| Collector's Corner November 2001
 Citizen Kane
- Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Dorothy Cormingore, Everett
Sloane, Ray Collins, George Coulouris, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick
- Directed by: Orson Welles
- Theatrical release: 1941
- DVD release: 2001
- Video: Full screen
- Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
The plot
Citizen Kane opens with three minutes of the most
haunting and influential imagery ever committed to celluloid. A man dies, alone, in the
dark, whispering the word "rosebud." We then switch to a newsreel about the
death of wealthy publisher, Charles Foster Kane. Clearly a man of magnificent wealth and
phenomenal egotism, we learn about his life from a reporter’s view. But one of the
documentary directors wants to get more; he wants to get into the person and find out what
made him tick. He sends reporters out to find the whole story from various individuals
close to Kane.
We flash back to Kane’s mother, who strikes it rich
with a gold mine. She wants to separate the boy from his ne’er-do-well father and the
hard life on the Colorado frontier, so she puts most of the money in a trust and sends her
boy away to boarding school with the sons of the rich and powerful. He is to come into his
inheritance at age 25 (not so coincidentally, the age of Welles when he made Citizen
Kane). By this time, through the work of his trustee, Kane has become the sixth
richest man on earth, and a person more interested in pursuing pleasure than commerce.
After being thrown out of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell, he decides that one
little piece of his business empire interests him -- a little run-down newspaper in New
York. Citizen Kane follows his life from pride to
isolation.
What makes it great?
Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy
Awards, but only won for its script. Unfortunately, it was up against a juggernaut in John
Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, which won both Best Picture and Best Director.
Over time, Citizen Kane gained in stature -- to the point that in 1998, the
American Film Institute picked Citizen Kane as the best film ever made. For those
of you that may not know the film, let me try to explain why.
First, a little history. When the RKO film studio
approached Welles, they offered him something unprecedented in the sound era: total
control. He could write the script, choose the cast, direct it, produce it, star in it,
and have the final cut. They did it because Welles was a wunderkind, a star in radio and
theater, someone that could lend credibility and eminence to their studio. Both he and RKO
wanted to show the world what was possible when you juxtapose art with commerce.
Even the most rabid anti-auteur theorists would have to
admit that Welles was the creator, instigator, and dynamic force behind Citizen Kane.
He was a faultless director, writer, producer, and actor. Wearing his mantel of
"kid-genius" with absolutely no modesty, Welles reminds of nothing so much as
that Tiger Woods ad where he bounces his golf ball in the air while doing some acrobatics
and then slams it into eternity from midair. The guy is the best, knows it, and wants to
show it. Part of the fun of Citizen Kane is watching the subtext. Outwardly a
massively depressing film, the actors (mostly members of Welles’ Mercury Theater in
New York) seem to be having so much fun, they have to work to sadden us. This stems
from Welles. It’s hard to miss the "kid-in-a-candy-store" undertones, like
a great stage actor who drops his persona for just a second to let you know that he knows
he’s giving a wonderful performance. Welles’ youthful exuberance always leaves
you feeling that he’s winking at us, whispering it’s only make believe. Watch
the relish he takes in chewing up the scenery during the scene where he wrecks his
wife’s room (chapter 28). Notice the absolute whiz-kid brilliance in the way he shows
the slow dissolution of a marriage in just two minutes (chapter 14). Most of all, remember
that this is the director that threw in one of the greatest red herrings in film history
with the famous word "rosebud." (Pauline Kael called it a gimmick, a device that
simply allowed the story to unfold).
But one person alone, even if it's Orson Welles,
doesn’t bear total responsibility for the success or failure of a film. Luckily for
us, he surrounded himself with the finest Hollywood had to offer. Most importantly, he
brought in cinematographer Gregg Toland (Wuthering Heights, Grapes of Wrath, Long
Voyage Home, The Best Years of Our Lives). Those of you
who read this column regularly will start to see some names over and over: directors like
William Wyler and John Ford (Welles watched Ford’s Stagecoach over 40 times
while he was filming Citizen Kane). Part of what made them great was their crews.
Both Wyler and Ford used Toland whenever they could. He was also Welles’ first
choice, and it turned out to be a brilliant one. Watch his use of light in chapter 3 as
the writers discuss how to get a more human angle on Kane. Has there ever been a better
cinematographer when it comes to composing a frame? Look again at the opening few minutes
and the focus from the glass globe to the lips. His style was unorthodox, weird, even in
its own day. His use of lenses and deep focus techniques raised controversy. Today, Toland
is taught in film schools, another measure of his importance. Check the ending credits.
Directors are notorious for their egos. They want to see their name up in lights, all by
itself. But when the final card for Citizen Kane comes up, Welles shares it with
Toland, paying homage to the role his cinematography played in the success of the film.
Welles later told biographer Peter Bogdanovich, "Up till then, cameramen were listed
with about eight other names. Nobody those days -- only the stars, the director, the
producer -- got separate cards. Gregg deserved it, didn't he?"
There is that nagging question, though. Is Citizen Kane
the best film ever made? I think the film community loves the bodacious attitude, the
artistic intent, and the way Welles got away with tweaking the nose of William Randolph
Hearst, putative model for Charles Foster Kane. Most of all, I think they like the
transparent way that knowledgeable film lovers can see through the proceedings, aspects
that the normal viewer misses. It’s sort of like being a member of a secret club. So
is it the best film ever made? I don’t know. Let’s just say that no serious film
collection is complete without it.
So how about the DVD?
The picture and sound are as perfect as you’ll get for
a film whose original nitrate negatives are lost. Shame on Hollywood. Either way, kudos to
whoever did the remastering. Gregg Toland’s artful photography is stunningly
gorgeous. By the way, don’t be put off by the grainy texture of the opening
pseudo-documentary. Film editor Robert Wise (later director of West Side Story, The
Sound of Music, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture) dragged the negatives over
concrete to give them that "old-timey" look. The remastered sound is also just
right.
You can literally spend eight-plus hours going through the
extras, including some hidden ones available only on your computer. And none of it is
fluff. Roger Ebert provides the best classic film commentary I have heard, brimming with
facts, astute observations and arcana (favorite piece -- William Randolph Hearst called a
part of his mistress’s genitalia "rosebud"). Peter Bogdanovich provides
another commentary track. He knew Welles and was his biographer and a director in his own
right (Targets, The Last Picture Show). While his comments are drier and more
academic than Ebert’s, he is about as close as we can get to a primary source 60
years after the fact.
We are also grateful for the inclusion of PBS’s
"The American Experience" episode entitled The Battle Over Citizen Kane,
a 113-minute peer into the entrails of a fight between two massive egos. Nominated for the
Best Documentary Oscar in 1995, it is a splendid accompaniment to Citizen Kane.
Besides that, we get scenes from the world premiere, storyboards, call sheets (details of
what was to be accomplished each day of production), a still gallery, deleted scenes,
interviews with Robert Wise and Ruth Warrick, and lots of trivia. To date, Citizen Kane
is Warner Brothers Home Video’s masterpiece.
...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com |
