Responses to this message:
The biggest problem with Citizen Kane isn't the "dollar-book Freud" conceit of Rosebud, nor is it the jerkily animated birds that fly behind Kane's tent during the picnic scene ( Orson hired Don Bluth instead of Disney ), nor is it the wooden, faceless performances given by many cast members.
Orson the Actor is to blame! Why oh why will no one admit that Orson Welles is a ferociously bad actor whose thespianic itinerary consists solely of shameful mugging that would make Gwen Stefani cringe? His smirking and smug rolling of his big eyeballs are insufferable; even his body language -- kicking his feet up on desks, that phony shuffling old man walk -- makes me want to commit Oedipal offenses to my poor beleaguered eyes.
My theory is Orson surrounded himself with fellow hams from the Mercury theater not out of loyalty or some hazy notion of unknowns being better equipped to bring this story to life -- no, those board-thumping twits are around only to make him, Orson, their director, guide, and ringleader, appear skilled by contrast. It's hard to notice that shuffling old man walk when Joseph Cotten's egregiously inept playing of a drunk is still fresh in one's mind. No one can complain about how Welles seems more bemused than angry when he's trashing his wife's bedroom -- no matter how ineffectually he destroys her belongings, we still cheer him on, remembering the fresh wounds the actress playing Susan Alexander opened every time she squawked in that shrill, Lorraine Bracco on 'ludes voice of hers.
But I have been able to overlook these peccadilloes in singling out Orson Welles, Unsubtlest Actor Dead or Alive. They say the story of his life holds lessons for us all, lessons that teach us that early success is often fatal, that macrocephalus ( a swelled head ) is bad, that sometimes creative lightning isn't followed by thunder. However, the only thought running through my mind from the baroque, turgid spectacle of Citizen Kane is "This is the greatest film of all time? Who says? Marty Di Bergi? Director of New York, New York? Screw him!"
Admittedly my mind is not the most far-ranging, but neither are those who like to call this movie the best, and this other one the worst. Why must we all fiddle with extremes? Are we children, saying "That's the best movie I ever saw!" with total lack of discrimination every time we leave a theater? Well are we?! I thought not; let's put away the puerile fun and games and praise the movies that have "it" while walking out on those that don't.
And for your information the greatest movie of all time is not Citizen Kane but Blue Velvet. Thank you.
Responses to this message:
Post a response to this discussion thread