A great rise... a modest fall.
July 21, 2006 12:46 PM Subscribe
Donald Trump discusses the major thematic elements of Citizen Kane. Featured in the awesome new... err... issue?... of Wholphin.
brainexploder indeed. i get a real kick out of his hypothetical advice to CFK at the end. fun find, thanks!
posted by the painkiller at 12:59 PM on July 21, 2006
posted by the painkiller at 12:59 PM on July 21, 2006
Interesting, especially for the last words out of his mouth.
Agreed. Primarily because that's not at all the takeaway of the movie. Kane's failure with women is a symptom of his problems, not the cause. The cause is his aborted childhood.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:00 PM on July 21, 2006
Agreed. Primarily because that's not at all the takeaway of the movie. Kane's failure with women is a symptom of his problems, not the cause. The cause is his aborted childhood.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:00 PM on July 21, 2006
Erroll Morris is one of the most important directors ever.
posted by Ironmouth at 1:06 PM on July 21, 2006
posted by Ironmouth at 1:06 PM on July 21, 2006
pardonyou? writes "Agreed. Primarily because that's not at all the takeaway of the movie. Kane's failure with women is a symptom of his problems, not the cause. The cause is his aborted childhood."
Give Trump some credit, though... That "advice" was mostly tongue-in-cheek (notice Trump's sly little smile); when he summarized the central theme of the movie, he came to much the same conclusion as you did: "...bringing a lonely, rather sad figure, back into his childhood."
posted by mr_roboto at 1:14 PM on July 21, 2006
Give Trump some credit, though... That "advice" was mostly tongue-in-cheek (notice Trump's sly little smile); when he summarized the central theme of the movie, he came to much the same conclusion as you did: "...bringing a lonely, rather sad figure, back into his childhood."
posted by mr_roboto at 1:14 PM on July 21, 2006
That "advice" was mostly tongue-in-cheek...
You have to wonder whether there's really anything else but the tounge, and the cheek. I.e., whether Trump is really capable of anything deeper than irony.
As for 'the takeaway' -- I don't see it as 'aborted childhood', per se, so much as that his mother rejects him. Sure, she sends him to a "better home", but she's not in it.
It's like taking the infant monkey away from its mother and putting it in a cage with a carpet-covered robot. He'll be better off than the one who has to cuddle with chicken wire, but he'll still be a pretty messed up monkey.
posted by lodurr at 1:33 PM on July 21, 2006
You have to wonder whether there's really anything else but the tounge, and the cheek. I.e., whether Trump is really capable of anything deeper than irony.
As for 'the takeaway' -- I don't see it as 'aborted childhood', per se, so much as that his mother rejects him. Sure, she sends him to a "better home", but she's not in it.
It's like taking the infant monkey away from its mother and putting it in a cage with a carpet-covered robot. He'll be better off than the one who has to cuddle with chicken wire, but he'll still be a pretty messed up monkey.
posted by lodurr at 1:33 PM on July 21, 2006
That was weird and a little sad. Especially where he refelects on wealth isolating people from each other. 'You have your guard up.'
Good stuff. Thanks.
posted by footballrabi at 1:41 PM on July 21, 2006
Good stuff. Thanks.
posted by footballrabi at 1:41 PM on July 21, 2006
I don't see it as 'aborted childhood', per se, so much as that his mother rejects him
Well, I view the latter as a subset of the former. Certainly that was a big part, but it was also the fact that one day he was playing in the snow, and the next he was living in a mansion.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:08 PM on July 21, 2006
Well, I view the latter as a subset of the former. Certainly that was a big part, but it was also the fact that one day he was playing in the snow, and the next he was living in a mansion.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:08 PM on July 21, 2006
I don't see it as 'aborted childhood', per se, so much as that his mother rejects him.
But his final thought is not of his mother. It's of playing out in the snow which was his last act of childhood before they sent him away.
You might be on the right track if the women in his life seemed to be an attempt to find a mother figure, but he acts more like a controlling father than as a submissive child around them. They're just one more thing to collect and own.
posted by willnot at 2:11 PM on July 21, 2006
But his final thought is not of his mother. It's of playing out in the snow which was his last act of childhood before they sent him away.
