Hearst's success in 'killing' Kane in 1941 tells us much about the power of the press in that period and how far a rich and powerful man would go to suppress criticism. Its initial distribution was suppressed because it was commonly assumed that the film's central character, Charles Foster Kane, was a veiled critical portrait of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Now regarded as a film classic, it is somewhat ironic that Citizen Kane was not widely seen until the late 1950s. Novelty and promise were the key ingredients of an arrangement which tested the limits of Hollywood's tolerance of aesthetic experiment, political bravado and sheer hype. An enterprising producer, George Schaefer, secured a promising deal: the services of a controversial but charismatic radio personality and theatre producer who brought with him a cast of characters who, like him, were new to film.
This unusually generous contract was part of RKO's strategy to attract new talent and confer artistic respectability on a film industry which had experienced a turbulent decade with the arrival of the 'talkies' and the Depression. When Orson Welles signed his contract in July 1939 with RKO, one of Hollywood's major film studios, he was given final cut: complete control over what eventually appeared on screen, provided the film did not exceed a modest budget of $500,000. Unfettered by the constraints of the Hollywood studio system, a boy genius is granted his wish to produce a film without studio interference, hire his theatrical friends and use the best technicians in Hollywood. The production history of Citizen Kane reads like a film script.
0 kommentar(er)
