Movie Club—Citizen Kane

This month the Movie Club will be screening one of the most celebrated and talked about films of all time: Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

Released in 1941, the film was Welles' cinematic debut. It follows a newspaper reporter who attempts to find the meaning of 'Rosebud': the dying words of media tycoon Charles Foster Kane. In his search he consults Kane's former business manager, the diary of his deceased guardian, his second wife, and his oldest friend turned critic. Each tells of a different aspect of the larger than life Kane, but did any of them actually know him, or the identity and significance of Rosebud?

The film is celebrated for many reasons. In a time when Hollywood was driven by genre (like Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns) and films were at the mercy of studios, writers, directors, actors and producers all having an individual impact on the final product, Welles' monument combined many genres as well as seeing the 25 year old Welles taking on all roles in the making of the film, one of the earliest and most megalomaniacal examples of auteurship.

From its non-linear, ever complicating narrative (reminiscent of early twentieth century novels like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Absalom, Absalom!) to its superior framing and revolutionary cinematography, the film is certainly a milestone but also a rarity of the American film industry.

The screening will be held on Wednesday 12 August at Narellan Library. Not convinced of its greatness? Share your thoughts or use the discussion questions to get a debate going after the screening.

Book Review—The New Yorker Book of the 40s: Story of a Decade

This is an anthology of pieces originally published in The New Yorker magazine during the 1940s, featuring pieces by some of the twentieth century’s preeminent writers. Divided into seven sections, the text comprises character studies, writings about World War II, scenes from American life, reviews of books, film, music, and theatre, and original poetry and short stories.

For a lit geek like me the first section devoured was the literary reviews. Of particular interest are reviews of T.S. Eliot’s “Notes Towards the Definition of Culture” by fellow poet W.H. Auden, a review of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, as well as Orwell’s review of Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter  There are also numerous notes and comments throughout by E.B. White, who was a long time contributor to the publication. The character studies include Eleanor Roosevelt, Duke Ellington, Albert Einstein, and Norman Mailer, with their unifier being their influence during the decade. The sections dedicated to original poetry and short stories features writers like Auden, Vladimir Nabokov, and V.S. Pritchett. The star of that section is Shirley Jackson’s breakout story “The Lottery” which caused outrage when first published and marked a new era of horror writing.
This volume provides considerable interest and delight. The greatest surprise is the mix of names and styles, defining and characterising the decade while also fleshing out its many streams of thought and life, preventing it from falling into a simple stereotype of the era.
The New Yorker Book of the 40s is great for casual reading and even better for getting lost in the past.
Andreas