LOF - Language About Film Lesson
Language About Film
Writing about movies is obviously a subjective art. Implicit in the form is an opinion. However, a useful review will offer an informed opinion. A great review will offer an informed opinion couched in excellent and interesting writing. Read the following review of Citizen Kane.
Reading Assignment: "Orson Welles's Controversial 'Citizen Kane' Proves a Sensational Film at Palace" (May 2, 1941)
Reading Assignment: "Raising Kane" excerpt by Pauline Kael
It is a shallow work, a shallow masterpiece.
- Pauline Kael
Not surprisingly, the most famous movie review of all time was written about Citizen Kane. Pauline Kael was a known contrarian who created reviews that tended to buck the trend. She is widely credited with the success of Bonnie and Clyde--as a reviewer. Her piece on Citizen Kane, titled "Raising Kane," was published in two sections of The New Yorker in 1971. True to form, she attacks the notion of Orson Welles's singular genius.
Click here to read an excerpt from "Raising Kane" by Pauline Kael. Links to an external site.
Click here to read a brief biography of Pauline Kael. Links to an external site.
Roger Ebert
It is one of the miracles of cinema that in 1941 a first-time director; a cynical, hard-drinking writer; an innovative cinematographer, and a group of New York stage and radio actors were given the keys to a studio and total control, and made a masterpiece.
- Roger Ebert
One of the most famous and enduring film critics is Roger Ebert. His life as a writer is worth a review. Read his biography at the end of this section.
His take on Citizen Kane is extremely positive, but more importantly, he accomplishes the combination of opinion and evidence that is illuminating. Note how he ends his piece with a minute dissection of a single shot:
There is a master image in Citizen Kane you might easily miss. The tycoon has overextended himself and is losing control of his empire. After he signs the papers of his surrender, he turns and walks into the back of the shot. Deep focus allows Welles to play a trick of perspective. Behind Kane on the wall is a window that seems to be of average size. But as he walks toward it, we see it is further away and much higher than we thought. Eventually he stands beneath its lower sill, shrunken and diminished. Then as he walks toward us, his stature grows again. A man always seems the same size to himself, because he does not stand where we stand to look at him.
Watch the scene Ebert describes in the video below. It is important to note and remember that Citizen Kane is full of such scenes--so many, in fact, that even today, seasoned viewers of the movie are continually surprised by Welles' attention to detail and inventiveness.
Click here to read a biography of Roger Ebert. Links to an external site.
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