classic films
KEITH UHLICH
Citizen Kane
Boy Meets Girl (1984, Leos Carax, France) Can you make a classic movie your first time out? Leos Carax, the infamous French filmmaker whose most recent effort, Annette, is now in theaters, did just that with his debut, Boy Meets Girl. A captivating black-and-white romance between two tortured souls, the movie initially follows aspiring filmmaker Alex (Denis Levant, Carax’s frequent collaborator) and model-intraining Mireille (Mireille Perrier) on separate tracks. Both are reeling from relationships gone bad, until they fatefully cross paths at a chi-chi house party (a hypnotically prolonged sequence) and embark on an operatic path to tragedy. Carax was 23 when he helmed the project, which took home an award from Cannes, and earned some tut-tuts for what was perceived as juvenile brooding. Yet there’s an em16
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pathy here for the weary, the aimless, and the heartache-prone that feels ageless and wise beyond its years. (Streaming on Amazon.) Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles, USA) Boy wonder Orson Welles was also in his twenties when he cowrote, produced, directed and starred in the grandaddy of all first-film classics. Publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles) dies in the opening scene, and everything that follows is an interrogation (primarily via flashback) of what he meant by his dying word, “Rosebud.” It’s a sled. C’mon, people. Everyone knows it’s a sled. But the symbol isn’t the point—it’s that of a life recalled, by a varying cast of colorful characters, in all its contradictions and calamities, so that we’re no closer to solving the mystery of Kane at the end as we are
at the beginning. In a movie filled to bursting with astonishing sounds and images (Gregg Toland’s cinematography is a masterclass all on its own), there’s perhaps none greater than the one of Kane reflected through mirrors into infinite versions of himself. (Streaming on HBOMax.) Ivan’s Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union) Early in his life, the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky visited a medium, who summoned the spirit of author Boris Pasternak to commune with the aspiring filmmaker. “You will make 7 films,” said Pasternak. “Only 7?” asked Tarkovsky. “But they’ll all be
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