Citizen Kane 1941 123movies

Watch: Citizen Kane 1941 123movies, Full Movie Online – A group of reporters are trying to decipher the last word ever spoken by Charles Foster Kane, the millionaire newspaper tycoon: “Rosebud”. The film begins with a news reel detailing Kane’s life for the masses, and then from there, we are shown flashbacks from Kane’s life. As the reporters investigate further, the viewers see a display of a fascinating man’s rise to fame, and how he eventually fell off the top of the world..
Plot: Newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
Smart Tags: #newspaper_publisher #rosebud #new_york #narcissism #materialism #suicide_attempt #adultery #new_york_city #marriage #journalist #christmas #newspaper #death #mansion #president_of_the_united_states #soprano #sheet_music #storage #three_piece_suit #typewriter #music_review

Find Alternative – Citizen Kane 1941, Streaming Links:

123movies | FMmovies | Putlocker | GoMovies | SolarMovie | Soap2day

Ratings:

	8.3/10 Votes: 442,347
	99% | RottenTomatoes
	100/100 | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 4644 Popularity: 23.484 | TMDB

Reviews:

“The Greatest Movie of All Time!” That’s the general opinion of this movie, and I agree that it is a great movie, but I have seen better movies.

The story of Citizen Kane is simple, a newspaper tycoon named Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) dies, and his last word is “Rosebud”. No one knows what it means, and a reporter starts interviewing people Kane knew, to see if they know the meaning of “Rosebud”. Through flash-backs we get to see Kane’s life.

Now, as I said, I don’t agree that it’s the greatest movie of all time, however it’s great. I love this movie. It’s a daring and controversial movie of its time, and it introduced alot of new technices in filmmaking. The acting is superb! Orson Welles as Kane is breathtaking, Joseph Cotten as Jed Leland is great. There’s one performance I can hardly stand though and that’s Dorothy Comingore’s performance as Susan Alexander. Hideous performance to say the least! The writing is amazing, and Welles’ directing is out-of-this-world!

In conclusion, great movie (however not the greatest ever made). It’s definitly a movie you need to watch!

I give it a 9/10

ctually every bit as good as it supposed to be. To anyone who likes to think they’re being edgy by calling it overrated or whatever, I know you’re just saying it because you think it makes you cool and counter-cultural or whatever, so I probably can’t change your mind whatever I say here, but one thing anyone should try is watching all the Academy Award nominees, or at least the Best Picture nominees, from the 14th Academy Awards, in sucession, perhaps one a day. Despite only winning one award, and famously losing out on Best Picture, this film makes all the others look embarrassingly dated. Even the ones that are also very good look like Roundhay Garden Scene compared to this. It truly is a revolution of a film. Welles could have gone exclusively into gore porn after this and he would still be a good candidate for the greatest talent in American cinema. This film has already been rightfully praised so much it’s hard to find anything new to say about it, so mostly all I can do is heap on more praise to the pile, but this film deserves it.

A few things are slightly less talked about from this film that I do wanna bring up though;
1. This is a lot funnier than people give it credit for. Welles himself called it a comedy, I believe, and honestly I can see that. There’s some very witty dialogue. My favourite gag might be the “FRAUD AT POLLS” headline.
2. Weird how Welles’ obvious self-deprecating joke about how he inserted the screeching cockatoo to wake up any audience members falling asleep has been taken out of context and treated as serious by so many people. It seems obvious to me that it was as a sort of bookend to his relationship with Susan, referring back to the shadow puppet scene where Kane makes a bird
3. The speech about the girl in the white dress is actually one of my favourite monologues in any film. The “frame story” actually has a lot of great moments that people often forget because they spend all their time praising the scenes with Kane in them (and fair enough, they are incredible).
4. Susan’s bad singing is some impressive work. It’s hard to sing purposefully poorly without falling into cartoonist shrieking, but actress Dorothy Comingore is very good at sound just bad enough to be believable.
6. I like how, unlike most films about “corrupt rich people”, this doesn’t moralise or turn its character into a Bond villain, but condemns what he represents far more strongly than if it did, because systemic critiques always hit harder than “rich people are mean :(“, which is one of the most helpful to the status quo statements you can make, implying as it does that it would be fine if the ruling class could throw us a bone with a few more scraps of meat on it.
7. The opening and final shots might be the best one-two punch of those two things in… certainly a major release American film, if not any film ever. We begin with death, and end with youth. All sounds pretty simple when you say it out loud like this but as I say it’s already been analysed in so much depth all I can say is either redundant or just feels like explaining why a funny joke is funny.
8. It’s hard to review this without sounding silly. “Masterpiece” is hilariously understating it. Like, of course Citizen Kane is good. What do you want me to say?

