Kane on Blu-ray

[Glenn Anders]

Thanks, atcolomb: I suppose we should be thankful for any new activity to bring the creations of Orson Welles to new audiences, but as Todd Baesen (or was it Larry French?) and certainly Roger Ryan have noted, hopefully, the new "painstaking" restoration of CITIZEN KANE has not removed the scratches from the newsreel, nor revealed the faces of actors in the screening room. And the inclusion of the misleading BATTLE FOR CITIZEN KANE and mediocre RKO 281 adds only baggage. As we know, the original negative was destroyed, and so no one is going to restore completely the incredible film I saw in a little Ohio theater, one Sunday in 1941. That film is in my head, and will be until the day I die.

Glenn

[atcolomb]

The 2001 dvd print for Kane came from a nitrate fine-grain print found in a European archive so i wonder how much better the new 4K scan from a 1941 composite fine grain positive master would look like? I did like the 2001 dvd release even if it was a tad too bright and it did over use the digital clean up.
By the way i saw Kane once in a theater about 15 years ago and it was at our multplex and to my horror it was shown widescreen so it distorted the image.
I complained to the manager and got a free pass to another movie but i still was disapointed and now know better to see it at a independent arts theater.

[Glenn Anders]

I think you are right, atcolomb. My own favorite version is a VHS copy contained in a special boxed set of some years ago. Unfortunately, I no longer have a VHS player to watch it!

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

I saw the "cropped for widescreen" version of KANE at a local multiplex as well. The manager told me it wasn't worth renting the appropriate projector lens for a short weekend showing, so we were treated to many shots where Kane's head was missing!

Glenn - I have to disagree with you regarding the 1991 VHS release (the one you're talking about, I believe). That transfer, although ostensibly supervised by Robert Wise, was a murky, blurry mess with all the deep blacks escaping their former constraints to swamp the entire frame at times. In the famous first shot of the nightclub, the Susan Alexander Kane poster is visible during the lightning strike, but the image is almost entirely black until the camera reaches the skylight. Compare this to the 2001 DVD release which features much more detail.

The new Blu-ray release needs to tone down the brightness of the DVD, but I hope it doesn't resemble the '91 edition.

[Glenn Anders]

Roger: I remember going to a local art house with Todd Baesen one time for a pre-screening of a legendary but rather obscure (monochrome) French film of the 1930's. Our experience was identical to yours with CITIZEN KANE. Baesen accosted the manager/owner as only he can, but the man blandly gave us the same reasoning. I suppose, all things considered, if a showing is likely to lose money or have a very narrow profit margin, cutting potential losses in advance is the capitalist way.

As for my VHS cassette of CITIZEN KANE, you are correct. It was contained in "The Fiftieth Anniversary Limited Edition of CITIZEN KANE" boxed set, dated 1941-1991. [The great treat of that collection was a facsimile copy of the screenplay draft, American.] I neglected to note that, following the Widescreen Magazine method, I used the VHS copy to keep my television set of the time in proper calibration. As I'm sure you know, Roger, problems of register, at least, may be corrected by slight adjustments of calibration, which should make some or our cries of anguish here moot.

[Helps your TV maintain optimum phosphors for a couple of years longer, too!]

Glenn

[atcolomb]

I have the 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition vhs box set but mine came with a 244 page hardcover book by Harlan Lebo on Kane and it does have a lot of great pics and text on the history of the film. Do still have the all 4 versions of the Criterion laserdisc versions of Kane..single and boxsets and the last release for the 50th anniversary looked very good with some great extras and i do below have a 2001 review from the DVD Verdict website comparison between the dvd and the laserdisc:

"Many veteran video collectors will have Criterion's CAV laserdisc (3 discs) set of Citizen Kane. The title was actually Criterion's first offering in 1984. It was derived from a fine grain master positive provided by the UCLA Film and Television Archives. In 1991, the set was reissued with a fresh transfer on the film's 50th anniversary with some additional supplements. Is the laserdisc set now redundant, given WB's DVD efforts?

Certainly, the DVD's image and sound are substantial improvements over the laserdisc which itself was quite a remarkable achievement. The DVD, however, is quite noticeably brighter, cleaner, and possesses better shadow detail. The sound is richer and free of the very occasional crackle and hiss that existed on the laserdisc. So, strictly from the standpoint of the film itself, you need to have this new DVD version.

