Mank (2020)
Country: US
Technical: bw/2.20:1 131m
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Gary Oldman, Lily Collins, Amanda Seyfried, Arliss Howard, Charles Dance (as W.R. Hearst), Tom Burke (as Orson Welles)
Synopsis:
As Herman Mankiewicz lies in a desert refuge with a broken leg to write his first draft of what would become Citizen Kane, we flashback through a haze of seconal at the events surrounding his involvement with the Hearst empire.
Review:
Visibly a labour of love for the director (it looks amazing), this is in our view the best picture about Hollywood since Sunset Boulevard. The script, by Fincher senior, belongs to a class of dialogue-writing not heard since, well, the 1930s, and is far kinder to its secondary subject (Hearst) than RKO 281 (qv.) was. It exudes humanity and wit through every pore, and Oldman is mesmerising, his best yet. Note: Fincher being an advocate of analogue methods, it was shot on film (you can see a projectionist's reel-change marker at one point, surely for effect: it could have been digitised at the intermediate stage); the words Citizen Kane do not occur in the screenplay.
Country: US
Technical: bw/2.20:1 131m
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Gary Oldman, Lily Collins, Amanda Seyfried, Arliss Howard, Charles Dance (as W.R. Hearst), Tom Burke (as Orson Welles)
Synopsis:
As Herman Mankiewicz lies in a desert refuge with a broken leg to write his first draft of what would become Citizen Kane, we flashback through a haze of seconal at the events surrounding his involvement with the Hearst empire.
Review:
Visibly a labour of love for the director (it looks amazing), this is in our view the best picture about Hollywood since Sunset Boulevard. The script, by Fincher senior, belongs to a class of dialogue-writing not heard since, well, the 1930s, and is far kinder to its secondary subject (Hearst) than RKO 281 (qv.) was. It exudes humanity and wit through every pore, and Oldman is mesmerising, his best yet. Note: Fincher being an advocate of analogue methods, it was shot on film (you can see a projectionist's reel-change marker at one point, surely for effect: it could have been digitised at the intermediate stage); the words Citizen Kane do not occur in the screenplay.
Country: US
Technical: bw/2.20:1 131m
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Gary Oldman, Lily Collins, Amanda Seyfried, Arliss Howard, Charles Dance (as W.R. Hearst), Tom Burke (as Orson Welles)
Synopsis:
As Herman Mankiewicz lies in a desert refuge with a broken leg to write his first draft of what would become Citizen Kane, we flashback through a haze of seconal at the events surrounding his involvement with the Hearst empire.
Review:
Visibly a labour of love for the director (it looks amazing), this is in our view the best picture about Hollywood since Sunset Boulevard. The script, by Fincher senior, belongs to a class of dialogue-writing not heard since, well, the 1930s, and is far kinder to its secondary subject (Hearst) than RKO 281 (qv.) was. It exudes humanity and wit through every pore, and Oldman is mesmerising, his best yet. Note: Fincher being an advocate of analogue methods, it was shot on film (you can see a projectionist's reel-change marker at one point, surely for effect: it could have been digitised at the intermediate stage); the words Citizen Kane do not occur in the screenplay.