Citizen Kane (BFI Film Classics) [Paperback]

Laura Mulvey (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 22, 2008

Citizen Kane's unchallenged reputation as one of the greatest films in all cinema is matched only by the accumulation of critical commentary that surrounds it. What more can there be to say about a masterpiece so universally acknowledged? As Laura Mulvey shows in a fresh and original reading, the richness of the film, both thematically and stylistically, is inexhaustible. In a lucid and perceptive critique she investigates the psychoanalytic structure that underlines the film's presentation of Kane's biography, for once taking seriously what Orson Welles himself disparagingly referred to as "dollar-book Freud." She also illuminates the film's historical context, revealing it to be a prescient commentary on the isolationist politics of prewar America. 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is a brilliant introduction to what many consider to be the greatest American film. Critic Laura Mulvey provides new insight into the creative collaboration of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, cinematographer Gregg Toland, and writer-director-star Orson Welles. She sheds new light on the relationship between the fictional Kane and the character upon which he is based, legendary newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Mulvey is especially sensitive to the way Citizen Kane--and Hearst--negotiated liberal and conservative politics; for her, Kane's psyche mirrors the political unconscious of the United States in the early 1940s. The appendix reprints a press statement by Welles himself in which he describes his reasons for making the film.

About the Author

Laura Mulvey is Postgraduate Programme Coordinator at the BFI. She is the author of Visual and Other Pleasures and Fetishism and Curiosity (BFI, 1996) and has directed films in collaboration with Peter Wollen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 87 pages
• Publisher: British Film Institute (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851703399
• ISBN-13: 978-0851703398
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.2 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #902,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Feminist analysis of "Citizen Kane" May 12, 1998

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

Laura Mulvey writes well, and her analysis of "Citizen Kane" is, in several aspects, a joy to read. But, for an in-depth coverage of the subject, I really recommend Ronald Gottesman's "Focus on Citizen Kane", or, better yet, his "Perspectives on Citizen Kane", which I think should be required reading on the film, along with Carringer's "The Making of Citizen Kane". In other words, if you needed to read just one book on the subject, this one would not be it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A formal treatment of the psycoanalytic aspects of the film October 16, 2004

By poppy

Format:Paperback

This book has laid a fundation for understanding the film from a psychoanalytic perspective. The author re-examined the visual style of the film, its narrative structure, the historical context during production and the director's political activities, discovered new facts and finally came to an interpretation in psychoanalytic terms in which all the clues would fall into places. Although some of the arguments were not given in full length and rigidness (there are only 87 pages), this book certainly built a new system of meanings regarding the film that includes many facts discovered in the past several decades.

3.0 out of 5 stars Succinct analysis; a bit too psychobabble for my taste April 24, 2012

By Sagar Jethani

Format:Paperback

Nice little bit of analysis. Brought out aspects of the film I had never noticed before. Could have done without all the Freudian interpretation, but I suppose that reflects contemporary literary analysis.