Rating: NNNNN
Citizen kane (Orson Welles, 1941) pops up at two rep cinemas this week. It plays on TV quite often, but you must see this classic on the big screen at least once in your life. Welles shocked the moviegoing public and his studio, RKO, with his cynical, visually groundbreaking look at the life of egotistical newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (modelled on the ultra-powerful William Randolph Hearst). The 25-year-old Welles was given complete artistic control of his film and, with the aid of cinematographer Gregg Toland, used it to pioneer the use of deep-focus photography, embrace low camera angles and play with narrative structure as if it were a jigsaw puzzle. Cinema would never be the same again. NNNNN (August 29, Revue August 24-29, Royal).