The Citizen Kane of Movies
The most frequently acclaimed “greatest film ever,” idiosyncratic in its day yet massively influential, a cultural staple, a narrative and technical tour de force, and there’s the whole thing of the wunderkind granted carte blanche for his debut to the machinery of classical Hollywood at its peak–the expectations for “Citizen Kane,” to say the least, are high. Indeed, it’s a marvel of cinematography and plot. In both senses, there’s a deep focus from various angles. The plot is a jigsaw puzzle of flashbacks from multiple sources–the “News on the March” film-within-the-film, the dead man’s memoir, a reporter interviewing characters for the meaning of “Rosebud”–linked by an also-layered sound design and framed by a curious camera violating the “No Trespassing” sign in entering and exiting the Xanadu estate. Moreover, the story is about a powerful storyteller notoriously based on William Randolph Hearst (and other famous rich guys, if not also a bit of Orson Welles)–a newspaper man, populist politician, overseer of his lover’s career, and who even dictates the story beyond his grave with his final word. The picture constantly exploits a deep depth of field, with figures in the foreground and background in focus, to show it off. Much of this was accomplished by composite photographic effects. While “Kane” is famous as an arty old black-and-white film, which it is, it belies that it was genre-mixing popular entertainment and a special-effects extravaganza of its day: the virtuosity of the editing and sound design in addition to the matte paintings, miniatures, multiple-exposure photography, rear projection, and the most significant use of the optical printer in between “King Kong” (1933) and “Star Wars” (1977). The difference is that the effects here are realistic as opposed to fantastic.

Outside of co-writer Herman Mankiewicz, cinematographer Gregg Toland and Welles, arguably the most important contributions to the production came from Linwood Dunn and his optical printer, and that’s not even to mention a score by Bernard Herrmann, editing from Robert Wise, and contributions from a host of less well-known technicians doing career-best work, including lead matte painter Mario Larrinaga, the special-effects team’s boss Vernon Walker, and art director Perry Ferguson. More than half the picture has been guessed to be effects shots. According to Dunn, “Once Orson Welles learned about the optical printer he just went hog-wild with it.”

From the start, there’s a miniature for the gate with the matte paintings of Xanadu in the background, and dissolves–lots of long dissolves in this one (and wipes and a few more dazzling effects)–transition between ever-closer views of the lit window, always matching the same frame position, until a reverse angle shot inside followed by an extreme close-up of Kane’s lips, with the added snow effects, as he mutters the dying word. The reflection of the nurse in the broken snow globe was created with Dunn’s printer. There are many such marvelous compositions throughout. In the “News on the March” reel, a terrific film-within-film newsreel parody overall (including intentional scratches and, reportedly, edited by RKO’s newsreel department, to make it look authentic), a shot of construction of Xanadu is cobbled together from an actor in the foreground, stop-motion trucks in the middle plane, and the matte painting of the mansion atop the hill. There’s also the pre-“Forrest Gump” (1994), pre-“Zelig” (1983) insertion of Kane into archival footage. Other treated shots include the camera moving through the window of the El Rancho nightclub for Susan Alexander Kane’s scenes, the downward tilting shot from the miniature statue of the Thatcher library, the tilt upwards to the rafters of the workers reacting to Susan’s singing, and rear projection and multiple-exposure compositions being employed where the deep, or pan, focus was otherwise impractical, such as when there were figures extremely close to the camera and in the extreme background with another plane for the middle action–the shot of young Kane through the window playing in the snow, the three-tier composite of Boss Getty observing Kane’s campaign rally, Leland’s firing, Susan’s suicide attempt, the shot with the parrot, e.g. Of course, these effects were in service to what was already a uniquely-photographed picture.

With good reason, Welles shared the final screen credit with his cinematographer. According to Toland, the demands of deep focus and stagings and camera angles that included ceilings necessitated some unusual lighting setups, and the film has also been credited for the first extensive use of coated lenses and a new film stock. Kane walking back to the windows before sitting down in one scene is a standout that plays with perspective while also underscoring Kane’s metaphorical position in the world (i.e. he feels small or distant and is literally so in the image). Similar setups are repeated for when Charles walks up to Susan practicing or in their distant exchanges of reverberating dialogue in the large mansion as she puts puzzles together. Shadows act the same way, such as when she’s figuratively and literally in his shadow when he insists she continue her career. The effect is a staggeringly unique picture–not only in a showy manner, although there’s an undeniable bravado to it all, but also in a way to explore figures in space in the same way as the narrative investigates characters and their perspectives.

