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| Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore,
Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Everett
Sloane |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles): Read the cable.
Bernstein (Everett Sloane): "Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop.
Could send you prose poems about scenery, but don't feel right spending
your money. Stop. There is no war in Cuba, signed Wheeler." Any answer?
Charles Foster Kane: Yes. "Dear Wheeler: you provide the prose
poems. I'll provide the war."
The
story of the life and times of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane.
 It's
hard to believe that this movie was the cinematic debut of Orson Welles,
who at the age of 25 had already achieved an amazing level of fame and
notoriety on the stage and in radio. Given unprecedented control over
his first feature, Welles co-wrote, directed and starred in Citizen
Kane, a thinly disguised biography of newspaper tycoon William Randolph
Hearst, which did not paint its subject in a particularly flattering
light: in fact, Hearst tried to have the film suppressed.
The fantastic screenplay was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz (a regular
house guest of Hearst's) and Orson Welles, with uncredited work by script
editor John Houseman, while Hollywood insiders looked on in amazement
as Welles started to bend the rules Hollywood studios lived by. While
Welles was undoubtedly the main creative force behind the production,
his most important collaborator was cinematographer Gregg Toland. Toland
and Welles avoided the conventional mise-en-scène of long-shot/medium-shot/close-up
to instead create a more objective and realistic view of the action
via deep-focus lenses, multiplane compositions and camera movement.
They also invented numerous special effects, huge indoor sets and filmed
scenes in long takes so the Mercury Theatre (Welles' theatre company)
actors could perform as they were used to.
One of the film's rare qualities that makes it so admired is its ability
to yield considerable thematic ideas upon further inspection; almost
every sequence or shot seems to have significance beyond what the frame
contains. And though this may all sound a bit dry it's important to
realize how much fun this movie is: Welles was very much a practical
joker in real life and his sly wit permeates the first half of the movie
(the News On The March segment is hilarious). The movie takes
a turn towards the dark side in its last half hour and as the towering
performance of Welles himself takes over it becomes clear why Citizen
Kane is consistently viewed as one of the greatest movies ever made. |
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The
only serious version available is the Region 1 Warner Bros release from
25th september 2001: it features a remastered picture from a newly found
and restored negative and a host of extras. The version that was available
in the UK since 1999 on Region 2 was mastered from an old VHS print
and is to be avoided.
Citizen Kane is presented in its proper 1.37:1 full screen
aspect ratio. Warner’s black and white transfer is the finest that
has ever been available on home video. Utilizing a recently unearthed
film element, the same team responsible for the North
By Northwest DVD from last year (you can read an interview with
them here)
has worked magic in the digital realm to make the DVD presentation appear
pristine. The image is very sharp and highly detailed, which allows
one to appreciate all the wonderful textures contained in the costumes
and sets (just look at the opening shot of the No Trespassing sign;
even the raindrops can be seen clearly). Shadow detail is essential
in this movie and it's close to perfect here. The only complaint that
can be made against the transfer is some very noticeable edge enhancement
which presents itself in white lines around the actors ('halo'-like
appearance).
The original mono soundtrack has also been restored into a Dolby
Digital mono track for this release and is very clean, totally lacking
in hiss, pops, clicks, hum and other forms of audible distortion. Fidelity
is limited due to the age of the recording but I was very surprised
by the overall quality with all dialogue sounding terrific and the score
by Bernard Herrmann sounding better than ever.
The
most important extra is on disc two. The Battle Of Citizen Kane is
an outstanding two-hour documentary on the many stories behind
the film's production, most specifically those related to William Randolph's
Hearst quest to get the movie destroyed, and the sad consequences this
ultimately had for Orson Welles. Full of great archival material, this
documentary is so vividly narrated, it almost plays like a thriller
and could easily have sustained a release all its own.
On disc one we find 2 audio commentaries; one by writer/director
and close OrsonWelles friend Peter Bogdanovich and the second by movie
critic Roger Ebert. Bogdanovich is fairly restrained and easy to follow,
pointing out some key technical elements the movie pioneered and uses
some anecdotes to convey Welles' thoughts on the movie and his career
in general. Ebert details the same technical aspects and much more:
the man is unstoppable and his commentary may prove too much to take
in on one sitting. Both tracks however are nice additions and both tell
you a lot about the ideas and achievements the movie is rightly praised
for.
Other extras on disc one are a snippet of original newsreel footage
of the New York premiere of Citizen Kane, plus a theatrical trailer
narrated by Welles. Other supplements are broken down into three sections:
The Production, Post Production and Production Notes. The Production
includes storyboards, call sheets and a still gallery,
which features a narration by Roger Ebert. Post Production includes
deleted scenes, ad campaign, press book and opening night. It
should be noted that the deleted scenes includes no actual footage,
but still photographs and storyboards of deleted material. Production
Notes is a straightforward text supplement that looks at various aspects
of the production of the movie with some more background on Welles himself.
An extra that is sadly missing and surely would have suited this DVD
release is the original screenplay: not only because it won an Oscar
but also because it may well be one of the best screenplays ever written. Animated
menus consist of a static picture and pieces of the original movie: other
menus feature a small introduction, with a recurring theme of newspapers.
Navigation is easy.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Citizen
Kane .
Click here
to return to the front page.
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