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Why did Orson Welles make character's dialog overlap?

"In many of his movies, characters talk over each other. What for? Its so distracting. And most people don't do this in real life conversation because it is considered rude."

"That doesn't bother me near as much as their habit of covering up dialogue with outside traffic sounds, loud music and basically just two [sic] much stuff going on around the actors. Again I think they do it (or rather overdo it) for realism. I have nothing against music in films as it has pretty much always been there, but when they allow it to drown out the dialogue I really get upset."

JFC...

A brief anecdote: I had a work lunch today with about ten co-workers aged 25-55 who were talking incessantly about the upcoming Super Bowl, which is apparently a thing that still occurs with some regularity. The conversation eventually turned to Peyton Manning, his alleged overuse of the word "Omaha," and what this word could possibly mean. I foolishly attempted to join the conversation by suggesting that the word might be his "Rosebud." This comment was met with confused and derisive stares because, as it turns out, not only was no one there familiar with the reference, but only one of them had even heard of (but not seen) a movie called Citizen Kane. At one point, the focus was directed toward my boss, the oldest one present and therefore the most likely to have seen it by accident at some point. His response: "No I haven't seen it--I'm not 75 years old!"

Holy moly! There are no words.

Do they like and talk about movies of any kind?

At least you refrained from stabbing any of them (I assume)

FrauBlucher wrote:Do they like and talk about movies of any kind?

The one that had heard of it regularly goes to new movies, but otherwise not really. (One of them actively hates watching movies of any kind.) However, I still would have thought that this was a common cultural touchpoint that everyone is at least vaguely familiar with.

I wonder how many know who William Randolph Hearst is.

Even that Ghostbusters cartoon had an entire episode that referenced it (that even I got at age 8 or 9, whenever it aired.)

Maybe you should have mentioned that one instead.

I might also mention that the person that had heard of Citizen Kane was the same one who recently said this. So she's at least somewhat familiar with film history.

In my high school film course, the teacher claimed this was the first film to use flashbacks and/or a non-linear narrative. So he's at least very unfamiliar with film history

Honestly, I'm a little surprised that we're all surprised by this. I doubt more than three people in my entire department (I'm including all three floors) have watched Citizen Kane, and I wouldn't wager much money on them enjoying it.

FrauBlucher wrote:I wonder how many know who William Randolph Hearst is.

In my office, I would think very few - I'm going with less than ten.

I work in a movie-related business, so fortunately this never happens.

Actually the scariest part of swo17's anecdote is the person who "actively hates watching movies of any kind"! I'm trying very hard to imagine such a strange creature and can only come up with someone from diametrically opposite poles. Did this person spend his formative years in a dark cellar on a diet of bread and water and forced to recite scripture? Or is he some uberfan who seems to think film/television is useful only for the transmission of mega sporting events. Either way I wouldn't get near either of them while they had a knife and fork!

Props55 wrote:Or is he some uberfan who seems to think film/television is useful only for the transmission of mega sporting events.

This. He's on ESPN.com more often than I'm on this forum!

Props55 wrote:Actually the scariest part of swo17's anecdote is the person who "actively hates watching movies of any kind"! I'm trying very hard to imagine such a strange creature and can only come up with someone from diametrically opposite poles. Did this person spend his formative years in a dark cellar on a diet of bread and water and forced to recite scripture? ... Either way I wouldn't get near either of them while they had a knife and fork!

A guy I grew up with said he didn't like watching movies because it was sitting around doing nothing for two hours when he could be doing something far more productive with his time. I remember we were all shocked when he asked if we wanted to watch a movie one weekend. Turns out he was super enthusiastic to watch .... The Day After Tomorrow. Apparently he was quite obsessed with weather and all those "productive hours" were devoted towards researching weather.

I enjoy my sports (mainly NFL and MLB), but I'd give sports up in a minute if I had to choose between them and my enjoyment of movies. (Basically, the opposite of Woody Allen).

I dressed as Kane two years ago for Halloween, wearing a sign around my neck that said "Missing Sled: Answers to the name 'Rosebud'", and not one of the 40+ people working in my office, where the average age had to be over 45, understood the reference.

Unfortunately there are way too many people who know Welles for this.

FrauBlucher wrote:Unfortunately there are way too many people who know Welles for this.

Nobody did it better. I almost want to drink a glass of Paul Masson just to please Orson Welles.

Just put a french fry in his ghost beard.

Superswede11 wrote:In my high school film course, the teacher claimed this was the first film to use flashbacks and/or a non-linear narrative. So he's at least very unfamiliar with film history

In lower secondary school I gave a "lecture" on film history where I claimed this was the first movie where they moved the camera. No one corrected me.

At age 14 I asked my parents to join me in watching a Betamax copy of KANE (on the "Nostalgia Merchant" label!). Later that day I overheard my mother say to my father, "I don't know why he likes it so much; it wasn't that good."

My brother rented this for a film class back when I was in middle school. He said it was the greatest film ever made and I said, "All right, I want to watch!" I fell asleep before the first non-newsreel scene of Welles as Kane.

Love it now though.

Props55 wrote:Actually the scariest part of swo17's anecdote is the person who "actively hates watching movies of any kind"! I'm trying very hard to imagine such a strange creature and can only come up with someone from diametrically opposite poles. Did this person spend his formative years in a dark cellar on a diet of bread and water and forced to recite scripture? Or is he some uberfan who seems to think film/television is useful only for the transmission of mega sporting events. Either way I wouldn't get near either of them while they had a knife and fork!

I have a friend who doesn't like movies at all.
She explained me once the reasons : she has so low tastes in movies that she likes even the worst movies, so that's kind of losing her time. Plus, she's an avid reader, and prefers having to picture in her own mind what's she reading that to have the visuals already done and showed to her.

So, I mean, why not.

A Danish film critic (Casper Christensen) who often appears on TV saw Citizen Kane for the first time a year ago! He gave it 4 stars of 6! He called it flawed, if I remember correctly.

Out of 6? What kind of crazy stuff are they up to in Denmark?