The long takes in deep focus to keep all the figures staged in depth in sharp relief–pan focus–as assisted by the optical printer when wide-angle lenses weren’t enough, in addition to the unusual angles–especially the low ones featuring ceilings–function to visually depict a plot that is also all about focusing on every character and from every angle, while much still remains in the dark. The visuals are as ambiguous and complex as the narrative: multiple perspectives, with some scenes repeated but appearing differently depending on the narrator, pan focus with figures often obscured, or just turned into silhouettes, by the harsh shadows of the chiaroscuro lighting. We never quite get a good view of the reporter Thompson, e.g., his back usually to the camera and his face in shadows when not, such as in the screening-room scene, which is apt given that he’s our surrogate, the unseen spectator within the film. He even wears glasses; he sees through lenses, as we do through the camera. And, in this case, that camera is even more curious than and as much a character as Thompson and isn’t slowed down by closed doors or windows and goes through a desk during one point at Kane’s childhood home.

Besides Toland, Welles shared credit with co-writer Mankiewicz. The non-linear, kaleidoscopic, sometimes restricted narration and sometimes not, flashback-structured plot, with events repeated from different points of view, including a newsreel overview that mirrors the film proper, remains one of the most wonderfully convoluted film narratives. One may get overly caught up in the story and characters, but as with the imagery, it’s the structure of the thing that’s brilliant. The Rosebud mystery is merely a device to drive the plot. Kane isn’t a character trapped in a snow globe by a single word. Everything here is multifaceted. “You’re talking to two people,” as he says at one point. He has two wives, two friends, two sleds, scenes are doubled and framed and reflected in visual motifs–glass, windows, doorways and mirrors. Near the end, we get the iconic hall-of-mirrors shot: the film in a nutshell.

Rosebud is also part of but one or two genres in “Kane.” It’s a detective mystery, but as investigated by wisecracking newsreel reporters, like those who work at Kane’s newspaper, it’s an entry in the journalism films of the era–“His Girl Friday” (1940) meets noir. It’s a fictional biopic, as well as part musical (Susan’s opera, the dance number at the newspaper’s party), political thriller, Shakespearean tragedy and lighthearted comedy. Welles and the rest of the Mercury Players’ background in radio was surely instructive, as it’s the sound design that underscores these tonal shifts, equal measure playful and ominous and continually serving as transitions between scenes. The score fits seamlessly, and the editing is often inspired (e.g. the table sequence for the first marriage, or some nice match cuts throughout, as well as managing the mixture of long takes and quick montages), but there’s also techniques such as overlapping dialogue and sound bridges used extensively and informed by radio practices. The shocks cuts where shot transitions are accompanied by sudden changes in sound and score may be the best, and there’s a visual equivalent with the reveal of background by the sudden removal of foreground objects, such as with the newspaper in Welles’ first scene.

Welles and company were already famous for the “The War of the Worlds” radio drama, as well as theatrical productions, so it’s no wonder the makeup-enhanced acting from actors new to film was already better than the acting in most films. Like “The War of the Worlds,” made infamous as a catalyst of mass hysteria, its reputation only enhanced by fabricated newspaper reporting and inflated mythology, “Kane” demonstrates the power of storytelling, effects, genre and plot–the radio adaptation was so effective, after all, because the fictional news interrupted additional staged programming, not unlike the “News on the March” and other narrative tricks in the film. With the control and freedom granted from the radio-based RKO, Welles and company were able to do something even greater with the recruitment of some of the best talents in Hollywood for the primarily visual art form of cinema. There are reasons it’s remained in the conversation as such, whether or not one considers it the greatest film of all time.

Why Is “Citizen Kane” the Best Film of All Times?
Anyone who sees “Citizen Kane” (1941) for the first time today does so because he or she has heard that it is the greatest film ever made. One simply doesn’t come across the film by accident on TV, watching it “for what it is,” so to speak. The common approach of seeing it to believe it can be at best exhilarating and at worst hostile. Unfortunately, the latter is usually, although quite understandably, the case. For how can one do anything but look down at a film that elitist snobs have praised for years and years? One simply must prove oneself right by falsifying the critics’ claims, leaving the theater or the living room with a shrug and a condescending comment: “it was okay.” This will not do. It is a great tragedy if “Citizen Kane” suffers from these kinds of incidents since it ought to be treated with the same kind of respect as Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” or Beethoven’s “9th Symphony”. In order to make this happen, or perhaps enhance someone’s viewing experience, I would like to try and explain not why “Citizen Kane” necessarily is the best film, but rather why people have considered it to be. There are over a thousand reviews of the film on this site, and mine will probably drown in the vast sea with them, but hey what can I lose, and who doesn’t love talking about Welles and “Citizen Kane”?

