www.theredrighthand.co.uk
| The Red Right Hand www.theredrighthand.co.uk |
|
|
|
|
|
CITIZEN KANE
Orson Welles ***** 5/5 Acclaimed by critics and film-makers alike, Citizen Kane has topped Sight and Sound's
decennial “all-time top ten” since 1962. Not bad for the feature film
debut of a 25-year-old, whose experience lay in theatre and radio (most
of the actors in Kane were colleagues from his Mercury Theatre
company), and who claimed his sole preparation was to watch John Ford's
Stagecoach 40 times. In fact, Orson Welles considered a movie
studio (his contract at the time was with RKO) to be the biggest train
set a boy ever had. Unhindered by preconceptions, he proceeded to
experiment with sound, camera angles and movement, and deep focus in a
way few had even conceived of. Aided by cinematographer Gregg Toland,
he brought visual drama to every shot, brilliantly disguising the
picture's shoestring budget (it required a record 116 sets). In
addition, Welles turned in a magnificent performance as Charles Foster
Kane, the press baron whose torrid life was so similar to that of
real-life press baron William Randolph Hearst that the latter broke the
film at the box office through negative publicity. Utterly unmissable. (1941) US B/W 114 mins |
