"Rosebud..."
I finally saw Citizen Cane, the so-called "greatest movie ever made". I thought it was interesting. But I think by "greatest movie" what they mean is "movie with the camera work and effects most ahead of it's time", or "movie involved in the most intriguing hollywood subplot in the 1940s", or "movie that we most like to discuss in cinematography 101". They definitely don't mean "most enjoyable movie". I don't think it was as enjoyable as say, Ironman 2 (the last movie that I saw), or as enjoyable as just about any enjoyable movie. In fact I found it annoying that they mapped out the entire plot (except the rosebud thing) right at the beginning. But apparently it has deep focus photography and nifty fake ceilings made of cloth. Isn't that nice.
I did find the whole story about Orson Welles battling it out with William Randolph Heast pretty fascinating though. My previous knowledge of Hearst was based mostly on the brief mention of him by Joseph Pulitzer in Newsies.
"Rosebud..."
3 comments:
That is pretty much how I feel about Citizen Kane. When I watched it, there was also a feature that explained all the fancy angles, etc, that were used for the first time, and I think that it was also one of the first movies to use flashbacks (not 100% sure, it's been a long time since I saw it). But these things are so commonplace now that we'd never think twice about them! So while it was revolutionary when it was made, the things that made it so really didn't age well.
Well said, I would have to agree (though I haven't actually watched it, I've heard plenty.) It's a little bit similar to the acclaim of avatar - it's not that the movie's especially good (not original, pretty entertaining the first time, I never want to re-watch it), it's that it used new techniques. Now in avatar's case the new techniques cost a ton of money and made it really fun to see in 3D on the big screen, and that's why it made so much money, while Citizen Kane's new techniques were more subtle and not as lucrative.
Hi Nate, I have to agree with you about Citizen Kane. Its become almost a cultural tradition to call it the greatest movie ever made... which its not. Good thoughts.
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