MANK: Herman Mankiewicz and the war over CITIZEN KANE

Kane drops a snow globe before he says "Rosebud" (the former being a clever allusion to the latter, as well as a later scene in Citizen Kane). Well, more accurately, Kane drops to the floor while holding it.

I haven't seen Mank yet, so I'll trust sharedon that it's a reference to Othello.

 

Ugh...how could I have forgotten the snow globe! Thank you...I think my brain is already on Christmas break!

 

I assumed that was charlie. The scene was 1933 the mustache reference would fit the great dictator 8 years later

 

Somebody should really colorize this documentary...y'know, so the kids will want to watch it...

 

I believe it was Chaplin, there is a credit listing for him. Also I assumed the handkerchief drop was to show how little LB cared about the death, ie: he was fake crying.

I quite enjoyed the film, and thought it was entirely justified in its tone and presentation. My favourite part was after Mank's Quixote speech, he throws up and says "don't worry, I brought up the white wine with the fish", which is something Welles actually did and said at a dinner during his early years.

 

To be honest, I was in for this treat...but gave up after 45 minutes. Style over substance. The nice thing is; I'm going to re-watch Citizen Kane again....

 

Kane does not drop to the floor while holding the snow globe. Kane drops the snow globe as he dies lying in bed, uttering his last word, "Rosebud".

 

We really enjoyed it. If you don't like Oldham or his portrayal, you won't last 15 minutes. He's in every scene.

 

Who was in the room to hear him say “Rosebud”?When I rewatched the movie recently I didn’t see anyone in the room to hear him.

 

It was the butler. Later on in the film he confirms this.

 

Thanks.

 

Even the spoilers I read in this thread didn't spoil it. Not a good sign.

I'm still not going to be able to watch it unless it shows up on the big screen in my town. Not going to hold my breath on that one. And I'm a big fan of Orson Welles when I was first introduced to the recording of his Mercury Theater radio play "War Of The Worlds". I nearly wore out the vinyl record I borrowed from my junior high library. I couldn't stop talking about it to my classmates.

After that Orson Welles to me was a unique creative person I looked up to and was inspired by. Got me to make my own radio plays as a teen using a cassette recorder. Made the boring summers go by fast.

 

Okay I thought the same thing regarding the handkerchief, actually. It seemed to me to reflect insincerity on LBM’s part.

Loved the white wine/fish comment too. There were a few of those little comments tossed in that made the film quite enjoyable.

 

Mank stank.

 

Ack. You’re correct. Apologies!

 

Golden Globe nomination for best film. 6 nominations for this film in total. Seems surprising.

 

On a side note- there were some factual issues (from the time not about the relationship between Welles & Mank) that bugged me the era, etc. As to Mank itself-while I think it’s nice to get a movie that redressed Mank being overlooked (aside from Pauline Kael and some other critics) Mank’ s contribution to Kane, I also think that balance has brought it too far over to his side-it was a brilliant collaboration between who titanic talents.

 

Watched it last night. There were three of us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I only know so much about the story's details so any inaccuracies didn't bother me.

Including best screenplay. It was written by the director's now deceased father. The movie was going to be made back in the late '90's but the studio didn't like the B&W idea.

 

The reverb drove my wife bonkers, I was just irritated. It sounded like every scene in an old movie that takes place inside a movie theater, those big old horn speakers echoing away. As my wife and I discussed it further I recalled experiencing that sound when I attended a 50th Anniversary screening of Gone With the Wind at Radio City Music Hall in 1989.

For a filmmaker as smart as David Fincher is I'm really thrown by his choice to do this. The great cinematography and production design were more than enough to make it feel like it was made back then, the sonics were just senseless and distracting.

As for the film itself, I really didn't like like it.

 

Yeah friend of mine said “I want to go see Mank.” And I said: “what the hell is that?” And when he explained it was about Mankiewicz and Kane I immediately said “who the hell want to go see a movie about that - except die hard movie nerds like me?” and I mean I’m a real hard-core movie nerd and it’s kinda interesting, not that so much. Lol. I’m sure 95% of the population has zero interest in that story. Same with the Bryan Cranston film about Trumbo. I think there are better things to do with celluloid then mediocre docudramasI still say bio pics suck. You have Lawrence of Arabia and then you have snooze fests. Even Lawrence of Arabia is kind of a snooze fest at times. And Gandhi. Which I love. Which I love to put on and fall asleep too sometimes. Whoever came up with the jumps and edits in Kane was the real genius. Good filmic structure. And of course Wells had an ear from radio so he work magic with the sound and that wouldn’t be in the screenplay. I’ve never read the screenplay actually I’d have to read it to see how the structure and editing of the film matches up with the screen play. If there’s none of that magical play with film and time and flashback in the screenplay then it’s Wells. It should be right there in the screenplay the answer. Oh yeah nice photography too.

 

Didn't see it. Somewhere, long ago, I read that he was sent to a rehab facility and had two suitcases. When he arrived, they were clinking--filled with bottles of hard liquor. So much for getting sober....

 

I watched it last night and it was beautifully shot and Oldman was his typical very believable self. So much so that the actor who played his brother looked like he was acting and at times Seyfried did too, although I thought their chemistry was good.
I am a classic movie buff and think it's good to draw attention to the great screenwriters but probably a documentary is a better avenue in which to do that.
The movie had it's high points but dragged too often. The political part of it was uninteresting and to me took away from what the movie was supposed to be about.

 

The political part is the major part of the story. Upton Sinclair is forgotten.
Too bad for usa. Least he got the FDA created. He lost the election in the most expensive election ever in California.
I wonder who supplied the money to defeat him. Oh yeah watch mank that will explain it.

I was impressed they included the political times of the day.

 

Agreed. I was unaware of these events, so the movie added that much more depth for me.

 

I gave up halfway. It looks beautiful but that's about it. The dialogue was so quick and smart-ass that I missed half of it, and I knew I was never going to watch it again to fill in the blanks.