Citizen Kane: Special Edition

Citizen Kane: Special EditionDistributed by
Universal Pictures Video

Posted: May 31st, 2003.

The sophisticated and classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane, is one of the world’smost famous and highly-rated films. A landmark in cinema history, the storycharts the rise and fall of a newspaper publisher whose wealth and powerultimately isolate him in his castle-like refuge. The film’s director, star,producer and co-writer were the same genius individual – Orson Welles, makinghis extraordinary film debut at the age of 25.

Released by Universal Pictures Video on 23rd June 2003, the Citizen Kane SpecialEdition sets a new benchmark in the DVD presentation of classic Hollywood movies.

The new DVD has been mastered from a newly-discovered 35mm fine graininterpositive. The film and soundtrack have been individually cleaned, allowingfor the utmost clarity of picture and sound without compromising the film’soriginal depth and texture.

Included on this DVD will be a side-by-side comparison of the interpositivebefore and after remastering.

This two disc set also contains a wealth of special features, including:

• Anatomy Of A Classic, a new 50 minute featurette presented by Barry Norman
• Welles’ original 1938 radio broadcast of The War Of The Worlds
• A behind the scenes stills gallery
• Cast & crew profiles
• Welles’ 1945 commercial recording of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince with Bing Crosby and supporting cast and music by Bernard Herrmann
• An audio commentary by Ken Barnes
• The original film budget.

With beautiful new packaging to match the quality of the film itself, CitizenKane Special Edition is an essential addition to every film lover’s DVDcollection.

ANATOMY OF A CLASSIC

Especially created for this DVD release, Anatomy Of A Classic is a brand new50 minute featurette presented by Barry Norman. The programme delves deep intothe making of Citizen Kane, examining individual elements of this groundbreaking production including script, art direction, cinematography, specialeffects, make up and editing. It features footage and information neverbefore seen on DVD.

WELLES CAUSES NATIONAL PANIC WITH RADIO BROADCAST

Included on Disc Two of this Special Edition of Citizen Kane is Welles’notorious radio presentation of The War of the Worlds. In his adaptation ofthe play, Welles made an important change: under his direction the play waswritten and performed so it would sound like an on the spot news report aboutan invasion from Mars.

As the audience heard this simulation of a news broadcast, created with voiceacting and sound effects, hundreds of thousands of listeners concluded thatthey were hearing an actual news account of an invasion from Mars. People packedthe roads, hid in cellars, loaded guns, even wrapped their heads in wet towelsas protection from Martian poison gas, in an attempt to defend themselves againstaliens, oblivious to the fact that they were acting out the role of thepanic-stricken public that actually belonged in a radio play.

The broadcast did contain a number of explanations that it was all a radioplay, but if members of the audience missed a brief explanation at thebeginning, the next one didn’t arrive until ten minutes into the programme.

CITIZEN KANE – A BLUFFER’S GUIDEFacts to transform you from film buffoon to film buff

• Cheese cloth was run across the film to make the newly-shot newsreel of Kane’s life look more like archive footage.
• According to an essay written by Gore Vidal (a close friend of William Randolph Hearst’s) “Rosebud” was Hearst’s name for a very private part of long-time mistress Marion Davies’ anatomy.
• Welles’ film was the recipient of nine Oscar nominations with only one win – Best Original Screenplay (Mankiewicz and Welles).
• In the ‘News On The March’ newsreel sequence, the shots over which Coleridge’s poem ‘Xanadu’ is imposed are actually of San Simeon, Hearst’s own extravagant ranch.
• Welles and cinematographer, Gregg Toland, were pioneers of deep focus, a technique which allows everything from the front to the back of the frame to be in focus at the same time.
• There are no crowd scenes in Citizen Kane. When he addresses a gigantic indoor rally, only Kane and the other actors on the stage are real. The audience is a miniature, with flickering lights to suggest movement.

KANE’S CONNECTION TO HEARST A ‘LUCE’ ONE

Although Citizen Kane was widely seen as an attack on newspaper magnate,William Randolph Hearst, it was also aimed at Henry R. Luce and his concept offaceless group journalism, as then practiced at his Time magazine and March ofTime newsreels. The opening “News on the March” segment is a deliberate parodyof the Luce newsreel, and the reason you rarely see the faces of any of thejournalists is that Welles and Mankiewicz were kidding the anonymity of Luce’swriters and editors.

CONTENTS & SPECIAL FEATURES

Disc One
• Re-mastered Feature
• ‘Before and after’ Comparison
• Audio Commentary by film historian Ken Barnes

Disc Two

• Anatomy Of A Classic – presented by Barry Norman
• Welles Off Screen
• The War of the Worlds
• The Happy Prince
• Theatrical trailer
• What Kane Cost
• Photo Gallery
• Cast and Crew Profiles

DVD PRODUCT DETAILS: Credit:
Release date:
Certificate:
Price:
Cat.no.
Running time:
DVD ratioUniversal Pictures Video
23rd June 2003
PG
£19.99
8201255
115 mins
4:3 fullscreenNews page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2003.

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