Mar 15, 2017
Festival
San Francisco, CA — SFFILM announced today a landmark event for film enthusiasts of all persuasions. William R. Hearst III will provide a unique perspective on Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, on Thursday, April 6, 6:30 pm, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Along with a screening of the influential feature, the grandson of William Randolph Hearst—the inspiration for the film’s title character Charles Foster Kane—will speak about the film in an intimate conversation with film historian David Thomson. Part of the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival, the event marks one of the first times a Hearst family member has addressed the film publicly.
“On behalf of cinephiles the world over we are deeply grateful to Will Hearst to courageously address the real stories and hidden controversies behind one of cinema’s most contentious and masterful films,” said SFFILM’s Executive Director Noah Cowan. “I can honestly say that no one in this audience will see Citizen Kane in the same way again after this very special night.”
A phantasmagoria of cinematic innovation and pathos 75 years after its divisive debut, Orson Welles’ audacious breakthrough imagines the colorful life of mining heir Charles Foster Kane, who parlays his fortune into media superstardom, runs for office as a populist savior and then sees his empire and his life crumble around him. This 1941 masterpiece of American ambition, delusion and broken dreams was inspired by the life of publisher William Randolph Hearst. As one of America’s media titans, Will Hearst’s grandfather did anything in his power to oppose and suppress this fictionalized account of his life. The film created a scandal and was a box-office dud upon its initial release, although it received good reviews and garnered nine Oscar® nominations, winning one for the screenplay by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz.
The genius of the film’s flashback structure, the expressive power of Gregg Toland’s visual compositions, and the cast of gifted Mercury Theatre alumni outlived the original blast of negative publicity. For half a century, Citizen Kane topped the Sight & Sound poll as the greatest film ever made (until it was displaced by Vertigo in 2012). To no one’s surprise, Citizen Kane was inducted in the first class of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1989.
Tickets to Citizen Kane with William R. Hearst III are $13 for SFFS members, $15 for the general public. Box office is open to SFFILM members now online at sffilm.org and opens for the general public Friday, March 17.
For general information visit sffilm.org/festival
To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival Press Office contact.
For photos and press materials visit sffilm.org/press
60th San Francisco International Film Festival The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities. The 60th edition runs April 5-19 at venues across the Bay Area and features nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards with close to $40,000 in cash prizes, and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.