But definitely don't get rid of that CAV laserdisc, for it has the freeze frame capability that allows you to step through scenes frame by frame that DVD doesn't and that can be very useful with a technique-rich film like "Kane." In terms of supplements, the laserdisc is also very much worth retaining. It contains a visual essay called "The Making of a Film Classic" that deals with the production process in detail. Although it covers some of the same material contained in the "Production," "Post Production," and "Production Notes" sections of the DVD, it does so in a somewhat more pleasing fashion (less flipping back and forth between menus and clips with the repetitious menu music that results). Most importantly, the laserdisc contains a 70-minute, interactive documentary featuring interviews with 35 directors, cinematographers, "Kane" collaborators, and Welles associates. The interviews span critical insights into Citizen Kane to entertaining anecdotes about Orson Welles to personal recollections on the making of the film. I've always considered it to be one of the best supplements that Criterion ever included on any laserdisc".

[Glenn Anders]

Interesting, atacolomb: Frankly, that sturdy box of "The Fiftieth Limited Collector's Edition of CITIZEN KANE" acts as a bookend for my laserdisc collection, and I am afraid to move it now. I may have entirely forgotten Mr. Lebo's book. But I do remember the facsimile draft of the screenplay, which in my opinion, is the most valuable thing in the box, besides the VHS copy of the film itself. My box also came with a small, tipped-in label the size of a business card, inscribed: "By permission of the Orson Welles' Estate," which I assume means, Beatrice Welles. I think Todd Baesen has carried that off somewhere.

Like you, I have a laserdisc edition of CITIZEN KANE, and the DVD.

My point is, though, that all of the laserdisc, DVD, and now Blu-Ray wizardry may be destroying Orson Welles' playful technical homages to the past. Others have already commented on the "correcting" of the lighting at several points, the rain on the windows of Bernstein's office, and the removal of painstakingly created scratches in "The Newsreel." I am thinking of my first magical moment, in Shea's Theater, when there was a kind of rude sound glitch, and then, the huge, stark, stylized, SILENT letters of the title erupted on the screen -- like the crude lettering we had begun to associate with "Socialist Realism" in Russian films like BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN . . . even in Geneva, Ohio, even vaguely in the mind of a ten year-old like myself. That crackle -- and certain others -- still carried over into the 16mm version that I used to show to my Film and Mass Media class, thirty years later.

I suppose that those glitches have now been removed, but did Welles want some of them there?

That's my point.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

A couple of the reviews are in and it looks like very good news for the CITIZEN KANE Blu-ray. This edition is an entirely new restoration and transfer and corrects many of the DVD issues that fans complained about; essentially, the picture is darker and isn't scrubbed completely clean of film grain and important details.

Here's one of the reviews:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Citizen-K ... 44/#Review

[etimh]

A couple of the reviews are in and it looks like very good news for the CITIZEN KANE Blu-ray. This edition is an entirely new restoration and transfer and corrects many of the DVD issues that fans complained about; essentially, the picture is darker and isn't scrubbed completely clean of film grain and important details.

Awesome, can't wait.

Thanks for the review link.

Tim

[atcolomb]

Hi Def Digest: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/3350/citizenkane.html

[RayKelly]

In addition to the informative reviews Roger and atcolomb posted above, there is also:

Entertainment Weekly http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/09/03/is-citizen-kane-really-the-greatest-american-movie-of-all-time/

Big Picture Sound http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Citizen-Kane-70th-Anniversary-Ultimate-Collector-s-Edition-Blu-ray.shtml

[atcolomb]

DVD FILE: http://www.dvdfile.com/reviews/blurayre ... -bd-review

[LostOverThere]

Does anyone know if this has been confirmed for PAL releases? I can't find it anywhere...

[atcolomb]

DVD TOWN: http://www.dvdtown.com/review/citizen-kane/blu-ray/9310
Looks like all the reviews are all very good but could have had new extras.

[Ragged_Clown]

Beaver review

The new Blu looks to be slightly vertically squeezed, or the old DVD was stretched. Anybody have any idea which is more accurate?

Looks gorgeous, at any rate.