April 2016

Chimes at Midnight

Like Falstaff, Orson Welles burst onto the cinematic scene seemingly fully formed. 1941’s Citizen Kane, frequently thought of as the greatest film ever made, has everything we think of as Wellesian--brilliant audio, dramatic filmmaking, emotional heft underpinned by an element of tongue-in-cheek camp. Welles, who was 26 when the film was made, had been a dramatic force since at least his teens and gives an utterly convincing performance in which is character spans decades. When...