The French Connection and Citizen Kane DVDs (1 Viewer)

[Tom Ryan]

Whoa.....you might not like the movie, but anyone who directs a movie like The Exorcist is NOT talentless.
-Tom
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There is nothing wrong with any of the surrounds on your Forrest Gump DVD! It's ok!!!

 

[Mark Zimmer]

There is a brief bit of nudity in French Connection, but it's basically a butt-shot that lasts maybe a second of the girl that Popeye picks up on the bicycle. Nothing really very offensive.
The deleted scenes, however, do carry more nudity and a S&M scene, so if nudity in film bothers you, skip the deleted scenes.
My review is up at Digitally Obsessed today: http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/sho...w.php3?ID=1620
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"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."

 

[Tom Ryan]

Mark, thanks for the info. I'll still watch the deleted scenes, as I will still endure things I find unappropriate to see a good film. I just don't particularly like watching those things over and over, e.g. in a finished film.
-Tom
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There is nothing wrong with any of the surrounds on your Forrest Gump DVD! It's ok!!!

 

[Joe_Mur]

Dick and Andrew,
I am thirty and that has nothing to do with my like or dislike of a film. Let me stop you, age has nothing to do with it.
I do not like Michael Bay films. I have a long attention span. I love character studies and foreign films. My favorite film is Goodfellas and the Godfather films. If I'm not mistaken those are not Michael Bay type films. I find Citizen Kane boring, I do think it was filmed beautifully but that is not enough to hold my interest.
I have read books on WIlliam Randolph Hurst and I still find it boring. I was expressing my opinion which we are all entitled to. There is nothing wrong with me if I have a different opinion then you do.
I was just telling this guy to rent before he buys. I am tired of hearing people complain about films they buy unseen.
I am also of the opinion that some films have to grab you when you are young. I saw the French Connection six months ago for the first time and find the visuals dated but the story is what it is all about.

 

[Nathan_H]

It may be worth noting that Citizen Kane doesn't really "tell a story". So if that's what you're looking for, something like Welles' Touch of Evil might be more pleasing.
Certatinly, in watching the film, you get the impression that you have seen Kane's life from cradle to grave. But what one has really seen, imo, is a series of vignettes, each biased by the perspective of the different narrators in the film, which add up to an incomplete, and sometimes contradictory portrait of a person (Kane).
I would put Kane into the same class as Roshomon. Kane is not as extreme, but narratively what is going on is less about "the story" and more about how there are many ways to approach the a single story, or a single person, etc. The sub-text might be that there is no single way to tell a story or to describe (or know) a person... and at one point, in Kane, I believe one of the characters says as much.
Even the mcguffin (sp?) is just that: A tool to drive the story, but no answer to the man's character.
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[Derek Duncan]

I don't agree with the age thing either, I'm 19, and love Citizen Kane, can't wait for the DVD. I can't comment on the French Connection, I have not seen it, but plan on picking up the DVD.
Derek

 

[James D S]

For those who believe that cinema is art, Citizen Kane is their best argument.
If you are to consider yourself a film collector, or even an enthusiast, Kane is a must. Period.
It is the pinacle of what film can achieve when creativity is focused in its purest form.
Can you tell that I'm a fan?
[Edited last by James D S on September 17, 2001 at 06:30 PM]

 

[Agee Bassett]

It is the pinacle of what film can achieve when creativity is focused in its purest form.

And perhaps also what can result when that same creativity runs away with itself.
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The Devil & Daniel Webster (1941)

"Cinema is simply letting the audience fill in the blanks." - David Lean.

 

[Brian W.]

Hmm, different opinions. Personally, I find "The French Connection" boring. I've never been able to see what everyone thought was so great about that one -- but then, I haven't seen it for many years.
"Kane" is not the most entertaining or enjoyable movie ever made, but I've never found it boring -- just a little difficult to get emotionally involved in. How many people can count "Citizen Kane" as their FAVORITE movie? I don't know any personally. I compare it to "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- it's not a film you enjoy, so much as it is a film you admire. "Kane" is not the most entertaining or the most involving film ever made, but I never tire of watching it because I just can't frigging believe the genius of it all -- the cinematography, the editing, the way you are whisked from one scene to another, out of sequence, in this roller coaster ride through a script that I think is one of the great works of American literature. Perhaps it is this telling of the story in random, unpredictable sequence that interferes with our emotional involvement.
The late Pauline Kael called "Citizen Kane" "kitsch," but said (I'm quoting roughly from memory): "It is in the TELLING of the story that "Kane" achieves its greatness." One instance that comes to my mind: The five minute flashback from Kane's childhood done with only two shots -- an entire scene played inside, then the camera moving outside into the snow for another whole scene, all without a cut.
I cannot deny that "Citizen Kane" fails to make me FEEL. I have heard many other people say the same, so it IS a failure on that level. But just as the unsatisfying ending of "Apocalypse Now" takes nothing away from the greatness of every scene leading up to it, so "Kane's" inablity to move its audience on an emotional level takes nothing away from it as a mind-boggling mesh of writing, cinematography, editing, set design, and special effects.
[Edited last by Brian W. on September 17, 2001 at 09:51 PM]

 

[James D S]

And perhaps also what can result when that same creativity runs away with itself.

But that goes without saying. LOL

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

"Kane" is not the most entertaining or enjoyable movie ever made, but I've never found it boring -- just a little difficult to get emotionally involved in. How many people can count "Citizen Kane" as their FAVORITE movie? I don't know any personally. I compare it to "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- it's not a film you enjoy, so much as it is a film you admire.

