When you make a film like “Citizen Kane” as your first feature as a filmmaker, people are going to throw tons of acclaim your way. And that’s exactly what happened with Orson Welles after the release of his masterpiece, which many still consider one of the greatest films of all time. However, according to David Fincher, Welles is a talented filmmaker, but definitely not a film god like he’s often regarded.
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Speaking to the French outlet, Premiere, Fincher was asked about his thoughts on Orson Welles. This is clearly a question aimed at the filmmaker because of his upcoming feature, “Mank,” which details the struggles of “Citizen Kane” writer Herman J. Mankiewicz during the making of what would become an Oscar-winning hit. And while Fincher is quick to applaud Welles for the clear talent the filmmaker had, the “Mank” director believes that Welles “was above all a showman and a juggler with this immense talent.”
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“Well, I think Orson Welles’s tragedy lies in the mix between monumental talent and filthy immaturity,” explained Fincher. “Sure, there is genius in ‘Citizen Kane,’ who could argue? But when Welles says, ‘It only takes an afternoon to learn everything there is to know about cinematography,’ pfff… Let’s say that this is the remark of someone who has been lucky to have Gregg Toland around him to prepare the next shot… Gregg Toland, damn it, an insane genius !”
He continued, “I say that without wanting to be disrespectful to Welles, I know what I owe him, like I know what I owe Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, or Hal Ashby. But at 25, you don’t know what you don’t know. Period. Neither Welles, nor anyone. It doesn’t take anything away from him, and especially not his place in the pantheon of those who have influenced entire generations of filmmakers. But to claim that Orson Welles came out of nowhere to make ‘Citizen Kane’ and that the rest of his filmography was ruined by the interventions of ill-intentioned people, it’s not serious, and it is underestimating the disastrous impact of his own delusional hubris.”
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There might be some that scoff at what Fincher said about Welles. However, in the decades after “Citizen Kane,” when Welles struggled to live up to the acclaim of his debut feature, there were many that started to wonder how much of the success was due to the filmmaker and how much was due to his talented crew? In Fincher’s eyes, that’s the real question and points to the fact that Welles might have been talented, but maybe not as talented as he actually believed he was.
If you want to watch Fincher’s upcoming “Mank,” the film is in select theaters on November 13 before arriving on Netflix on December 4.
