Friday, March 20, 2009

Siskel & Ebert on ‘Citizen Kane’

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ebert actually did the commentary track on the DVD. If you haven't watched it with the commentary on, it's worth it.

FunkyHeadHunter said...

Citizen Kane is one of my favorite films of all time. If you haven't seen it, you might also want to check out the movie HBO put out several years ago about the making of Citizen Kane--RKO-281. Fucking brilliant.

Sam said...

I concur with FunkyHeadHunter, RKO was a cool movie. Liev Schrieber did a hell of an Orson Welles, considering he looks and sounds nothing like him.

Another cool one is "Five Minutes Mister Welles," a short film written and starring Vincent D'Onofrio. It's about Welles during the making of The Third Man. Apparently D'Onofrio was unhappy with his Welles impression in Ed Wood, and wanted another shot. It's on Youtube.

bklyn6 said...

I once heard "Purple Rain" and "Citizen Kane" in the same sentence. I think it happened when Siskel & Ebert reviewed PR.

That should've been enough for me to check out CK. I have no idea why I still haven't seen this classic. :-/

Anonymous said...

Showed it this week to the high school Film Studies course that I teach; they thought it was too slow. I was even more bummed when they whined during The Magnificent Ambersons this morning. Dag, I thought that I was getting somewhere when they loved John Ford (especially Liberty Valence). They really like Cagney too, so maybe all hope is not lost...

dubbleu said...

@bklyn6

it actually is a pretty good movie, though sadly so good that Orson Welles could never live up to it again!

There is a pretty decent HBO Original Movie with Liev Schreiber titled, "RKO 281" about the making of the movie. Netflix!!!

@jknola What Cagney film did you show them? I was pretty shocked when I took a liking to "Public Enemy".

Anonymous said...

it actually is a pretty good movie, though sadly so good that Orson Welles could never live up to it again!

I gotta disagree with that. Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight are just as good as Kane, if not better. His Othello is pretty great as well.

Anonymous said...

@Wanda "What Cagney film did you show them? I was pretty shocked when I took a liking to 'Public Enemy'"

I showed that one, as well as Angels with Dirty Faces, bits of The Roaring Twenties, and, for fun, some highlights from Yankee Doodle Dandy. I got a whole new appreciation for Cagney rediscovering him through the kids' eyes.

@Andrew I totally agree; hell, most of Welles' pictures have something to recommend (for example, the mirrors in Lady from Shanghai)

Anonymous said...

@jknola

If you're getting them into John Ford, you should see/show "The Long Gray Line".

You would have to special order it, but it's still one of the better films you're going to find

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048312/

Lenoxave said...

Love that film. "Rosebud." Classic.