I watched it when I was taking the course of film research in university. I remembered that this film was mentioned and analyzed the most during the stage of film language learning. In the era when the film was just produced, the film’s focus on lens language and language The development of narrative methods has made it a compulsory teaching material for all self-proclaimed filmmakers. But reading a textbook is one thing, and watching a film is another. The feeling of watching a film is that this is a film that is too cross-generational. The director’s ambition and talent are comparable to any famous contemporary director. Since the early 1940s, it is simply a work of heaven and man. The film's irony to politics and the media is pungent, and it has a deep insight into the character tragedies of big figures. Its intricate narrative may be a little too jumpy for the audience at that time, and this classic after many years became a box office poison at that time.
This revisiting of the classics is still attracted by its dazzling shots. The film’s extremely fast pace, coupled with the multi-perspective narrative, may not be easy for viewers who are already familiar with fast-paced films to keep up. Although many techniques seem to be a bit old because of the later borrowing and plagiarism of the film, it feels good to review college courses occasionally.
"Citizen Kane" was followed by a documentary interview with director Orson Wales. I don't know much about Wales. Apart from knowing that he is the director of "Citizen Kane", he is very talented, but after "Citizen Kane" he seems to have nothing to do. Wales died in 1985, and this interview should have been done shortly before his death. Contrary to the arrogant and arrogant director that the world thinks, Wales in the interview is confident and honest. He admits that he has not had any works without regrets, and he does not even deny Hollywood, which stubbornly excludes him from the mainstream. system.
Wales has been a child prodigy since he was a child, and has shown great talent in music and painting. He has never heard any criticism since he was a child. However, as an actor, his youth has restricted his development. He began professional theater performances at the age of 16, because his face was so tender that he could only play an old role through makeup. Although his actual age is far from the role he played, his unconcealed talents still earned him a huge reputation. His voice is strong and dramatic, so he often acts as a role dubbing for radio programs. Obviously, his talent is not limited to performance. As an entertainer, he has shown keen insight and refreshing and even deviant creativity very early on. After discovering that people were convinced of the information from the radio, Wales came up with a news program to broadcast a live report of an alien invasion of the earth. The beginning of the program claimed that the existing emergency news reports, followed by using various news languages and sound effects to create the atmosphere of the war scene, countless listeners were in panic, traffic in New York City was paralyzed, and various acts of robbery took advantage of the fire. Think that the end of the world is coming and choose to commit suicide. When everything was clarified, Wales became famous overnight in the United States.
Welsh’s ability to manipulate the entertainment industry has given Hollywood a golden light, so the 25-year-old Welsh won a contract that is fantastic for all directors. Within the budget allowed, Wales can give "Citizen Kane" a contract. "Have absolute decision-making power, and the film will be released directly without the review of the owner of the film company. The power to give to a Welsh who has never directed any film and knows nothing about the language of the film is unprecedented in the history of film. Fortunately, it is precisely because Wales knows nothing about the operation of the lens that the famous Hollywood photographer Gregg Toland came to the door to do "Citizen Kane" photography. Toland's reason is that he has more creative space and told Wales that all knowledge about film photography can be explained in three hours. As a result, Wales became a teacher in Toland's three-hour crash course and directed his screen debut, which he has never surpassed in his entire life, "Citizen Kane".
A 25-year-old director won nine Oscar nominations for his first film and won four, including best picture. If Wales is not a genius director, I am afraid no one can bear this title. Like most Welsh films afterwards, he starred in "Citizen Kane" in addition to being a director and producer. His role in the film spans a wide range of ages, from his twenties to the sluggish old age. The previous performance experience of Wales is perfectly displayed in this film. Because of his burly stature, big eyebrows and big eyes, Welsh's roles in life are all very authoritative figures. In addition to "Citizen Kane", Chinese audiences are familiar with the male number one in Joan Fontaine's version of "Jane Eyre". , Mr. Rochester also played in Wales. In "Citizen Kane", he is a newspaper tycoon, an extremely conceited figure who calls the wind and calls the rain and compares himself to the contemporary American Kublai Khan. His mansion is called "Shangdu", and it contains enough cultural relics from all over the world to fill ten museums. In the private zoo are all kinds of rare birds and animals from all corners of the world. He controls the news, and the people in the United States are in power by him. However, because of the shadow of childhood and the misfortune of his life, his wife left him one by one. When the economic crisis hit, his newspaper kingdom collapsed. In the completed "Shangdu", Kane died alone. This character alluded to the American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hirst at the time, and the tragic ending of the film made the real-life "Kane" extremely angry, so all his newspapers unanimously blocked the "Citizen" Kane. Since then, Wales has not only no longer had the opportunity to master all the film content like in "Citizen Kane", even the editing room has not been given.
After that, the Welsh directors have many more works, and there are even no shortage of masterpieces. However, Hollywood producers often place many harsh restrictions on Wales, very small shooting budgets and extremely short shooting cycles. But Wales could not give up the movies he was fascinated with, and always used his amazing wisdom to create great works in harsh environments. For example, when filming Shakespeare’s classic "Othello", the crew just arrived in Italy, the filming company, and all the costumes were not in place. Welsh traveled between Italy and New York, earning money from other activities. For the money to support a large group of crew members, on the one hand, Welsh chose to carry out the fighting scenes in the Turkish bath, so that everyone does not need to wear clothes. This is the first fighting scene in the bathroom in Hollywood history. The shadowy fighting in the fog is particularly fascinating. A compromise made to bypass funding difficulties has become another classic textbook scene in film history. The power to turn decay into a magical power is indeed amazing.
However, artists who use film to create are destined to not have complete creative freedom like musicians and painters. Movies are too expensive creative materials, and no one can always pay for it out of their own pockets. Even a talented director like Wales has spent his entire life in despair under the demanding requirements of the production company. It should be noted that Wales never wants to make movies that the public does not understand and do not like to watch. Most of his works are fast-paced, and the shooting methods are bold and novel, and the producers have repeatedly rejected Wales from the editing room. outside. His own shooting works cannot be edited in his own way, and Wales can hardly conceal his pain every time he mentions it in the interview. One of his later more influential works, "Gone with the Calamity", the script was driven out by Wales himself for three days at the request of the producer. When editing, the Welsh version was still ignored, but it was rejected by the Swiss. The publisher secretly reported it to the Expo's film festival and won the award. And the film’s box office revenue is also very good, but the producers are still furious, because Wales won again.
Welsh has been on the fringe of Hollywood's mainstream throughout his life. In addition to movies, he still produced many stage plays and radio shows. In many cases, when there is a lack of production funding, Welsh took over a number of lucrative odd jobs to supplement the crew. Tian jealous talents, especially in the film industry, which has a very low tolerance for individualism, no matter how talented, passionate and capable they are, they cannot fight against this huge mechanism. All those who have worked with Wales prove that Wales is not a tyrant-like bossy figure in media reports, and most people still think of him as arrogant and inferior like Kane in "Citizen Kane" when they mention him. The recent film "Me and Orson Wales" released in London still portrays Wales as a talented but controlling director. In his later years, Wales was afflicted by obesity. It is said that he was depressed and had to eat and drink.
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