Netflix celebrates the golden age of Hollywood for Mank, as the director of Fight Club and Gone Girl, David Fincher, tells the story of Herman Mankiewicz (played by Gary Oldman) while working on the 1941 film Citizen Kane.
Director Orson Welles (played by Tom Burke in Mank), Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles), a media mogul who dies with the last word “rosebud”. Told through a series of innovative, non-chronological flashbacks, the cast of the film tries to understand exactly what these last words meant.
Despite only winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1942 and triggering a debate about who wrote Citizen Kane ever since, the film has played a major role in Hollywood history ever since.
For example, since 1952, the British film magazine Sight & Sound has challenged film critics internationally every decade since 1952 to vote for the greatest film ever made. Kane has held the top spot in these polls for 50 years, from 1962 (when he was the leader of “Bicycle Thieves”) to 2012 (when he lost it to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”). The “They Shoot Pictures Don’t They 1,000” list, which includes more than 11,000 best-of lists, now also has Citizen Kane at the top.
How to watch Citizen Kane online
Although Mank is currently streaming on Netflix, the movie that inspired him has a different streaming home.
There are currently two streaming services that offer the iconic film in the USA: HBO Max and Turner Classic Movies. The former offers a seven-day free trial that allows viewers to watch Citizen Kane online for one week free of charge. After that the service costs $14.99. Meanwhile, cable subscribers can register with TCM with the details of their TV provider to watch the movie.
For viewers who prefer to buy or rent the film, Amazon, Fandango Now and Redbox, who offer the film for $2.99, are the cheapest places to rent Kane. The latter two also offer the film for sale for $9.99.
Citizen Kane can also be bought and purchased on Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft and DirecTV.
The Amazon synopsis of the film gives viewers an idea of its legacy: “Citizen Kane is a story of idealism corrupted by wealth, and Citizen Kane is the greatest film of all time, with more directing careers attributed to it than any other film in history”.
The legendary director Martin Scorsese attributed the film the merit of making films. In an interview with the American Film Institute he said about the film: “When I discovered what a director really does, it was when I first saw Citizen Kane on television.
Mank is now aired on Netflix.
