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Attention U.S. TCM Subscribers: Recently in a Facebook film chat room someone asked which film was better, Casablanca or Citizen Kane. This caused me to think about their differences, more specifically their varied approach to dramatic storytelling. (My response including TCM's showtime information for both films is here):
http://thecinemacafe.com/the-cinema-treasure-hunter/2018/2/1/now-listen-to-me#Citizen-Kane
Please share with us your own thoughts to this intriguing question here on this post.
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Posted: |
Feb 16, 2018 - 4:40 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Both of these films were ones I approached in my later life ... I had no intention watching them as a youngster. I was never a fan of Humphrey Bogart but when I did finally did see Casablanca (1942) I recognised the film as having something special. I can't say it was great and I've watched it only twice (and not for some years, now).
Citizen Kane (1941) was always a question to me ... a well-known British comedian/comedy actor/presenter named Bob Monkhouse was a reputed film buff and I recall him saying that if asked what X (perhaps 10 ... maybe 6) films he would take with him to a desert island ... he would answer: X copies of Citizen Kane.
So, having recorded it a few years ago, I finally got around to watching it ... but it took me more than two viewings over several evenings ... I found the film so tedious and uninteresting that I do not understand what is so special about it. I know I'm in the wrong ... and there are plenty of other films, TV programmes, music et al. which, whilst overwhelmingly popular, do not register with me that I shouldn't be surprised ... but, apart from the clever cinematography and elaborate sets, I struggle to recognise anything good in it. My dislike of the main characters is part of the problem ... I need to like the hero/heroine.
And, for me, the music score to Casablanca works wonderfully well ... a mixture of styles, sequeing into the lovely classic As time Goes By ... wonderful.
Mitch
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Vertigo.
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I just wanted to post my appreciation to all of whom have responded here!
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Kane is the better in all senses.
If you had to choose one or the other to show an extraterrestrial a DEFINITIVE experience of the potential of cinema, both technically and content-wise, and artistically, it'd win hands down. It's an archetypal story, it has moral and psychological and social layers, it's big.
Both films use clever trickery technically to achieve their results (the midget airfield, the fence/skylight penetrating camera) but Kane is revolutionary, the lighting etc., the marriage with music.
Both were shot on the hoof, but Kane had a plan.
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Posted: |
Feb 16, 2018 - 10:57 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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I'm not sure... I very much enjoy CASABLANCA. It's terrific and full of memorable lines and performances, and it just seems to work so well, even if it doesn't really matter if you don't quite follow it. I never did, and I don't think Curtiz or anyone else did either. It's great stuff indeed.
KANE has some sequences which annoy me. Some of the newspaper office stuff, the chorus girls, the young men in old makeup... but on the whole it's a film which haunts me, like the vision of the girl glimpsed once on the deck of a ship. And then the culmination of it all, the final scene. It almost brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it - the flames, the letters, the smoke, and (one of) Herrmann's greatest moment(s). And of course, what it all means. I'm not Charles Foster Kane, but a don't think more than a week ever goes by without that film coming into my head.
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Posted: |
Feb 16, 2018 - 11:28 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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I'm not sure... I very much enjoy CASABLANCA. It's terrific and full of memorable lines and performances, and it just seems to work so well, even if it doesn't really matter if you don't quite follow it. I never did, and I don't think Curtiz or anyone else did either. It's great stuff indeed.
KANE has some sequences which annoy me. Some of the newspaper office stuff, the chorus girls, the young men in old makeup... but on the whole it's a film which haunts me, like the vision of the girl glimpsed once on the deck of a ship. And then the culmination of it all, the final scene. It almost brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it - the flames, the letters, the smoke, and (one of) Herrmann's greatest moment(s). And of course, what it all means. I'm not Charles Foster Kane, but a don't think more than a week ever goes by without that film coming into my head.
Fanny.
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