1) The film Citizen Kane was released in 1941 and was both starred and directed by a 24 year old man named Orson Welles. Before its release in 1941, the film was almost never released by RKO, because it was a commercial failure. In fact, RKO almost burned the negative. Luckily it was a blessing it was released because, Citizen Kane became the number one, all-time, rated film in 1998 by the American Film Institute. Im sure that since Citizen Kane was Welles’ first movie, that he made, he was not expecting such a great result. In the year 1942, Citizen Kane was nominated for nine academy awards, however it only won for best writing, and original screenplay. After the Oscars were all said and done, RKO put the film into a vault and Welles wasn’t allowed to have full control in filmmaking anymore, since he had no previous movie-making experience. Welles was known for his radio dramas, and mainly for “War of the Worlds.” The film was based on the life of,wealthy, William Randolph Hearst. Charles Foster Kane, who is the main character, depicts the life of Hearst who wasn’t amused by the film,very much. The newspaper business was the main theme of this movie, as well as the flashbacks, in an attempt to try and figure out what Kane’s last world “Rosebud,” meant.
2) This article in regards to the film Citizen Kane, this article from PBS goes into some detail about the synopsis of the film. It mainly covered the comparison to William Randolph Hearst. It describes how Hearst tried his hardest to prevent the release of the film. Welles was very dead-on with his depiction of the wealthy newspaper tycoon and because of it, he was determined to not be embarrassed. Although he was almost successful he clearly ended up failing, and Citizen Kane became the best film of all time.
3) In relation to the film, it shows how the depiction of Hearst was very accurate. For his first ever film it was astonishing, that he struck such a nerve with the 76 year old newspaper tycoon. If not for its release it wouldn’t have topped the list of most notable movies in American history.
4) Citizen Kane is the number one film in history for a reason. It pioneered in its different lighting scenes for many films in the future. Seen throughout the film in numerous scenes was the motif of the snow globe, which reminds Kane of his mother and his childhood. Overall, I am pretty upset that this is considered to be the greatest movie of all time. The content was interesting but it was clearly the quality of how it was made, won people over in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment