What a great film! Liev Schreiber is one of my favourite actors, and does an excellent job in the film! The story is a very interesting one, and really akes you realise how brave he (Welles) was. It seems nowadays that every "arty" film using violence or sex to be controversial is labelled "brave" which I think is a load of s***! But Orson Welles making Citizen Kane is one of the few films that has the right to be labelled a "brave" film (as well as damn good!)
shareWatching this had me thinking how tightly they controlled information back then. If they didn't want any star's sexual kinks publicized, it wasn't. If the wanted to get rid of a star or blackmail them--no problem. There seemed to be a huge amount of trivial information about the famous of Hollywood, and that was all the public got. Nowadays, it seems that nothing is kept hidden or secret--or is it? I agree Welles was pretty brave in bucking the System back then. I was really surprised that Citizen Kane was released at all.
shareWelles also had complete control over "Citizen Kane." The set was closed, not even studio execs were allowed in.
shareTrue. True.
But remember that the script had to be submitted to the Censor's Office EVERY time they made a change to it. And Welles did want it to have more sex and a wee bit more violence in it - including scenes with a brothel madam and various prostitues and Kane choking his father and physically attacking BOTH his wives. Orson's "comlete" control was relegatedmainly to the set. He was strictly controlled in both PRE and POST production by various execs and offices. Which, of course, was his biggest gripe.
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This was a great movie that boasted a near brilliant performance from Liev Schreiber as Orson Welles, and yes, Welles was definitely a Hollywood rebel who attempted to buck the Hollywood system at every opportunity, which is why a lot of porjects that Welles had in mind never came to fruition because he wanted to do everything his way and the studios were not having that. This movie was a fascinating look into the mad genius that was Orson Welles.
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I agree on what a great film, Liev Schreiber being the best part. Orson was so young, 25ish, but maybe that's what helped him be so brave? Naivety?
I don't like the title, though, too cumbersome. I realize it's the studio name but I missed the significance of 281.
Did this movie even come out in theaters because I had never heard of it before I picked it up at the video store for a buck.
Now, of course I have to see "Citizen Kane".
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"You're the doctor; I'm the mother. I outrank you" Mother to House, MD
Naivete had little to do with it. He was brave because he thought he was a genius - he was raised to think so - and he was right. Unfortunately, he was also a huge egotistical a-hole who didn't take criticism or taking crap from people well, especially when it came to his own work ("I have an unfortunate personality," he said of himself).
Who can blame him--he WAS a genius who knew what he was talking about (he had complete control of Citizen Kane and look how that turned out - why didn't RKO listen to him?!)--but in Hollywood you have to be able to take that BS or you won't make it. Welles is case in point. And what a waste of talent too. I would have loved to his version of Don Quixote come to fruition in his youth.
Once the studio tampered with the Magnificent Ambersons, it was pretty well over from him, though he did make some good ones after that. The Third Man is my absolute favorite of his after Citizen Kane, although he didn't write or direct it--but it shows what a great acting talent he was! While you're renting Citizen Kane, I'd recommend you'd try that one as well.
I watched this last night vs the Phelps Games. I made a good choice. A few years back I had the pleasure of sitting with Roger Ebert for 3 days (Democracy in the Dark) disecting this movie frame by frame. I remember him saying the new camera techniques Orson came up with made this movie so good, yes, like the hole in the floor. Get the C K DVD with Eberts commentary and check it out.
And was that really what Rosebud was? Roger probably said it but I missed that at the time.
If I am channel surfing and I see C K I just have to stop and watch it.