No other like it

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 2008)

KANE is a movie of Shakespearian beauty and depth. Its beauty is an intelligible one; I must humbly admit it took me several viewings, much reflection, etc.,to be able to taste it. KANE is like STALKER, like AMBERSONS, etc.it teaches us that the first impression is crap, is nothing. What should I say about its impressive style, where everything is needed, necessary, useful, functional. There's nothing better; each shot is absolutely functional, each device is needed ,and required by the story. Nothing is formalistic, empty. It is the very opposite of Tarantino, who is made entirely of abundant unnecessary tricks and devices and stylistic gizmo's. The boss picked by Welles to be portrayed in KANE is uninteresting; Kane is of perennial importance. I know no other movie more richly and subtly thought and, in a superior sense, crafted. Missing KANE is missing what is best in cinema. This movie will never be equaled. What heartbreaking beauty!
Mme. Kael defined KANE as an exuberant, muckraking attack on an archetypal economic baron;this is prettily vague. Anyway, taken with the necessary qualifications, Mme. Kael's definition is blatantly false and misconstrued. If Hearst would have been other than an economic leader, a boss, he would have felt flattered by Welles' portrayalto such a degree is Welles' approach purely Shakespearian in vigor ,health, richness and concision. (One might nonetheless argue that Mme. Kael spoke about exuberance; she did, but I do not think that she meant the Shakespeareian one!) .In KANE, the wonders are of all kinds. There is no other movie equally rich, dense and stylistically exemplary and flawless. Each frame, each angle has a character of inner necessity and truth. KANE is not a pamphlet against a capitalist boss. It is an impressionistic, cognitively mature take on the human heart and its meanderings.
The vitriol of Hollywoodian indiscretions is what has already perished, vanished. Welles went undoubtedly much, much beyond that. It is even less a myth; it is poetry and realism. A strictly functional style. The style, the morphology are strictly subordinated to their function. (The opposite example, the textbook example of style over content is GODFATHER.)In KANE, one has as much content as he has style; the content is always served by the style.
And what performances!What a superior wit!What a pure, unblemished art!
This is realism; this is superlative realism. The richest representation of life, in cinema, that I am aware of. Balzac would not have written this script better. Some lines gave chills to Averty. A better thing will never be written. This Shakespearian dramatic edge has nothing to do with the supposed pamphlet. The best thing made in cinema's art till now. To give trite epithets to Welles' directing would mean being vulgar. Centuries will pass, cultures will succeed one anotherKANE will endure. In each generation, a small elite is able to taste KANE; be a part of it!
I did not like it the first time; even less I understood it. I only began to feel it, on the second viewing, after many years.
Kane was cinema's great shot at the noblest poetry. Kane has more to do with Shakespeare, than with any reallife businessman. It's sad many perceive in it but the most exterior appealthe satire.