One might begin with the basic fact that “Citizen Kane” wasn’t immediately praised and considered the best film that has blessed the silver screen. It was a financial risk for the RKO studios to give free hands to the novice prodigy Orson Welles, who had gained quite a reputation with the radio show of H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, and not surprisingly it didn’t pay off. Despite the praises of a few critics, “Citizen Kane” was soon forgotten, and the film wasn’t, for example, screened at American cinemas during the late 1940’s and early 50’s. In France, however, the film was just discovered after the war, and the leading critic of the country, André Bazin hailed it as a masterpiece of the postwar stylistic tendency he characterized as spatial realism. Bazin’s disciples, who we all know now as the nouvelle vague directors, followed and adored Welles’ masterpiece. François Truffaut proclaimed that “everything that matters in cinema after 1940 has been influenced by ‘Citizen Kane’.” Thus the film’s reputation grew and its new found reputation slowly found the other side of the Atlantic as well. But why did this happen? Why wasn’t “Citizen Kane” forgotten, and why, for one, did it arouse the interest of Bazin?

First, it ought to be highlighted that the story of “Citizen Kane” is excellent. Loosely based on the life and times of media mogul William Hearst, “Citizen Kane” tells the story about a lonely giant who conquered the American media. It’s a story about a man who dedicated his life to possession, but tragically became to be possessed by it himself. As one might have noticed, I am using the past tense, and such is the nature of Welles’ narrative in “Citizen Kane”. The film begins with the protagonist’s death, and then portrays the attempts of a journalist trying to figure out the meaning of his last words — “Rosebud” — by interviewing people who knew the man. “It will probably turn out to be a very simple thing,” he supposes. This kind of structure was not considered the done thing back in the day. Although the basic structure of finding out a person’s past goes back to Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” as well as numerous detective stories, the uniqueness of “Citizen Kane” lies in the use of different perspectives, creating a non-linear narrative that has echoes from ancient drama and epistolary novels.

Yet it wasn’t really the intricate story that most fascinated Bazin. What Bazin emphasized was the film’s style. Although all scholars have given up on the phoenix myth of “Citizen Kane” and its innovative use of various cinematic means, it is simply a fact that the film made the style public, thus standardizing it for Hollywood. The aesthetic features of the so-called spatial realism, which Bazin adored, supported by the technological innovation of the BNC camera, include deep-focus cinematography, sequence shots, and deep-space composition. These had been used before, but hardly with similar, dare I say, philosophic unity. This stylistic tendency is enhanced by Welles’ relentless use of heavy low-angle shots and dynamic montage sequences. There are innovative cuts that spark imagination and soundtrack solutions that open the story and its characters to new dimensions. “Citizen Kane” is often celebrated as a bravura of the art of mise-en-scène since it puts a lot of emphasis on pre-filmic elements such as setting and lighting, but the real gist of the film’s brilliance lies in the unity of these together with cinematographic and post-filmic elements.

More remains to be said, but space is running out. The end of the matter is, I guess, that none of the individual elements of “Citizen Kane” are, precisely, individual. They have not been distinguished from one another, but rather resonate luminously together in a unique fashion. Technological innovation goes hand in hand with aesthetic inspiration and both support the whole of story, theme, and style. Such unity may not have been present in Hollywood before 1941. From the groundbreaking use of the BNC camera to themes of power, loneliness, and defeat, which are reflected on the level of style, using setting and editing, for one, to reflect the emotional distances between the characters or their existential experience of emptiness, “Citizen Kane” remains a gem to any lover of cinema. It’s up there with immortal works of art from poetry, music, and painting. It is, like all great art, a tightly and beautifully sealed original whole which is why (instead of one big nameable innovation) the film has been considered to be of such magnificent proportions.

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime 1 hr 59 min (119 min)
Budget 839727
Revenue 23218000
Status Released
Rated PG
Genre Drama, Mystery
Director Orson Welles
Writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles, John Houseman
Actors Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
Country United States
Awards Won 1 Oscar. 11 wins & 13 nominations total
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Mono (RCA Sound System)
Aspect Ratio 1.37 : 1
Camera Mitchell BNC, Cooke Speed Panchro and Astro-Berlin Pan Tachar Lenses
Laboratory N/A
Film Length 3,271.72 m (13 reels)
Negative Format 35 mm (Eastman Plus-X 1231, Super-XX 1232)
Cinematographic Process Digital Intermediate (4K) (2021 remaster), Dolby Vision, Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm (Eastman 1301, 1302)