by Pauline Kael
First published 1980
Pauline Kael takes readers behind the scenes of Hollywood's most celebrated film. Her essay "Raising Kane" explores how Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles created their screenplay about newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane. Kael argues that Mankiewicz deserves more credit for the script than film history typically grants him. The book includes the complete shooting script by Mankiewicz and Welles, showing how they crafted Kane's rise from idealistic young publisher to isolated media baron. Gary Carey adds detailed notes explaining the script's development. The volume concludes with RKO's cutting continuity, documenting how the final film emerged from the written page. Kael reveals the creative tensions between two brilliant writers as they shaped a story about power, ambition, and the American dream gone wrong.
Genres: literary-criticism, american-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir, film, academic
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: creative-process, power-dynamics
Setting: Hollywood
Period: 20th-Century
466 pages · Paperback · Bantam Book