New Appreciation

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2012)

I was channel surfing the other day and caught a segment of Citizen Kane that gave me an even better appreciation of Orson Welles. Orson Welles is one of my cinema idols and several of his films are in my favorites list; Citizen Kane, A Touch of Evil and The Third Man. The fact that Welles wrote, directed and starred in his films gave him total control of the art he produced so if you like it he gets the credit and if you don't he gets the blame.
Citizen Kane is a staple of classic cinema and the first time I saw it was during the 1970s in a high-school film appreciation class when I was 16. At that time I didn't have a full understanding of the movie and yet because I was a budding photo enthusiast I do remember how impressed I was with the cinematography; the manipulation of light (in black and white) and the unique perspectives of the camera. I didn't know at the time Welles directed all that. Since high-school I've probably only watched the entire film maybe twice.
The segment I saw the other day is the scene between Welles and Dorothy Comingore when Kane first meets his future wife Susan. They are in her apartment parlor having a dialog with tight close-ups and subsequently she plays the piano for him while singing arias. Watching that scene, especially the tight close-ups of Welles, it truly reveals what a hugely talented genius Welles was. His eyes and carefully created expressions provide an incredible depth to his character rarely seen in film.
While the movie was a fictionalized biography of William Randolph Hearst I have the impression Welles simply chose that story as a frame to hang his art on.