Citizen Kane at Union Square

This was fun. Last night, the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation sponsered a showing of Citizen Kane outdoors at Union Square. The starting time was advertised as 8:00pm, but they had to wait for it to get dark, so it didn't start until 8:45pm.

Before the show started, they ran a raffle for DVDs of Citizen Kane, & the projectionist gave a brief talk about how innovative the movie was for its time. The movie was projected from a DVD onto an inflatable screen. Watching them inflate the screen was a bit of a show in itself.

There was a quite a crowd in Union Square, sitting on the ground directly in front of the screen, in chairs set up behind this area, & on the ledges & benches in the square. The audience was very quiet & attentive. I even saw a woman shush 2 women sitting behind her who continued to converse quite audibly several minutes into the movie.

As for Citizen Kane itself, I've seen it before, of course, & I continue to be impressed by its technical brilliance. Its many famous transitions are still stunning. But I'm never much interested in the content of the story itself. The revelations about Kane never seem significant, & I never care about what happens to any of the characters.