CINEMA FORUM ON AMERICAN CINEMA – ASPECTS TO CONSIDER WHILE VIEWING THE FILM FOR SUBSEQUENT DEBATE: CITIZEN KANE
"Citizen Kane" is an extraordinary case in the history of cinema, on a global scale, for many reasons. So much so, that in general it is chosen as the best film in history in all the polls, even ahead of all those that Orson Welles did later.
It is extraordinary, above all, because of the dazzling artistic and human maturity that it reveals in someone who had never worked in the cinema before, only in radio and theater, where he had excelled, and who was only 26 years old. Thus, on the "artistic" side, he reinvents the cinematographic language, uniting in a particular way very diverse influences, from the German silent cinema to the American pioneers, and valuing in particular the eloquence of the camera movements in long shots and the dramatic effects of the framing and depth of field, and on the “human” side, it offers a highly effective reflection on decrepitude, failure and disappointments. However, bringing together the most diverse registers: social, moral, psychological, poetic, tender, humorous, dramatic...
He also invented the style of film-survey, ordered without Cartesian criteria and where the truth, always hypothetical, is illuminated from different perspectives and narrative times.
Kane's character is somewhat inspired by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, who went to great lengths to prevent distribution of the film, even attempting to buy and destroy it from the distributor-producers, RKO.
The premiere, held in New York on May 1, 1941, aroused great expectation, and the film was immediately recognized as an exceptional and dazzling work, the fruit of a genius that brought together functions: leading role, director, producer and co-writer. Instead, commercially it largely failed. From then on, Welles would not stop working in the cinema, both in America and Europe, combining new films as a director, also with him in the cast except for The Fourth Commandment (The Magnificent Ambersons), with acting jobs in films of all types and nationalities, always brilliantly.
It was prohibited in Spain until the early 60s, due to its marked American and liberal quality, in a few decades when the United States was an enemy of the Franco dictatorship.
Anita Hass.
Screening of the film “Citizen Kan” (1941/119 min. – 2 hours) in VOSE followed by a discussion about it on February 26. Screening: at 18:30 p.m. / Colloquium: at 20:30 p.m.
