citizen cynic

As another installment of the "Big Screen Classics" program at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Citizen Kane (1941) played this past Monday on the largest screen I could have hoped might facilitate my virgin Kane experience-surely as the film was intended to be viewed. The film has been heralded as the best film of all time on countless lists and by countless critics. Being a natural skeptic, I delayed my own viewing indefinitely. The opportunity came up to see it at the theatre, and I cannot deny that I was extremely excited; I am no stranger to hype, of course. The film turned out to be incredible, as I had both hoped and feared. I didn't want to sit through two hours of a film nightmare, but I also didn't want to be forced to cede to critics and 'best of' lists. I swallowed my cynical pride and raved afterwards. What was particularly memorable was the sense of humor employed in the dialogue--fresh and self-aware. Humor is ever evolving, so I was quite surprised to hear an entire audience laugh at 70 year old jokes. Already knowing the answer to the film's woven mystery, I was able to pay close attention to signifiers and cinematographic hints at the film's dramatic and telling conclusion. By being placed so often in direct light, forcing other characters into his shadow, Kane came across as strong and independent, but somehow fatally self-conscious; he also appeared in shadow at moments of shame or difficulty (his affair is found out by his political opponent, and most of the scene includes Mr. Kane in the dark). Welles used lighting and situational irony in a way that makes it feel like he invented these conventions. He created a wonderfully personal and psychological story of complex emotions and human interaction. In the scene in which his second wife leaves him, one is able to locate that same feeling of hopelessness with another person's actions that she feels, and also that same sense of hopelessness with oneself that Kane must possess. Staggeringly complete and artfully composed, the film will continue to prove cynics wrong throughout the history of film.