Notes:
Orson Welles interview on Citizen Kane
There was an effort to stop the film during shooting
Studio politics effected who owned the film & whether or not it would be made
Meant to be a social document
He got that big kind of contract because he didn’t want to make a film
Greg Toland wanted to work with Orsen Welles
He believed that anything he could dream a camera could do, he could do & was unaware that there were things that he couldn’t do
He doesn’t regret making a great movie so early because he felt it was the only time he could do it
Kane was a version of himself that is “Everything that he is not, the good & bad”
Docudrama RKO 281
He didn’t care about the money, he cared about film & theater
Herman J. Mankiewicz was a washed up writer & alcoholic
Hearst feels his life was sabotaged by Orson Welles’ film (Citizen Kane)
The Battle over Citizen Kane
Orson Welles was full of ego as people saw him as unique
Media controlled mostly everything in the movie industry
Citizen Kane (or his film) considered greatest “Talking picture ever made”
The movie was almost destroyed
William Hearst was a fan of theater & entertainment & got everything he wanted when he was young. As he was flunking Harvard, he started writing newspapers. He would create situations to see how people would react then write about it. He made a name for himself as a great reporter & writer.
Orson Welles made Hearst look fierce
Controversy benefited Welles but it didn’t when encountering Hearst
Welles didn’t have a childhood
Orson Welles was dealing with a lot for his first film
He abused, yelled, screamed at people during theater
4 men attacked him one night outside the theater
Welles grew in popularity making him wealthy
He poured his income into his stage plays
Welles exuded so much power & security
He’d eat a lot & hated himself because he wanted his plays to be better & his audience to have great reactions
Welles made single most important play of Shakespeare
Hearst’s ambitions were for the white house
People were killing each other to sell their newspaper
Welles did radio & adjusted lines & order for radio work. (only live news was radio). Orson staged an alien mass abduction on the radio
The radio Alien Broadcast got some backlash but was overall good for Welles giving him jobs at Hollywood
Hearst’s popular reputation was plummeting as he became older (he was past his prime)
Hearst could make any paper he wanted
Citizen Kane didn’t win all of the awards during the first times it was showed