[…] I’d also ask you to think about why the dialogue is notable. Is there anything about the dialogue which provides some …read more […]

Special offer! Two for the price of one. Christmas and New Year. Citizen Kane (1941) Screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz & Orson Welles Uncredited contributions by: John Houseman, Roger Q. Denny, Mollie Kent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET7gj5_PZV8 (Too bad I haven't found a video on YouTube that's a little longer and includes Mr. Thatcher's complete speech. But there's a full one on: http://www.vodkaster.com/Films/Citizen-Kane/42625 ) THATCHER Well, Charles. Merry Christmas! YOUNG KANE Merry Christmas! THATCHER And a happy new year! In closing, may I again remind you that your twenty-fifth birthday, which is now approaching, marks your complete independence from the firm of Thatcher and Company as well as the assumption by your full responsibility for the world's sixth largest private fortune. Have you got that? SECRETARY The world's sixth largest private fortune. THATCHER Yes. Charles, I don't think you quite realize the full importance of the position you are to occupy in the world. I'm definitely choosing your consideration a complete list of your holdings extensively cross-indexed. Trivia from IMDB: Despite all the publicity, the film was a box office flop and was quickly consigned to the RKO vaults. At 1941's Academy Awards the film was booed every time one of its nine nominations was announced. It was only re-released for the public in the mid-1950s. In an attempt to recoup some of its losses after its initial box-office flop, RKO distributed this film in January 1942 on a double bill with The Little Foxes (1941) starring Bette Davis.

Borrowing some text from Wikipedia: In addition to expanding on the potential of sound as a creator of moods and emotions, Welles pioneered a new aural technique, known as the "lightning-mix". Welles used this technique to link complex montage sequences via a series of related sounds or phrases. In offering a continuous sound track, Welles was able to join what would otherwise be extremely rough cuts together into a smooth narrative. For example, the audience witnesses Kane grow from a child into a young man in just two shots. As Kane's guardian hands him his sled, Kane begrudgingly wishes him a "Merry Christmas". Suddenly we are taken to a shot of his guardian fifteen years later, only to have the phrase completed for us: "and a Happy New Year". In this case, the continuity of the soundtrack, not the image, is what makes for a seamless narrative structure.[82] (Cook, David A. Orson Welles and the modern sound film. A History of Narrative Film. W.W. Norton Company, Inc, 2004, ISBN 0-393-97868-0, page 330 )