5/30/2020 Citizen Kane

The story itself is pretty simple. A famous man's last dying word causes a search for the meaning through interview with people who knew him. The story that emerges is a very melodramatic one and not of any interest.

The captivating part is the way the story is told.

It starts with a parody of the "March of Time" new trailer which was the way the main Americans saw their news in 1941. They were new reels clips shown in front of movies. In it the main character, Charles Foster Kane, is described a leftist and a fascist. This leaves the view to believe a simple word is not going suffice to describe him. He was a newspaper baron who controlled the news, so you are learning about his death throw a competitor.

A unseen and unnamed reporter, go out to interview people who knew Kane.While people's stories are being told, you find more about the person telling the story than about Kane himself.

The film is extremely dense in the way it tells the story. What story people decide to tell. What the camera angles are used. What other people reaction to them are. There is a hint that this might not be the total truth just a reflection on it. This is done with the camera, lighting, production design, makeup, editing, and sound.

The reason is that is my favorite film of all time is not because of its reputation. It is because of how dense and it rich it is which they way all elements tell the story. Every time, I watch it, I see something interesting in the way the story is told. Everytime, you see a flashback in a film, you should be thinking that this is the story the character is telling and not neccessarily objective. The ultimate example of this is Rashomon(coming soon)