of this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived with Kane; they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal much about Kane's life but not enough to unlock the riddle of his dying breath.
Another description:
Considered by many to be the best film ever made, this is the story of Charles Foster Kane. The film opens with a long shot of Xanadu - the private estate of one of the world's richest men. In the middle of the estate is a castle. We see, inside the castle, a dying man examining a winter scene within a crystal ball. As he drops it, it smashes, and one word is heard - "Rosebud..." What follows are pieces of newsreel-like footage detailing how Kane amassed his fortune, and turning around full circle at the end.
Trivia:
Despite all the publicity, the film was a box office flop and was quickly consigned to the RKO vaults. At 1941's Academy Awards the film was booed every time one of its nine nominations was announced. It was only re-released for the public in the mid-1950s.
William Randolph Hearst was infuriated by this movie, obviously based on his life. According to an essay written for the New York Review of Books by Gore Vidal "Rosebud" was Hearst's name for long-time mistress Marion Davies' ********. But screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz insisted that he took the name from a bicycle he owned as a child.
One line by Kane, "Don't believe everything you hear on the radio," might be construed as a sly wink from Orson Welles to those who panicked upon hearing his radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds."
William Randolph Hearst was so angered by the film that he accused Orson Welles of being a Communist in order to keep the film from being released.
When Kane's mother, father and Thatcher walk from the living room into the kitchen, they sit down at a table. For a second, you can see Thatcher's hat jiggle a few inches and then be still again. This is mainly because the camera had to move through the table to do the shot. When the camera went into the kitchen, the table split in two, and then reassembled itself just in time for Agnes Moorehead to sit down in the chair.
The audience that watches Kane make his speech is, in fact, a still photo. To give the illusion of movement, hundreds of holes were pricked in with a pin, and lights moved about behind it.
During filming Orson Welles received a warning that William Randolph Hearst had arranged for a naked woman to jump into his arms when he entered his hotel room, and there was also a photographer in the room to take a picture that would be used to discredit him. Welles spent the night elsewhere, and it is unknown if the warning was true.
For this movie Welles along with cinematographer Gregg Toland pioneered "deep focus", a technique that keeps every object in the foreground, center, and background in simultaneous focus. This brought a sense of depth to the two-dimensional world of movies.
After production wrapped, William Randolph Hearst forbade any advertisement of the film in any of his newspapers - or indeed any other RKO movies - and offered to buy the negative from studio head George Schaefer with a view to destroying it. Fortunately Welles had already previewed the film to influential industry figures to rave reviews, so it was granted a limited theatrical release. Critics from non-Hearst owned newspapers fell over themselves praising the film. The film itself was not reviewed in any Hearst newspaper until the mid-1970s, when the film critic for the "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner" finally reviewed it.
This movie is grand, and beautiful. So many shots are simply amazing, from a technical point of view. As a story, it is good, but as a piece of work it is top notch. Watch it just to understand the way film can be done, and see its influence on movies today. Wells was so original in the way he took shots, and did so many ingenious tricks to get the desired result, such as taking out floorboards in the stage to put a camera underneath in order to make Kane look toweringly enormous. Simply genious at work. Not to mention completely pissing off William Randolf Hearst to the Nth degree as it is basically based on him.
It remains one of my top 10 favorite movies. Rosebud baby, Rosebud.
Plot:
Multimillionaire newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his extravagant mansion, Xanadu, speaking a single word: "Rosebud". In an attempt to figure out the meaning of this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived with Kane; they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal much about Kane's life but not enough to unlock the riddle of his dying breath.
Another description:
Considered by many to be the best film ever made, this is the story of Charles Foster Kane. The film opens with a long shot of Xanadu - the private estate of one of the world's richest men. In the middle of the estate is a castle. We see, inside the castle, a dying man examining a winter scene within a crystal ball. As he drops it, it smashes, and one word is heard - "Rosebud..." What follows are pieces of newsreel-like footage detailing how Kane amassed his fortune, and turning around full circle at the end.
Trivia:
Despite all the publicity, the film was a box office flop and was quickly consigned to the RKO vaults. At 1941's Academy Awards the film was booed every time one of its nine nominations was announced. It was only re-released for the public in the mid-1950s.
William Randolph Hearst was infuriated by this movie, obviously based on his life. According to an essay written for the New York Review of Books by Gore Vidal "Rosebud" was Hearst's name for long-time mistress Marion Davies' ********. But screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz insisted that he took the name from a bicycle he owned as a child.
One line by Kane, "Don't believe everything you hear on the radio," might be construed as a sly wink from Orson Welles to those who panicked upon hearing his radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds."
William Randolph Hearst was so angered by the film that he accused Orson Welles of being a Communist in order to keep the film from being released.
When Kane's mother, father and Thatcher walk from the living room into the kitchen, they sit down at a table. For a second, you can see Thatcher's hat jiggle a few inches and then be still again. This is mainly because the camera had to move through the table to do the shot. When the camera went into the kitchen, the table split in two, and then reassembled itself just in time for Agnes Moorehead to sit down in the chair.
The audience that watches Kane make his speech is, in fact, a still photo. To give the illusion of movement, hundreds of holes were pricked in with a pin, and lights moved about behind it.
During filming Orson Welles received a warning that William Randolph Hearst had arranged for a naked woman to jump into his arms when he entered his hotel room, and there was also a photographer in the room to take a picture that would be used to discredit him. Welles spent the night elsewhere, and it is unknown if the warning was true.
For this movie Welles along with cinematographer Gregg Toland pioneered "deep focus", a technique that keeps every object in the foreground, center, and background in simultaneous focus. This brought a sense of depth to the two-dimensional world of movies.
After production wrapped, William Randolph Hearst forbade any advertisement of the film in any of his newspapers - or indeed any other RKO movies - and offered to buy the negative from studio head George Schaefer with a view to destroying it. Fortunately Welles had already previewed the film to influential industry figures to rave reviews, so it was granted a limited theatrical release. Critics from non-Hearst owned newspapers fell over themselves praising the film. The film itself was not reviewed in any Hearst newspaper until the mid-1970s, when the film critic for the "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner" finally reviewed it.
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