welles done!

Rating: Null/10 (6 February 2004)

What else can one say about a movie that everything has been said, and better? Although not my favorite movie, "Citizen Kane" represents a force of will never expressed quite so well by an American filmmaker. "Citizen Kane" educates not only filmmakers but teaches discerning viewers how to watch a movie of personal expression. The first hour is so good that I keep watching when the plot drags after his affair with Susan Alexander is exposed and costs him a governorship ("Candidate caught in love nest with 'singer,'" is a wonderfully inspired headline; note the single quotes around "singer," implying that Alexander is not to be confused with Maria Callas). The news-reel sequence remains fresh and exciting upon repeated viewings, using techniques that Woody Allen employed to dulling effect in "Zelig." The movie is watching simply for the dialogue, for which Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles received the film's only Oscar; note Mr. Bernstein's speech about a girl in a white parasol; Welles reciting his "declaration of principles" with Joseph Cotten's reminder, "That's the second sentence you've begun with I;" Welles, as Kane, completing a drunken Jed Leland's negative review of Alexander's Chicago operatic debut because, says Leland (Cotten), "he wanted to prove he was an honest man; an aging Welles telling his financial adviser from youth that he still should be addressed as Mr. Thatcher "because you're too old to be called anything else;" but most of all Cotten with Welles on election night and proposing a toast to "love on my terms, because those are the only ones you'll ever get." And we haven't mentioned "Rosebud," Gregg Toland's cinematography or Bernard Herrmann's score. All the more reason to watch this American original. And when the credits roll, remember that Welles made it age 25!