Citizen Kane
The world's most famous and highly-rated film, with many remarkable scenes and performances and innovative cinematic and narrative techniques. Its director, star, and producer were all the same remarkable genius - Orson Welles - who, incredibly, was making his film debut at the age of 25.
Citizen Kane on DVD
Arguably the greatest of American films, Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece, made when he was only 26, still unfurls like a dream and carries the viewer along the mysterious currents of time and memory to reach a mature (if ambiguous) conclusion: people are the sum of their contradictions, and can't be known easily. Welles plays newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. The result is that every well-meaning or tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, and photographed by Gregg Toland, the film is the sum of Welles's awesome ambitions as an artist in Hollywood. He pushes the limits of then-available technology to create a true magic show, a visual and aural feast that almost seems to be rising up from a viewer's subconsciousness. As Kane, Welles even ushers in the influence of Bertolt Brecht on film acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind work, and in many ways is still the most modern of modern films from the 20th century.
Many of the performers from Orson Welles' own Mercury Theatre group made their screen debuts in the film, among them Joseph Cotten (Kane's oldest and best friend, and his newspaper's drama critic), Dorothy Comingore (Kane's second wife), Ruth Warrick (Kane's first wife), Ray Collins (Kane's political opponent), Agnes Moorehead (Kane's mother), Everett Sloane (Kane's devoted and loyal employee and business manager), Erskine Sanford (the newspaper's editor-in-chief), Paul Stewart (Kane's butler), George Couloris (Kane's legal guardian and bank manager), and William Alland (the chief investigative reporter).
Cast List
Orson Welles ... Charles Foster Kane
Joseph Cotten ... Jedediah Leland
Dorothy Comingore ... Susan Alexander Kane
Agnes Moorehead ... Mary Kane
Ruth Warrick ... Emily Monroe Norton Kane
Ray Collins ... James W. Gettys
Erskine Sanford ... Herbert Carter
Everett Sloane ... Mr. Bernstein
William Alland ... Jerry Thompson
Paul Stewart ... Raymond
George Coulouris ... Walter Parks Thatcher
Fortunio Bonanova ... Signor Matiste
Gus Schilling ... The Headwaiter
Philip Van Zandt ... Mr. Rawlston
Georgia Backus ... Bertha Anderson
Harry Shannon ... Kane's Father
Story Line
Citizen Kane begins with Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) death and his dying word "Rosebud". He was a one-time newspaper magnate. The paper he owned, the New York Inquirer, is desperate to unearth the meaning of his cryptic last word. Jerry Thompson (William Alland), will dig into Kane´s life to find out. He interviews Kane's acquaintances and researches his life. The story is told through the flashbacks of the interviewees
We learn about Kane's rise to riches, his battles with his guardian, Walter Thatcher (George Coulouris) and his friendship with and alienation from Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotton). He marries a president's niece and eventually moves into the political arena, but his bid for the governor's office crashes when his rival exposes Kane's affair with Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore). Kane divorces his first wife, marries Susan and builds an opera house for her. Eventually, his business colossus crumbles around him, his second wife leaves him, his friends and hangers-on desert him until he dies in his fabulous palace Xanadu.
Citizen Kane Posters
