Citizen w4nk

[epiboy]

I did film studies, am aware of techniques it brought to film making, but the film is boring. So why is citizen kane so highly regarded? Somebody please tell me.

[CheekyChops]

No idea, I thought it was cr*p.

[jno]

no explosions, no car chases, no kids at band camp shagging pizzas, not even a single interstellar battle. But those used not to be what people looked for in a movie. They wanted stories and characters,and they got them. They also got the techniques you mention, which were new and dramatic then but have been copied by every director and his dog since. And they didn't mind black and white, which is now seen as off-puttingly arty.

[gary baldy]

If you did film studies then how come you are asking a bunch of strangers why this film is so highly regarded?
Didnt you discuss this in a tutorial or something?
Perhaps you picked the wrong subject to study.

[henke]

You've got to look at the film in the period it was made. Check out other films made at about the same time and you'll see it's vastly superior to most. My opinion anyway.

[Loosehead]

You did film studies! Where? at the local college of Chavdom? If you find this film boring you haven't watched it. I mean really watched it, listened to every word, analysed what is going on, tried to discern it's messages. Citizen Kane is cinimatic history. OK there are no car chases and fights and no Kung fu and no birds get there thruppenies out but it is widely accepted as a masterpiece.

As a student of film you must have done analyses of films, I don't get it!

[flashpig]

It's not w4nk, it's just not the greatest movie of all time. I think any film given this title would be a let down.

[Drusilla1S]

Many film experts accept that Citizen Kane has faults,but they respect it because it is an exemplary exhibition of the craft of film making. Orson Welles was concerned with the look of every shot.

It also depends how you define boring. Personally, I find many star packed, high octane, Hollywood blockbusters dull and lacking in subtlety, realism and a decent script.

Pauline Kael, an excellent American critic has written, The Citizen Kane Book and this might be worth a look.

[galltin]

I think perhaps appreciation of this film (which is a masterpiece) comes with age. I seem to remember watching it when I was young and not being terribly impressed , but it blows me away now.

[gary baldy]

Loosehead and garybaldy in agreement once again!
Its like being in Berlin when the wall came down isnt it?

[hal]

Call me old fashioned but I find the title of your question offensive - it indicates that you are too immature to appreciate of of cinema's greatest films.

[epiboy]

It's true loosehead, i haven't really watched cos i fell a sleep during it was so bad. I do love old films, a massive fan of 40's and 50's cinema but that film just has nothing happening. If It were to be made to today one phrase comes to mind; all style no substance. You're all going to argue its an example of master story telling, but is that really meant to send you to sleep? I think not. I'm also not into the car chases, explosions etc, i do watch tem but don't take them seriously, pure entertainment really. But the story of citizen kane just isn't capivating. Isn't it meant to be?

[lepers]

citizen kane is regarded as a masterpiece as it pretty much set up cinema as we know it today. the techniques of pull away scenes, disugised dissolves and the way he frames the action, its possible to write an essay on any scene in the film, are amazing. the scene where you are shown the deterioration of kane and his first wifes marriages through a montage of breakfast scenes is classic. yeah the story might be poor and it might be style over substance, but that doesn't stop people singing the praises of ppl like tarantino, and his work is just post modern rubbish with non of welles igenuity or originality, and lets not forget that this was his first film and he was only 20-odd!