Rosebud Revisited, Once Again

The 85th anniversary of Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” (1940) is not only prompting a re-release in theaters across the nation this summer, but also more recent memories of the kerfuffle surrounding a recent accounting of the hundred greatest films by a British film journal, Sight and Sound. The influential best-of, having been hijacked by the wokerati in 2022, topped out with Chantal Akerman’s stultifying exercise in polemical grievance, “Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” (1975). Should you be curious, the film is best watched on a home screen where its stringent avant-gardisms, lasting over three hours, can be mediated by the fast-forward button.Down with the patriarchy and all that, but does anyone enjoy “Jeanne Dielman” as much as the film it displaced, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958)? Hitch’s technicolor recounting of erotic obsession raised its own set of eyebrows when it reached the top spot having broken the 50-year streak of its previous holder, “Citizen Kane.” Few artistic triumphs are immovable, but some are harder to move than others. Though still esteemed, Welles’ masterstroke has suffered from the slings and arrows of ubiquity. Tastes change, mores shift and historical memory becomes ever more adumbrated. Still, lip service to cinematic greatness can be tested. When was the last time you sat down to watch the story of media mogul Charles Foster Kane? Few pictures have generated as much analysis or had their contours and controversies as thoroughly accounted for. The identity of “Rosebud” has long been spoiled, and the indignance of William Randolph Hearst, the media entrepreneur upon whom “Citizen Kane” was modeled, the stuff of legend.And so it goes with all we know about Welles the Boy Genius. He was, let’s remember, one-score-and-five years when he made “Citizen Kane.” We also know about Welles the Hollywood Has-Been who spent his final days hawking cut-rate wine. In between he accomplished plenty as an actor and director: “The Lady From Shanghai” (1947), “Touch of Evil” (1958) and “The Trial” (1962) are significant accomplishments, even as their scale, scope and character were, to one degree or another, qualified by studio autocrats, budgetary shortcomings, and Welles’ own debilitating hubris. His is a tarnished oeuvre.‘Citizen Kane’ poster. Detail. Wikimedia CommonsHaving said all that, “Citizen Kane” is just about perfect. Though whether it qualifies as anyone’s favorite movie — personal bias being distinguishable from artistic fact — Welles’ masterstroke remains, here in the far-flung future of 2026, an audacious achievement. Can the shock of the new still register almost a century after the fact? You might as well ask if “The Nike of Samothrace” is just a chunk of marble or Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” a mere inventory of medieval English society. The best art is forever fresh.Welles’ cinematic innovations, while recognizable and much imitated, have not staled. His coevals on Kane deserve another round of applause — among the best known of them are screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and cinematographer Gregg Toland, without whom the film would not be as incisive or resplendent. Production designers Van Nest Polglase and Perry Ferguson endowed the proceedings with its epic scale and bitter extravagance.Welles’ cinematic derring-do is unmistakable and the umpteenth viewing of the film confirms how fully it is tied to the dramatic arc of the narrative and the resonance of its characters. Take particular notice of Ruth Warrick and Dorothy Comingore as Kane’s first and second wives. The former has her dignity and forbearance tested; the latter, her intelligence and talent. Both actresses shade their characters more than you’d think a grandstander like Welles would allow, but, then, “Citizen Kane” is a movie in which nothing is left unattended.Orson Welles and his magic lantern show are infinitely worth revisiting.

Rosebud Revisited, Once Again

More from the New York Sun

Signing LeBron James Guarantees His Next City a Massive Economic Boon

AOC Gives Much-Coveted Endorsement to Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan Senate Race

Luna Doubles Down, Promising To Keep House Floor Shuttered Until SAVE America Act Attached to Must-Pass Bill

More from the New York Sun

Signing LeBron James Guarantees His Next City a Massive Economic Boon

AOC Gives Much-Coveted Endorsement to Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan Senate Race

Luna Doubles Down, Promising To Keep House Floor Shuttered Until SAVE America Act Attached to Must-Pass Bill

Trump Administration Seeks To End 50-Year Ban on Supersonic Flights Over America

Bite of Capital Gains Taxes Can Be Eased, as Greenspan Foresaw, by Adjusting for Inflation

Supreme Court Ignores the Animus Behind Move To End Protected Status for Haitians

‘Young Washington’ Is a Decent, Old-School Cinematic Throwback

Rhode Island Implements ‘Taylor Swift Tax’ Ahead of Superstar’s Rumored July 4 Nuptials With Travis Kelce