Mankiewicz and the newspaper tycoon in "Citizen Kane" have a subtle similarity: the family's influence on the two lasts for a lifetime; they show excellent talents and abilities; actively participate in political and social movements; A legend of an era, and then personally destroy it... It's just that Mankiewicz's great immortality has been submerged in the long river of history for a long time.
The retro black and white tone can indeed be regarded as a fan movie work, not to mention the chronological font and "smoke ring", but for me, the fan movie complex in the film is not only that, but also the screenwriter. Discussion of the subtle relationship with the director. Orson Welles gave Mank plenty of creative space, so that the director only met the screenwriter once when he was creating the most important work of his career-and ended in unhappy. As an important top director in the world, he is known as an author from beginning to end. In his creative career, David Fincher rarely served as a screenwriter. The importance he attaches to co-writers cannot help but doubt whether he agrees with the "director-centric theory". . Compared with Orson Wells, who is a screenwriter, director, and actor, who created this classic in popular recognition, David Fincher seems to recognize Mank's solid and excellent script more in the movie. , The contribution made to the birth of "Citizen Kane" is comparable to that of Wells. A 21st-century Hollywood writer and director, with all the resources he can get, made a work that rectifies the name of the Golden Hollywood screenwriter. This is really interesting!
The stubbornness and conservativeness of the Golden Age studios and Hollywood as a barometer of American political trends are also another major theme of the film. Owen Salberg, Louis Mayer, and Hirst co-edited an anti-Upton Sinclair fake news short film that illustrates the problem. As a candidate for governor of the Socialist Party, Upton Sinclair participated in the 1934 election in the name of the Democratic Party. His socialist program: "California Poverty Elimination Plan" is undoubtedly a tycoon under the Hollywood studio system. They avoid it. Louis Meyer’s hypocrisy of exploiting and subtracting from the bottom of the drama workers is still unable to let go. How can such big capitalists allow a "red man" to touch their cheese? Interestingly, what Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel "Petroleum!" refutes is precisely the black gold background and original sin of such a group of self-made upstarts, which was adapted by Paul Thomas Anderson in 2007. For the movie "The Blood Is Coming". The line of political struggle may be seen by many people, because it does not seem to have much to do with Mank’s creative process. I personally think that this is an important cut-off point for Mank’s change of mind. The political battle with Irving Salberg and Louis Mayer failed. This is for such a leftist intellectual who has a high moral requirement to help the Jews during the war. Said that Hollywood as a bastion of free values is like a phantom. Mank is the epitome of most of Hollywood's "engines" of that era: he was talented, conceived in the world, suave and romantic but still retained his ideals and beliefs. It is difficult for his body to fight against the huge studio system. In the end, the only thing he can control is The pen as a screenwriter. This also explains Mank's exhaustion in the latter part of the film and his desperate and painful struggle with the script of "Citizen Kane".
The whole movie, if there is a main line, then according to the wind direction of the previous propaganda, it should be how Mank completed the "Citizen Kane" script. However, nearly half of the time in the film, Mank has initially completed the script work. Obviously, David Fincher’s ambition is not just to make a "love letter to the movie" to kill the Quartet during the awards season, but to help the audience restore the Hollywood of the 1930s with high-intensity information. Inject the temperament of "Citizen Kane" into the legendary screenwriter of Mank. What is Rosebud? It's an unspeakable feeling but never grasped or possessed something. In "The Last Emperor", Puyi was ordered to leave the Forbidden City by the officers and soldiers who came to Beijing. Compared with the enthroned concubine and servant, he did not show the slightest anger or depression, but only hid his emotions behind the brown sunglasses. But the audience can also feel that Pu Yi is so lonely and helpless at this moment because of the tennis ball in his hand. This is the only thing a person who is born dominated and has a sad background can do-just hold that little tennis ball. Subjectively speaking, the tennis ball in "The Last Emperor" is Rosebud. For Mank, Rosebud is a former belief and ideal, an American citizen, more precisely, a conscientious intellectual 's entire imagination of the term Decent , even if his body has long since fallen and decayed. Entering the 21st century, there are really two works that can be called "Citizen Kane of this era": "The Blood Is Coming" and "Fox Hunter". Whether it is Daniel, DuPont, or Mank, they have been chasing their own "gold" all their lives. They have created a legend that belongs to an era and then destroyed it with their own hands. The three films, with different styles, all threw the American dream to the ground, smashing the spirit and body, and releasing the enchanting spirit and life energy of Dionysus.
In this age without myths, he fights Orson Wells with the spirit of Bacchus, against the studio, and against the bizarre era. His immortal book is worthy of a Citizen Kane-style movie book.
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