Word: kanes
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Welles's greatest film successes have come when his particular use of shadows, symbols, and camera angles was well suited to his material. No one who has seen Citizen Kane can forget the power of this technique when dealing with the Hearst-like tycoon...
...already interminable list. Samples: "I'm Rich, from the Advertiser." "Sign, of the Times." "Cash, from the Register." "Jefferson, of the Constitution." "Flat, from the Press." "Weary, of the World." "Feather, from the Eagle." "Twinkle, from the Star." "Left, at the Post." "Glass, of the Mirror." "Kane, of the Citizen...
...Orson Welles resumes his old position as one of the finest filmmakers at work anywhere in the world. The Trial is not a great movie, but it is a very, very good movie, but it is a very, very good one. It suffers by comparison with the classic Citizen Kane, Welles' best picture and possibly the greatest feature-length movie ever made. But that comparison, though inevitable, is not completely fair. Certainly The Trial can stand with any one of the other "quality" films of recent years...
...minor flaws in all but one of Orson Welles' extraordinary films are particularly maddening because they are unnecessary. Since 1940, when Citizen Kane synthesized Horatio Alger and the "film noir" into a critical success, he has used the same ideas, the same flashback techniques, and even the same evil Prometheus as his protagonist. But these methods could not make the the story of a pathetic border sheriff in Touch of Evil as interesting as the life of Charles Foster Kane. Mr. Arkadin has a more heroic figure than the sheriff, but Welles' personal triumph in the title role cannot compensate...
Although these these flaws keep it from sharing Kane's greatness, Mr. Arkadin remains brilliant. The work is alternately baffling and lucid, and should be see. Welles is certainly one of the finest contemporary directors; his camera work makes the French "nouvelle vague" group look amateurish. One particularly effective scene shows the grandeur of a penitentes procession in Barcelona. The black-robed figures passing in torchlight surpass the processions in Ivan the Terrible, for Welles is always free of the episodic tableau photography that marred Eisenstein's films...