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kennethwmccall
Reviews
The Making of 'Psycho' (1997)
For all students of cinema
I have seen Psycho several times, though not during its initial theatrical release; I'm slightly too young for that. It is of course by the master, Alfred Hitchcock, and although it is not my favourite of his, there is no doubt it ranks highly with me and his genius is clearly evident throughout the film. So when I spied the Alfred Hitchcock Collection DVD edition of Psycho on sale at a used book store, I quickly snatched it up. And am I glad I did. The original film is there in pristine condition and there are loads of extras. The best is a documentary called, "The Making of Psycho". I had seen and read several stories over the years about the movie but this documentary was the best. It had numerous people involved in the original film, like Janet Leigh, Joseph Stefano who wrote the screenplay, assistant director Hilton Green, costume designer Rita Riggs and others; all giving excellent commentary. They talk about the many vicissitudes in making the film from the very inception to the final release which could have, but thankfully did not, scuttle the entire project. I feel that I learned more, not only about this particular film, but about movie making in general than ever before. I would urge all serious students of cinema to watch "The Making of Psycho".
Autumn Leaves (1956)
Joan Crawford strikes again
I had never seen this movie previously, but I noticed that any review I read was Luke-warm at best. I am a big fan of Joan Crawford, so when the movie showed up on TV I decided to give it a try even though it certainly is not my type of film. Of course I was right. The movie was a terrible bore and dreadfully dated. Now, Joan Crawford did live up to her reputation as the long suffering, righteous woman in white gloves that she so successfully cultivated later in her career, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to sustain my interest. But before I could change the channel there came the scene where Joan Crawford confronted Lorne Greene and Vera Miles. When Miss Crawford uttered that famous line, "And you, you slut!" it made my day. And this was on a religious cable channel! That alone was worth the price of admission. I can't imagine any other actress, before or since, who could get away with saying that and make it work. And with such chutzpah! Joan, wherever you are, I salute you!
Citizen Kane (1941)
the studio process at its very best
I think that the making of a movie is truly a collaborative process, thus the films of the studio era are without doubt the most fascinating and inventive to date. This does not mean that an independent film cannot be a good movie, it just doesn't have the expertise and resources behind it to make it a truly great movie like Citizen Kane. It also doesn't mean that the big bygone studios didn't turn out their fair share of clunkers, but in my mind, to find the best movies of the last century you have to look to the big studios.
As to Citizen Kane in particular, it is always fascinating to watch. Unfortunately when we think of special effects these days, it's with action films of dubious quality, but Citizen Kane probably used more and to better advantage.The innovations, such as deep focus, sets with ceilings, the mixture of newsreel footage(both real and staged),the effect of overlapping dialogue are amazing. And to think that this was at a time when sound movies were only about a decade old and the movies themselves weren't even a half century old. It's amusing to think that when these techniques were used to create a realism unseen in films up to that time, the audiences were put off, since it was so different than anything else they had seen and they thought it looked phony!
I recently heard a comment from Richard Chow(the editor from Star Wars) on TV that he is still learning things from Citizen Kane, and its great cinematographer Greg Toland, decades later.
So in conclusion to me Citizen Kane stands head and shoulders above any movie before or since.