mise018 ‘Opposing Viewpoints in Context - Document - Movie ofthe Woek - CITIZEN KANE (1941) Movie of the Week - CITIZEN KANE (1941) The Age (Melbourne, Australia). (Jan. 4, 2007) Lexile Measure: 1280L. Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited. www.theage.com.au. Not available for re-distribution, Full Text: Byline: CRAIG MATHIESON FILM REVIEWS: CITIZEN KANE (1941); PRISONER: OR HOW | PLANNED TO KILL TONY BLAIR CITIZEN KANE (1941) ABC, Wednesday, 11.30pm The best film ever made. That's the burden Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane has had to bear for almost a half century now - his debut topped Sight & Sound's authoritative Greatest Ever Film poll in 1962 and has remained there every decade since. It has rendered this vivid and accomplished film with the starchy feel of an institution - something that must. be dutifully watched when to experience it should be intoxicating. Certainly, Welles himself, still a wunderkind in his mid-20s when production began, had little inkling of the foundations it would lay, although he did expect a great outcome by mere virtue of his prominent involvement. The authorship of Citizen Kane remains a subject of debate, with Herman J. Mankiewicz's screenplay proving as integral as Welles’ direction. Certainly, Mankiewicz was an intimate of the film's subject, press baron and mogul William Randolph Hearst. But i's difficult to watch the film and not be caught up in the narrative invention Welles brought to the page. The first marriage of his fictional Hearst, Charles Foster Kane, unravels in one brief but telling sequence of breakfast-table remarks spanning several years, Gregg Toland’s deep-focus photography - which allowed Joseph Cotton, as Kane's best, perhaps only, friend, Jed Leland, to watch the rot set in from amid the frames charged with iconography - remains a subject of acclaim. But Citizen Kane is also a great study in the power of the press and the unyielding corruption of wealth and power. And in Welles’ Mercury Theatre Group, it boasts an impressive ensemble guest, with Agnes Moorehead (as Kane's mother) and Paul Stewart (as his butler) particularly illuminating. Watch with fresh eyes and enjoy. Pick of the Week PRISONER: OR HOW | PLANNED TO KILL TONY BLAIR Tuesday, SBS, 8.30pm This is the story of one of the countless ordinary men and women treated abominably by Saddam then sacrificed to the Coalition of the Willing's nightmarish "war of liberation” in Iraq. Fergus Shiel, page 34 CRAIG MATHIESON Source Citation (MLA 8" Edition) “Movie of the Week - CITIZEN KANE (1941)." Age [Melbourne, Australia], 4 Jan. 2007, p. 25. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A281013137/OVIC? u=txshracd25008sid=OVIC&xid=ec4e099c. Accessed 15 July 2019. Gale Document Number: GALE|A281013137 .¢0.galograup.com/psitvieve.do?tabID=NewsBresullsfType=RESULT_LIST&searchResulls Type=MullTabBsearchType=BasieSearchFormé.current... 1/1rns2019 ‘Opposing Viewpoints in Context - Document Its Not A Sled Anymore: Remaking A Cinematic Cassie It's Not A Sled Anymore: Remaking A Cinematic Classic All Things Considered. 2014. Lexile Measure: 1110L. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions page at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadiine by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio. Full Text: To listen to this broadcast, click here: Play audio BLOCK: A film premieres in Toronto tonight about a poor boy who rises to great power as a media mogul, only to die longing for the simple things of his childhood. If that story sounds familiar, its because it's the plot of "Citizen Kane,” the 1941 movie classic that tops many lists of the greatest films ever made. The new film is a remake from an unlikely Canadian auteur. We asked critic Bob Mondello how it stacks up to the Orson Welles original. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) MONDELLO: The opening shot is wide-screen and color, not square and black-and-white. But it's otherwise identical to the opening of the original: a no-trespassing sign on a chain-link fence in the rain, Then the camera pulls back to reveal not a gloomy mountaintop estate but a grimy, window- shattered New York skyscraper, a 57-story, single-occupancy Trump Tower filled with enormously expensive kitsch by Charles Foster Kane, who is about to breathe his last into a cell phone, before it slips from his hand and shatters on the marble floor. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE) UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as Kane) Rosebud. MONDELLO: Kane was, as we leam in a CNN profile, the man whose international media conglomerate defined conservative orthodoxy in the 21st century. With a few terse texts to his editors, Kane could knock economies into tailspins, send nations marching into war. So why did he die without ‘even Facebook friends? And what, wonders the producer of that CNN profile, did he mean when he whispered Rosebud? A reporter is given two hours to find out. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE) UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: They got me on hold. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Go there. Talk to him and get me something... MONDELLO: The original “Citizen Kane" was based closely enough on the life of Wiliam Randolph Hearst, that its ads were banned from Hearst's newspapers. I'd say you shouldn't expect to see ads for this one on Fox. The back-story it invents tracks pretty closely to the politics and personal life of Rupert Murdoch, though with plenty of liberties taken about his early years. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE) UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: You are the big cat destined to wander forever, spreading your sunshine. MONDELLO: | won't be alone in marveling that the creator of this concept is actor and, more recently, director Keanu Reeves. My initial reaction was maybe best expressed by the man himself {90 galogroup.comipsiretieve.do?tabID=AudlosS.esul.istTypo=RESULT_LIST&soarchRosuiteTypo=MuliTab&soarchType=BasicSearchFormécurent... 1/3nsr019 ‘Opposing Viewpoint in Context - Document Its Not A Sled Anymore: Remsking A Cinematic Classic REEVES: Whoa. MONDELLO: But that's not really fair considering that just last year, Reeves made a perfectly respectable directing debut. His "Man of Tai Chi," in retrospect, looks like a practice run, a chance to play with digital effects that in "Kane" he overdoes a bit. I mean, Orson Welles reinvented cinematic form, Reeves is just digitizing and repurposing shots from his own early films, including the surfing flick "Point Break," so he can play the young Charlie Kane himself. You can think that's clever and still not like Rosebud having a fin instead of blades. But credit Reeves with holding his own in a seasoned cast. John Malkovich as the miserly guardian who fuels Kane's anger at the world... (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE) MALKOVICH: You represent the idiocy of today. MONDELLO: Charlize Theron as the untalented pop singer who bemoans her plight as his second wife. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE) THERON: | hate this stupid place. REEVES: It's alittle more than that. THERON: | know, but i's... MONDELLO: And while | wouldn't have gone with his “Bill and Ted” costar, Alex Winter, as Kane's eventually estranged best friend. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE) WINTER: No way. REEVES: Yes way. MONDELLO: Wel, it's his movie, not mine. Does all this justify making a new "Citizen Kane" in 3-D and with a martial arts subplot? Well, purists will surely argue no. But it's worth remembering that 73 years ago, cinema purists didn't take kindly to Orson Welles crashing their little party, either. He came from the world of Broadway, where no one thinks twice about revisiting "Hamlet." So perhaps it's best to think of this "Kane" as a reinterpretation not a remake. Citizen Keanu, if you will. I'm Bob Mondello. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) BLOCK: The movie is "Citizen Kane, 3D." The remake of the Orson Welles classic, opens in Toronto tonight. Disclaimer: We are providing links to the third party website only as a convenience and the inclusion of links to the linked site does not imply any endorsement, approval, investigation, verification or monitoring by us of any content or information contained within or accessed from the linked site. 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