The chief appeal of Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is its infectious delight in the joys of filmmaking. It rummages through the cinematic toolbox with abandon, and when it can't find what it wants, it invents it – most notably with cinematographer Gregg Toland's then-novel use of deep focus, letting audiences see figures clearly in the foreground and distant background.
But the wonder of Citizen Kane, as Warner Bros. celebrates the film's 70th anniversary with a Blu-ray edition, is that it exists at all. What if future U.S. vice-president Nelson Rockefeller hadn't mentioned to the head of RKO Radio Pictures that the 24-year-old Welles was a rising star who might raise the studio's fortunes? What if the RKO head hadn't agreed, after long hesitation, to give Welles the total control he insisted on for his first film?
And what if Welles had gone ahead with the projects he initially proposed? He wanted to make a version of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness with the main character unseen; the camera would take his place, watching the action unfold from his point of view. (Robert Montgomery used the idea in his 1946 detective film Lady in the Lake.) Then Welles suggested making a thriller called The Smiler With a Knife, with Lucille Ball.
It was only then that screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who had been a guest at the castle built in California by media magnate William Randolph Hearst, suggested that Welles base his film loosely on Hearst's life. After the film was made but before it was released, Hearst used every threat in his arsenal to make his displeasure felt – not so much with the vision of himself as a sour, isolated old man, but with the portrait of a bitter, alcoholic companion whose real-life equivalent – Hearst's mistress, actress Marion Davies – was nothing like the film's Susan Alexander.
That's when the biggest threat to Kane arrived. The heads of the other studios, fearing that Hearst's newspapers would reveal scandals previously hushed up and take revenge on anyone who supported Citizen Kane, offered to buy the negative from RKO in order to bury it, if not burn it. RKO, to its eternal credit, sided with Welles.
The tale is well told in a 153-minute 1996 documentary, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, included as a standard DVD with this week's set. Also here is a DVD of RKO 281, an above-average 1999 made-for-TV drama based on the making of Citizen Kane.
Those who have seen Citizen Kane will need no prompting to see it again. It's a mystery, a character study, a gripping drama, a jigsaw puzzle told in flashbacks and a treat for the eyes. Anyone who hasn't seen it should know one thing: It's a lot of fun.
A happy footnote is that it has often been called the greatest film ever made. Film experts from 22 countries polled by John Kobal in 1988 said so. (Second place went to Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game.) The American Film Institute's top-100 list compiled in 1996 said so.
Coincidentally, another influential film – along with two sequels and three prequels – has been released this week on Blu-ray: Star Wars. The six films tell the tragic tale of a figure not unlike Charles Foster Kane.
As with Kane, his mother sends him off into the care of strangers when he is a child; he has principled colleagues; he comes to shun them and choose a darker path; as he dies, he thinks back to what might have been; and soon after his death, everything he has known is consumed by fire.
Ah, Darth Vader.
ALSO NEW THIS WEEK
The Trip (2010)
A highlight of last year's Toronto International Film Festival was hearing British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, after a screening of The Trip, try to one-up each other with spot-on impressions of Michael Caine. They were replaying a scene from this feature-length distillation of a television series directed by Michael Winterbottom, in which they play heightened versions of themselves, as they did in Winterbottom's earlier film Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. In theory, Coogan and Brydon are travelling around Britain reviewing fine restaurants. In practice, they are improvising the Steve-and-Rob show. Most entertaining.
Thor (2011)
Director Kenneth Branagh brings out the best in the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) in this tale of the Marvel Comics superhero. He knows enough to keep the storyline simple (are your ears burning, Spider-Man 3?). He knows when to pop into outer space for the latest threat to Thor's father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and when to return to Earth for Thor's interaction with goggle-eyed scientists (not least Natalie Portman). In his commentary, Branagh gives a shout-out to Colm Feore, "a marvellous Canadian actor" playing the chief Frost Giant, for his powerful presence – essential in the company of Hopkins.
Incendies (2010)
Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve's Incendies (Conflagrations), based on a play by Wajdi Mouawad, is a powerful drama about two grown children sent to uncover the dark secrets kept by their late mother. The subtitled 45-minute bonus on the DVD has no narration. It records the shooting of the film in Jordan, interspersed with comments from Villeneuve and disturbing remarks from those in the area. What if your daughter got pregnant the way a character in the film does? "There's no other solution than anger," a woman replies. "You'd have to kill her."