The Making of Citizen Kane

Rating:
Summary: easily the best book about Citizen Kane!
Review: Carringer's exhaustive tome on the making of Orson Welles' signature film covers all the bases: from its rocky road to inception (covering Welles' fascinating attempt to adapt Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS into a movie) to every conceivable aspect of the production and post-production. This is required reading for any Welles fan and an invaluable tool for anybody who has to write an essay on CITIZEN KANE.

Carringer's writing style is engaging and eloquent without being too academic. He doesn't bombard the reader with a million esoteric film terms but instead instills his prose with an infectious passion for his subject. Reading this book will make you want to re-discover KANE all over again -- which is what a good film book should do!

This is a great companion book with the awesome two-DVD set of KANE that was release a little while ago.

Rating:
Summary: Too technical
Review: I personnaly did not enjoy this book despite the fact that i am a Citizen Kane fan. I still give it 4 stars though because of its accuracy and detailed information.

The book goes through the process of making a movie in hollywood in the 1940s. From the writing, to the set, the cinematography, the editing, the release... However the details are extremly technical, the author focuses too much on the special effects used, the types of cameras involved and the different shots. He barely mentions anything about the actors, not even one page, or anything about the shooting days and anecdotes about things that were going on. This makes the book incomplete to me. Except for the first chapter about the script, the rest of the book was pure boredom to me, but only because i am not interested in the technicalities of making a movie. I do recommend this book to film students or really hard core fans of citizen kane, who idolize the movie and want to know everything about it. If you just love the movie, then read the book Road to Xanadu, that tells the life of orson wells up to the release of citizen kane.

Rating:
Summary: who could resist this
Review: Who could resist the behind the scenes making of the greatest movie of all time. This book is excellent it covers every thing you need or would want to know about the film. It is very well told and crafted. If you loved the movie you'll be fascinated by this book.

Rating:
Summary: who could resist this
Review: Who could resist the behind the scenes making of the greatest movie of all time. This book is excellent it covers every thing you need or would want to know about the film. It is very well told and crafted. If you loved the movie you'll be fascinated by this book.