You might be on the right track if the women in his life seemed to be an attempt to find a mother figure, but he acts more like a controlling father than as a submissive child around them. They're just one more thing to collect and own.
posted by willnot at 2:11 PM on July 21, 2006
Well, that's a conventional, sort of Freudian reading: if you're deprived of a nurturing mother, you seek nurturing mothers. I don't think it usually plays out that way. I think more often you get someone who's emotionally distant and yet continually requires approval from others, like Kane.
posted by lodurr at 2:19 PM on July 21, 2006
posted by lodurr at 2:19 PM on July 21, 2006
Trump's reading of the film is a little bizarre. I think he attempts to read Kane as a self-made man, which, as far as Kane's wealth is concerned, isn't true. Trump's summary of the story as a great rise and a modest fall isn't how I remember the movie at all. Sure, Kane was born in poverty, but he was raised with money. And the movie, which isn't at all modest, is concerned with his fall. It's pretty funny to watch somebody bullshit, especially a professional bullshitter like Trump. But extra-especially with Errol Morris filming, leaving those seconds of silence where the subject starts squirming. Cool link.
posted by underer at 2:58 PM on July 21, 2006
posted by underer at 2:58 PM on July 21, 2006
Having had a lonely and rather sad childhood, can someone direct to any links that might get me incalculable wealth? And not just trumped up figures?
posted by Sparx at 4:13 PM on July 21, 2006
posted by Sparx at 4:13 PM on July 21, 2006
Wait, so Citizen Kane isn't all positive? "We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are." Wealth doesn't isolate you; you isolate you.
posted by yerfatma at 4:53 PM on July 21, 2006
posted by yerfatma at 4:53 PM on July 21, 2006
Interesting to see a pathological narcissist, megalomaniac, Trump, interpret the life of another megalomaniac, Kane, as a victim of wealth. Typical alloplastic defense of Trump to think the solution is another acquisition, another woman, rather than introspection, which he is incapable of utilising in underatanding himself or others.
The perennially smug look on his face is particularly repellent, framed by the classically awful nutso combover.
posted by nickyskye at 5:44 PM on July 21, 2006
The perennially smug look on his face is particularly repellent, framed by the classically awful nutso combover.
posted by nickyskye at 5:44 PM on July 21, 2006
Man, another Wholphin post? We just did the Al Gore documentary the other day.
Rather than just posting it bit by bit, go subscribe to it, folks. McSweeney's is putting out these collections of short films regularly, and the first two have been fucking awesome.
These are definitely some films that you want to watch on DVD. Trust me.
posted by spiderwire at 6:13 PM on July 21, 2006
Rather than just posting it bit by bit, go subscribe to it, folks. McSweeney's is putting out these collections of short films regularly, and the first two have been fucking awesome.
These are definitely some films that you want to watch on DVD. Trust me.
posted by spiderwire at 6:13 PM on July 21, 2006
Oh, and they have a clip of The Pity Card up on the front page! Too bad they cut it right before a great punchline -- "I just... why don't more people know about this?"
Watch it and you'll see.
posted by spiderwire at 6:19 PM on July 21, 2006
Watch it and you'll see.
posted by spiderwire at 6:19 PM on July 21, 2006
"You have your guard up"
*excerpt: Kane impotent rage, trying to demolish the shelves*
"get yourself a different woman"
In what way is Trump not a self-parody?
posted by Smedleyman at 7:53 PM on July 21, 2006
*excerpt: Kane impotent rage, trying to demolish the shelves*
"get yourself a different woman"
In what way is Trump not a self-parody?
posted by Smedleyman at 7:53 PM on July 21, 2006
Woah woah woah.... movie goers AND movie watchers?
posted by Robot Johnny at 12:19 AM on July 22, 2006
posted by Robot Johnny at 12:19 AM on July 22, 2006
I can't pretend I really understand of lot of what Morris is trying to do in his films (particular Fast, Cheap and Out of Control), but that's part of the beauty of it: He's trying to do somethign, and trying to figure out what it is, usually leads to some interesting places.
Fog of War is a brilliant exemplar of the method; this project, I think, would be harder to swallow, but worth finishing.
posted by lodurr at 6:38 AM on July 22, 2006
Fog of War is a brilliant exemplar of the method; this project, I think, would be harder to swallow, but worth finishing.
posted by lodurr at 6:38 AM on July 22, 2006
Erroll Morris is one of the most important directors ever.
And if you didn't know this already, he would tell you.
posted by sexymofo at 9:49 AM on July 22, 2006
And if you didn't know this already, he would tell you.
posted by sexymofo at 9:49 AM on July 22, 2006
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posted by dobbs at 12:56 PM on July 21, 2006