1999 Directed by Benjamin Ross
In 1939, boy-wonder Orson Welles leaves New York, where he has succeeded in radio and theater, and, hired by RKO Pictures, moves to Hollywood with the purpose of making his first film.
Liev Schreiber James Cromwell Melanie Griffith John Malkovich Liam Cunningham David Suchet Fiona Shaw Anastasia Hille Brenda Blethyn Roy Scheider Roger Allam Simeon Andrews William Armstrong Jay Benedict Ron Berglas Paul Birchard Neil Conrich Michael Cronin Sarah Franzl Briony Glassco Louis Hammond Aaron Keeling Joseph Long Gareth Marks Olivier Pierre Roger Rose Rolf Saxon Adrian Schiller Kerry Shale Show All…
Die Legende — Der Kampf um Citizen Kane, RKO 281: The Battle Over Citizen Kane, ザ・ディレクター[市民ケーン]の真実
Epic history and literature Politics and human rights War and historical adventure political, president, historical, politician or democracy historical, royalty, sumptuous, lavish or drama shakespearean, kings, battle, breathtaking or epic political, democracy, documentary, president or propaganda nazi, war, wwii, hitler or jewish Show All…
I was excited when I heard that David Fincher would make a film about the making of Citizen Kane, though I had doubts about the casting of Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz. Alas, the result is not even close to my expectations. Except for the black-and-white cinematography, Mank is a huge disappointment: questionable casting, trite dialogue, too much completely irrelevant political content, too little Orson.
But as Bogie might have said, we’ll always have RKO 281. While this made-for-TV film is not the best possible Mankiewicz-Welles saga, it captures many of the highlights and is fairly entertaining.
“I used to have dreams, too.”
I had limited expectations for RKO 281 because of the casting of Liev Schreiber, whom I have…
CITIZEN KANE feels like CITIZEN KANE compared to this.
This is basically a tabloid movie. The filmmakers took every single juicy bit of gossip about the making of CITIZEN KANE and reduced all the parties involved to one-note characters.
Orson Welles (Liev Schreiber) is a brash young hotshot who arrives in Hollywood, ready to make a movie but undecided what it will be about. In an entirely fictional scene, he attends a party at San Simeon, dislikes how rude William Randolph Hearst (James Cromwell) is, and so sets out to make a movie that will be an unflattering portrayal, just to stick it to him.
What annoys me is that RKO 281 makes no effort to be a serious biopic…
After having rewatched the masterpiece that is Citizen Kane (1941), I thought I'd seek out a movie about the making of that all time classic, so RKO 281 it was. This was originally developed as a Ridley Scott film with an A-list cast including Edward Norton as Orson Welles, Marlon Brando as William Randolph Hearst, Madonna as Marion Davies, Dustin Hoffman as Herman J. Mankiewicz and Meryl Streep as Louella Parsons. For various reasons that never eventuated and instead it was scaled down to a HBO original movie with only limited theatrical distribution, and we now get Liev Schreiber as Welles, James Cromwell as Hearst, Melanie Griffith as Davies, John Malkovich as Mankiewicz and good old Roy Scheider, proving he…
HM: What do you think movies are about?
OW: Life's great pageant.
the crazy thing is... RKO 281 might be a better movie than Mank. it's way closer than you'd think
Pretty decent (if somewhat unremarkable) TV movie about all the drama behind Citizen Kane’s production and release. Cast is quite good, especially James Cromwell and John Mank-ovich! Should be pretty clear why I watched this... obviously it’s prep for Wonder Woman 1984 😉
Is this "Mank" 1.0? I sure hope not. This is the definition of a serviceable Made for TV film. It has a nice cast. It never really cuts deep enough for you to care about anything. No style or salesmanship.
Debated pushing this to a full three stars but it’s aggressively *TV MOVIE* but I must say, a 90’s Malkovich makes everything better.
> Mank IMHO
When I realized the guy you see for two seconds in Scream riding in the back of a cop car on TV was the best actor to star in Scream.
"All stars burn out, Orson. It's the flame that counts."
Am I supposed to rewatch Mank now, to complete the Kane-xtravaganza I've been on the last few days?
I just might, now that I think about it...
This was a decent made for HBO movie with a solid enough cast, though, as much as I respect Liev Schreiber, I never really bought him as Orson Welles. I'm not saying he did a bad job as far as his acting, but he never struck me as embodying the man himself. Though I'll give him credit, Schreiber did bring some of the self-doubt and fragility forward, cutting through some of the bravado.
The film takes some of the tawdry rumors of Kane's…
Carole Lombard aparece como personagem neste filme sobre a vida e quase morte de Cidadão Kane. A verdade é que Carole é a principal culpada pela existência de Cidadão Kane, Orson Welles estrearia na direção com um filme chamado Smiler with a Knife, mas sob hipótese alguma ele o faria sem Lombard, mas esta sentindo o peso da responsabilidade de trabalhar com o mais novo queridinho da América com grandes chances de colocarem a ambos ardendo numa fogueira, resolveu ir em territórios mais calmos como o bom e velho Hitchcock e sua família Smith. O resto é história, essas são as vantagens em se ganhar um não de uma mulher.
Não só de esnobar Orson Welles ela viveu, deu também…
