Cinema Sunday Redux: Citizen Kane and A Face In the Crowd

 

Recently, I had a chance to re-watch some movies that I wrote about last year. It was midnight and TCM was running Citizen Kane. I wasn't intending to watch it but I found myself caught up in this amazing movie and watched all the way to it's end at 2:00 AM.

I posted about Citizen Kane last year.  

When one sees Citizen Kane for the first time, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane is the movie's inescapable center of gravity, a performance of incredible power and nuance. 

Watching it again and again, one begins to look beyond the center and take greater notice of other performances. In the past, I've taken particular notice of Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland, the one friend who wanted to believe in the early idealism of Kane but is all too aware of Kane's self destructive need to service his own ego. 

This last time, I gave more consideration to the performance of Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein. Perhaps Kane's biggest booster and supporter, even in the dark times of Kane's aged decline, Bernstein is not oblivious to the darkness in Kane's heart and the terrible losses he ego brought upon himself. Listening to Bernstein talk to the reporter after Kane's death is to hear the cracked voice of a man who despite everything is still loyal to Kane the man and the ideal.

One recent Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to catch A Face In the Crowd which I wrote about last year.  Again, like Citizen Kane, this is a movie where the center of attention absorbs almost all of the light and oxygen. Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes is a dynamo of dramatic energy, bouncing from folksy country singer and storyteller to a power mad force of growing political importance. In modern terms, he would likely be diagnosed as manic depressive, screaming to euphoric highs to crashing to self loathing lows. 

Anyone who is familiar with Andy Griffith only as the genial Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry will be in for a shock. 

Again, watching a movie like this again affords opportunities to look beyond the obvious center of attention.  In A Face In the Crowd, Patricia Neal as Marcia Jeffries is a performance filled with pain, her passionate affection for Rhodes, his betrayal of that affection with other women, the twisting pain in her gut when she realizes the unhinged monster she is responsible for creating and the agonizing guilt of her own betrayal of Rhodes even when it was the right thing to do.  Jeffries is shattered by her association with Rhodes but ultimately she is a stronger person than Rhodes.

Also note worthy is Walter Matthau as Mel Miller, a TV writer who is treated with disdain and mockery by Rhodes. Mel ain't got time for this shit and moves on. But he returns when Marcia Jeffries is at her lowest point and stands by her when she stands up to Lonesome Rhodes. And Walter Matthau really delivers a solid punch with Mel Miller's final judgement of Lonesome Rhodes: worse than being forgotten, Rhodes will slide into irrelevancy. He'll still find some network or station that will put him on TV but at diminishing returns, lower ratings, declining influence. 

Citizen Kane and A Face In the Crowd are two incredibly complex films that I can watch more than once. Even with multiple viewings, these are films that remain thought provoking and inspiring.