October 15–22, 1998

movie shorts

Citizen Kane

recommended

The world changed when Orson Welles released Citizen Kane back in 1941. For one thing, countless filmmakers since then have demonstrated or claimed its influence. For another, it gave Steven Spielberg a prop-sled to spend way too much money on. And for yet another, just about every Best Films list since then has included this groundbreaker, which, at the time, annoyed and disturbed viewers. All those low camera angles, wide angle lenses, deep shadows, heavy-hanging ceilings, cavernous deep focus shots, elaborate crane shots, and Susan Foster Kane's cringe-inducing, endless aria: really, it was all a bit much. Not to mention the dicey subject matter: 26-year-old crazyman Welles made an overtly political film, playing a William Randolph Hearst-ish media tyrant, desperately unhappy and determined to make everyone love him because he was separated from his sled (and Agnes Moorehead) as a child. And for one more thing, Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine wouldn't have had a narrative model, as it leans heavily on the reporter (Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane) searching for the secret meaning of a great, insane, fascinating man's life and never finding it (assuming the rosebud revelation is ironic rather than slammingly literal). If you haven't seen it on a wide screen, you should check it out. The breathtakingly innovative visuals are the point of this experience.

-Cindy Fuchs