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Citizen Kane
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick.
Rated: XXX
Ships:
Usually 3-5 days
Run Time: 119 minutes
Released: 1941, WAR
Stock: 80582D1
Format: DVD
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Citizen Kane is Orson Welles' greatest achievement -- and a landmark of cinema history. The story charts the rise and fall of a newpaper publisher whose wealth and power ultimately isolates him in his castle like refuge. The film's protagonist, Charles Foster, was based on a composite of Howard Hughes and William Randolph Hearst -- so much so that Hearst tried to have the film suppressed. Every aspect of the production marked an advance in film language: the deep focus and deeply shadowed cinematography; the discontinuous narrative, relying heavily on flashbacks and newsreel footage; and the ensemble acting forged in the fires of Welles' Mercury Theatre. Every moment of the film, every shot, has been choreographed to perfection. The film is essential viewing, quite possibly the greatest film ever made and, along with The Birth of a Nation, certainly the most influential. ( continued )
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