Ready for Their Close-ups

at the Brattle Theater

Monday, April 17

Kane at 3:10 and 7:30

Sunset at 1:00, 5:20 and 9:45

tickets $6 for both or each; $5 at 9:45

Charles Foster Kane and Norma Desmond are two of the largest personalities ever to cast their shadows on the silver screen. This Monday, an extraordinary Brattle Theater double feature finally gives these two egos worthy company: each other.

There are many reasons Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" (1941) is widely regarded to be the greatest film of all time. To watch it is to relive your favorite cinema moments; every scene, every plot turn, every camera angle has influenced countless filmmakers. But the pleasure of watching, or rewatching, "Citizen Kane" is not derived solely from an appreciation of its technique. The greatest films tell great stories, and Kane's, like that of Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," is an absorbing tale of ambition and loss.

"Citizen Kane," loosely based on the life of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, follows the rise and fall of a national celebrity whose initial passion for championing the "working man" is replaced by an obsession with embodying his own myth. Welles, who co-wrote, directed and produced the film, plays the cynical multimillionaire from his idealistic college days through his demise, old and forgotten in the "Xanadu" he has built to himself.

Welles' narration technique set a standard for all films to follow; anyone who believes that "Pulp Fiction" was the first film with a nonlinear plot should take a front row seat at the Brattle on Monday night. The film is told, in present and past, as a quest for the elusive element that drove him through his triumphs and to his downfall. The only clue is Kane's dying word, "a piece in a jigsaw puzzle": "Rosebud."

Welles' talent for aging into the bitter, declining Kane is truly remarkable. And as the young Kane, full of fire and utopian spirit, he is unstoppable. Sweeping through the staid New York Inquirer, the young man announces that the paper is to enter a new era, "If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough!" Kane soon proves that his new journalism sells--that he can fight for the downtrodden while boosting his circulation; that he can create wars with a run of his press; and power in the world can't bring him what he wants.

He is backed by a powerful supporting cast: Ruth Warrick as the prize society wife his fortune buys him; Dorothy Comingore as the heart-and-hair-of-gold lounge singer he wants instead; Joseph Cotten as his intellectual school chum dogging him through life like a nagging conscience; and Agnes Moorehead as the mother whose rejection forms the foundation of the empire he builds.

"Citizen Kane's" storytelling and performances are enhanced by Gregg Toland's masterful photography. Each moment is a sleight of light. As Kane reads his publishing "Declaration of Principles" in a moment of giddy righteousness, Toland manages to keep Kane perpetually in an opaque shadow while fully lighting the other actors in the scene; even when one moves to Kane's side, they remain as day and night to each other, foreshadowing the depths to which Kane will soon sink.

The use of shadow and illumination in "Citizen Kane" tells the story with force equal to its story and character; together they create a cinema legacy which is strengthened with every new movie released. Look for the works of Spielberg, Stone, Scorscese, Branaugh and Coppola in the film. they're all in there, somewhere in the long shadow cast by "Citizen Kane."

Perhaps the only person who would be uncowed by the challenge of following Kane is the indomitable Norma Desmond. Nothing can beat the sheer eerieness (and glorious camp appeal) of fading silent screen diva Gloria Swanson "playing" fading silent screen diva Norma Desmond on film.

Like "Citizen Kane," "Sunset Boulevard" begins with its ending, the unexplained death of the hero. In a trick of cinematography, the glassy face of a B-movie screenwriter wavers across the screen, his corpse floating facedown in the white marble swimming pool of a forgotten star. As the sun rises over Hollywood, he begins to narrate the great story he never produced: his own demise.

The film is creepy fun and deeply noir. In smart, cynical snarls, William Holden tears off the language of a hungry young writer who can't hold tight enough to his dreams. Joe Gillis' luck seems to be on the upswing when fate sends him straight into the "white elephant" palace of an aging silent film star. "You used to be big," he tells her, dimly remembering the name. "I am big," she replies, "It's the pictures that got small."

Joe wheedles himself a cushy job editing the epic Norma Desmond has written as a "return" vehicle for herself. His every need is attended by her slavishly devoted butler, Max (Erich von Stroheim), who erases his own identity in the service of "Madame." As the days wear on, a pattern develops: As the days wear on, a pattern develops: Joe learns never to refuse Norma what she wants, and, like a vampire, she seems to gain vitality and optimism as he loses his.

Gillis must make a choice: one direction leads to ignominy and independence; the other leads to the tile floors of the palazzo where Valentino tangoed. With each step, Joe becomes more deeply mired in the Bld Norma has created for herself, which is no more real than the worlds she inhabited on screen.

Though Holden and von Stroheim are powerful foils to Swanson's persona, Wilder and his camera wisely sweep them to the edges of the screen to focus on Norma. Swanson's performance is something beyond acting; her Norma lives every moment on two planes, in the mundane world and on celluloid. She has a habit of pausing almost unnoticeably as she speaks, giving the effect of a flickering silent film, posing briefly for the camera, then continuing.

Swanson's eyes are still the reflective pools they were when she was "the greatest star of them all." When Joe suggests gently that perhaps her movie script should include more dialogue, she snaps back, "Why? I can say anything I want with my eyes." And she can.

Wilder's camera is generous to Swanson, playing with the copious material she gives him to create confusion between light and shadow, cinema and life. The camera chills, not only with beautiful photography, but with inspired editing which creates a dialogue of images, blending forms from one scene subtly into another.

"Citizen Kane" and 'Sunset Boulevard" have changed the way we look at movies. The films and their personalities remain fresh today as ever, a glowing legacy that is not only part of our education, but part of our inspiration.