My First Viewing of Citizen Kane
December 8, 2006 – 10:28 amAriele and I watched the movie Citizen Kane last night. She had seen the movie several times before, while it was my first viewing. I don’t really feel like I can give a fair critique of the movie since I knew what I was expected to think about it before it began. I guess I should expect that when I watch a movie that is largely considered to be one of the greatest in the history of American cinema.
Even though I probably could not assess it fairly, I did try. And I must say I really enjoyed it. Citizen Kane definitely had an epic feel to it. I was very impressed with the use of makeup to age the characters over the course of decades. Given the movie was filmed in 1941, I (possibly naively) certainly wasn’t expecting that. My favorite character was Mr. Bernstein. There was something about his nasally voice that fit perfectly without being at all annoying.
I’ll be honest and admit that while I enjoyed the movie, I wondered afterward why it is so often considered the best American movie ever made. The DVD had several special features on it, and I started watching the commentary by Roger Ebert. Actually, I read a bunch about Citizen Kane online before I watched the special features, which is becoming a habit of mine for movies that I really liked.
Being as ignorant of film as I am, I found Mr. Ebert’s commentary particularly intriguing. I had no idea just how unique Citizen Kane was in its use of various elements of film-making. I am spoiled watching modern day movies where a computer can be used to fake just about anything that needs to be faked. Orson Welles didn’t have that option back in 1941, and it was amazing to hear just how some of the camera shots were crafted. On the second viewing, which really isn’t a viewing since Mr. Ebert is talking over the movie, I definitely appreciate various shots and whole scenes that I had taken for granted the first time around.
I am about one hour into Mr. Ebert’s commentary at this point. I had to pause it and go to bed, since I had already stayed up way too late on a “school night” as it was. I’m fascinated by the movie, and true, without the film’s critical acclaim, I almost certainly would not be nearly as interested. But given the story of Citizen Kane, and the somewhat similar story of Orson Welles himself, I’m enthralled. I am more than a little anxious to finish Mr. Ebert’s commentary and move on to whatever else the DVD and the Internet have to offer.
2 Responses to “My First Viewing of Citizen Kane”
Have you seen Casablanca? We NetFlixed it recently and I must say, I thought it was excellent. The story of the making of the movie is about as different from Citizen Kane as you can get. It was made in the old studio system where they would churn out a new movie every week. It was just another movie at the time and was actually filmed while WWII was still going on (which is significant because the war was so important to the movie and shooting contemporaneously to major events is so rare). Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. I liked it even more than Citizen Kane, although they are very different movies.
By Bobby on Dec 11, 2006 at 3:13 pm
I have seen Casablanca. Ariele introduced me to that one too. I definitely enjoyed Casablanca, but there was something about the aura of Citizen Kane that made it feel epic and transcendent.
Like I tried to express in the post, I’m absolutely positive my review would differ substantially if I had seen this movie in 1942. I still would have like it a lot, but the “greatest movie” tag and the life story of Orson Welles obviously wouldn’t have had any effect on me. And seeing it when I did, those elements did have effects on me.
But I would say I enjoyed watching Citizen Kane slightly more than I did Casablanca.
By jjk on Dec 11, 2006 at 5:25 pm