Funny, but CK and 2001 are my two FAVORITE movies of all time, without question (although Dr. Strangelove and Vertigo sometime sneak in there). I consider them the best films I've ever seen. I'd watch them again and again, anytime. Although 2001 must be seen theatrically several times for the proper impact.

 

[Matt Perkins]

Peter, something occurs to me as I read your FAVORITE films above ... you're not by any chance actually me, are you? (Or maybe my taste in movies is just really common!)

 

[Dharmesh C]

I'm in the minority, I think Touch of Evil is better than Citizen Kane because Welles uses all his experience and knowledge from Kane and takes it to another level. The story is not as satisfying as Touch of Evil.
I say buy Kane because you'll learn a lot from it.
French Connection is another must-buy, mega gritty and quite realistic, well written characters and an engaging story.
I suppose it depends on your taste.
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British film-making blows away Hollywood.
Why? Verisimilitude!
Superman CINEMA
http://www.deceptions.net/superman

 

[Nelson Au]

To me CK was about his struggle to find Rosebud. He dies before he even realizes he has it. But that's my take.
As an aside, I recently went on a trip along the California coast to see the Monterey Concours De'Elegance at Pebble Beach. We went down to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle afterwards. Now that was a cool tour to see the castle that inspired the film version.
When I got home, that night I was feeling a bit like a movie and I watched my Criterion LD of Citizen Kane. I was pretty tired, so I found myself nodding off. But this was the 3rd time I'd seen the disc and I was still finding things innovative about the cinetography and the way Welles approached the story telling process. The film gets better every time I see it. The charaterizations are full.
Now the story is an exaggeration of Hearst. The castle wan't that big! It was definitely way over the top as was his life. It gave me a new appreciation of Hearst and Citizen Kane. If you can, see Hearst Castle. There is a film too about his life and what drove him to collect all those art pieces. Which Hearst incorporated in the Castle interior decor to enjoy, unlike Kane who kept it in crates. The Castle is a museum of art pieces with each floor that represents an era in history.
My trip was also a fun film site discovery. Along the way, we stopped at San Juan Baptista to see the Mission where Hitchcock's Vertigo was filmed. We had Dinner in the Fish Factory in Monterey where Clint Eastwood filmed a scene in Play Misty For Me. I finally saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium where Star Trek 4 was filmed, and I'm a huge Trek fan, took me a while.
Sorry, got off topic there, but it seemed appropriate.
Nelson

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I hate to sound like a heretic, but I'm less excited about Kane than I am about the French Connection 2-pack if only because I've seen Kane so many times and analyzed it to death in film school. I'll eventually get it, but owning it right now doesn't have the pressing urgency of some of the other titles coming out in the next month or so.
Am I the only person getting his ass kicked by the sheer number of excellent catalog titles being released between now and the next six weeks?

 

[Jason_Els]

I love Kane. It is fluid, complex, surprising, and immediately you realize that every movie after it had some editing effect first done in Kane.
I daresay the characterizations are the heart of the film and stand as a testament to the value of ensemble theater. The players in Kane came from his Mercury Theater troupe and had been performing together in radio for quite some time. These players knew how to play off each other like the 1984 American women's track and field team. This tight, deep insight allowed each character to bloom in the hothouse of precision acting. Given the opportunity they probably could have pulled-off high farce comedies within a week of practice.
It is not the best movie in my book, however. The most transcendent and life-affecting work I have ever seen is Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc". Ebert and Kael agree in this. Quoting Roger:
"You cannot know the history of silent film unless you know the face of Renee Maria Falconetti. In a medium without words, where the filmmakers believed that the camera captured the essence of characters through their faces, to see Falconetti in Dreyer's ``The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (1928) is to look into eyes that will never leave you."
Chicago Sun Times
[Edited last by Jason_Els on September 18, 2001 at 10:59 PM]

 

[chris georgeson]

hmm, time to get out of the home theater forum thing.
KANE DEAD
deep focus & story construct not touched upon, time & room permitting . . .
never mind the incredible cast or KANE's making of history
must not mean anything to you because citizen kane story structure and filmic techniques have been hijacked by every filmmaker since, so you are anesthetized to seeing the techniques on display
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french connection written by ernest tidyman, also the wit behind several blaxploitation flix of same era, also described gritty
Nudity= consists of one very quick shot of a gal - buck naked - in silhouette in low contrast - startled by Scheider's character - in Popeye's apt.
btw, the sequence of Popeye meeting this gal and Scheider's character startling this gal is quintessential film storyboarding & editing.
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conclusion - you guys who are asking for help about selecting movies ON DVD for your personal FILM LIBRARY - are clueless, apparently, as to the elements and history of film construct.
here's hoping that you go and pick up a decent textbook so as to get a clue about what makes film work on our heads so deeply . ..
nuff said, but the immediately preceding comments are right on ..... there have got to be more Yea Sayers for the groundbreaking film titles in this forum
take a chance, you might like it . . .. . and if you don't . . . ebay it, or better - try netflixing/renting it.
ps. Tom Ryan - took a look at your list, excellent ht fare, but FC & KANE are not for you without an extended look at both . . . . FC is the daddy of chase flix, put simply.
And KANE, oddly enuf, could be considered the daddy of bio-pix, so pop today on the toob.
[Edited last by chris georgeson on September 18, 2001 at 11:32 PM]
[Edited last by chris georgeson on September 18, 2001 at 11:47 PM]