CITIZEN KANE Saturday Morning at The Hi-Pointe

“That’s all he ever wanted out of life… was love. That’s the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn’t have any to give.”

CITIZEN KANE screens at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater this weekend as part of their Classic Film Series. It’s  Saturday, January 14th at 10:30am at the Hi-Pointe located at 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117. The film will be introduced by Harry Hamm, movie reviewer for KMOX. Admission is only $5

Is CITIZEN KANE the greatest film ever made? On a technical level, it may as well be. It’s at least the most groundbreaking film ever made. On a storytelling level, it’s an amazing achievement itself in that Orson Welles used such avant-garde techniques yet maintained an engrossing story. It’s a film full of contradictions and works perfectly because of them. Its over-the-top yet subtle, experimental yet accessible, quickly paced yet requiring of patience. Its considered the greatest film because of how it incorporates all these trademarks and the fact it basically reinvented the rules on how to make a movie. This must be credited to both Gregg Toland’s cinematography and Robert Wise’s editing as much as Orson Welles’ direction. This is probably the first film that could be considered so visually dense it required multiple viewings.

Oddly enough, in spite of the vast array of technical advances introduced in this film, it’s the story that one remembers. Welles is so often praised as a director, it’s easy to overlook the fact he was an accomplished actor also. Because of his multi-layered performance, Kane is a sympathetic individual instead of a cold hearted capitalist stock character. The screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz is so superb many argue he deserves as much credit as Welles. The hype on this one is really deserved. It really may as well be the greatest film of all time and now you’ll have th opportunity to see it on the big screen when it screens this Saturday morning (January 14^th)

The Hi-Pointe’s site can be found HERE

http://hi-pointetheatre.com/