Happy to present the round 24th with Orson Welles! The films we picked were:
Citizen Kane
F For Fake
These films represent the wide spectrum of Orson Welles’ filmography as “Citizen Kane” is his first feature film, while “F For Fake” is one of the last ones. The director himself is acting in both films as well.
Citizen Kane
Author: AED
Anticipation: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Retrospect: 4
Score: 14
“Citizen Kane” kick’s off with main character’s death and centres around his last words:
“Rosebud”
Mr Kane, being a wealthy man and a celebrity, obviously ignites people’s imagination. That’s why, after passing away he becomes a center of attention as an investigation aims to unravel the mistery of “Rosebud” and it’s meaning.
Down the memory lane of testing different hypothesis about what or who “Rosebud” might be, we learn more and more about Charles Foster Kane. However, all of it is from other’s people perspective.
What defies a person? Is it their beliefs, career, values, passions…? How distorted the picture of ourselves becomes when our own side of the story is excluded? Can anyone truly know anybody? Or are others only kind-of fitting to the shapes we pre-imagined for them to fit in? “Citizen Kane” brings up questions about image and what truly matters, therefore, I feel like today, with all the social media and creation of ourselves online, this film might be more relevant than ever.
F For Fake
Author: AED
Anticipation: 4
Enjoyment: 4
Retrospect: 5
Score: 13
“I like art” – is something anyone can say and many did in the past and about many various things. Still, it seems like there is an never ending supply of it. Simultaneously everyone feels entitled to have an opinion about what is or isn’t art. Sometimes, we’ll hear a confident:
“This is NOT art.”
Or
“It’s pretty, but is it Art?”
So, how do you know? I would always ask myself? Who gave YOU the right to decide?
Is “art” only when YOU like it?
Should everything be considered as art? Can it? Maybe it is requires something specific, like: to be created by a talented individual, having a deep meaning, some kind of uniqueness, or it should awake feelings in the receiver, take significant time and thought in the creation process…? However I try to define art, I feel like inevitably I am ruling something important out.
“F For Fake” tackles the questionable definition of art by looking closely into the aspect of art forgery and telling a story of a Hungarian painter Elmyr de Hory. At the same time the film ridicules the knowledge of “so-called experts” in the art world. The story is a bit chaotic, but very engaging and thought provoking. Thinking about art, from now on, I will always remind myself of the following:
“What we professional liars hope to serve is truth. I’m afraid the pompous word for that is “art”.” – F For Fake
“Art, [Picasso] said, is a lie — a lie that makes us realise the truth. To the memory of that great man who will never cease to exist, I offer my apologies and wish you all, true and false, a very pleasant good evening” – F For Fake
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso
adrapinska 