The movie Edward Norton calls “the root of American auteur filmmaking”
Even with his debut feature film performance in 1996’s Primal Fear, it was clear that Edward Norton would become one of the greatest actors of his generation. After being nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in his first movie, Norton followed up with another excellent performance in 1998’s American History X.
If those two performances weren’t enough, with two Academy Award nominations under his belt in just the first few years of his career, Norton delivered another iconic effort before the 20th Century was out with a lead role in David’s Fincher’s 1999 movie Fight Club. He’s since starred in several acclaimed movies, including The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman.
While Norton’s performances in a variety of roles over the years have drawn widespread acclaim, that hasn’t stopped the actor from also becoming something of a cinephile, and when he visited the JM Video store in Paris to pick out some of his favourite films and those that have inspired him, he paid attention to one of the widely-considered greatest movies of all time.
The film, Orson Welles’ 1941 drama Citizen Kane, which was directed by Welles and written by both Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, is established as one of the greatest in history. Amazingly, Citizen Kane was Welles’ first feature film and received widespread acclaim, being nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories and finding itself around the top of several best film lists for the following 90 years.
Interestingly, Norton believes that there is even more to Citizen Kane than some people give it credit, even despite its widespread acclaim. “Well, see, nobody thinks of Citizen Kane as a noir film,” he said, “But I actually think it’s like the origin of a really expressionistic style with light and shadow and all the amazing shots by Gregg Toland.”
Citizen Kane tells of Charles Foster Kane (whom Welles also portrayed), a composite creation of several American and British media barons and Tycoons. The film is one of the most influential movies ever made, particularly from a narrative perspective and also because of its excellent music and cinematography, as Norton mentions.
Norton also drew attention to the remarkable feat of Welles’ involvement with the movie. “The thing about Citizen Kane is that it’s sort of the original American auteur film in the sense that he was 25 when he made it and wrote it and acted in it and directed it,” the actor said. “To me, this is the root of all American auteur filmmaking.”
