Bad times for Citizen Kane, the legendary film by Orson Welles. Already, during the 93e Oscars ceremony, Sunday April 25, Mank, the film by David Fincher which revisits the genesis of the film, had to be satisfied with technical rewards, for its photography and its sets.
But misfortune never comes alone. The Hollywood Reporter, one of the main publications of the American film industry, reports that the site Rotten Tomatoes, an aggregator of critics very followed in the middle of the seventh art across the Atlantic, has dropped from its pedestal the work that was considered until now as the “Greatest movie of all time”.
Rotten Tomatoes has, in fact, unearthed a review published on May 7, 1941 in the Chicago Tribune, page 25. The author of the review, Mae Tinee, wrote: “You have heard a lot about this film and I see that some experts consider it to be “greatest movie ever made”. Not me “, she writes. Before adding:
“It’s an interesting, different film. It’s a film bizarre enough to become a museum piece. But the eccentricity takes so much precedence over the simplicity that it ends up damaging the quality of the film and that it loses all that it could have of entertaining. “
Even the black and white of the film that has been touted for decades is described as “Dark and scary”. This criticism alone is enough to seal the fate of Citizen Kane which passes the “Tomatometer” with a perfect score of 100% based on 116 reviews at… 99%.
Battleship Potemkin (1925), Grapes of Wrath (1940), Terminator (1984) or again Toy story (1995) are among those works which continue to benefit from this perfect rating of ” 100% freshness “ and supplant Citizen Kane. With a note of 100% based on 244 positive reviews, Paddington 2, produced by the Briton Paul King in 2017, stands out.
The “Tomatometer” is not infallible
Now, taking into account the record number of positive reviews, this children’s film can be considered the new “best film” of all time. Shortly after its theatrical release, The world wrote about him: “Paul King films a new adventure, deliciously British, of the plush hero and soft hat”, believing that the film is “Funny and good-natured”.
In The Hollywood Reporter, Paul King explains: “It’s extremely charming to be on a list that includes Citizen Kane, this is obviously a rather surprising list, since it goes from Citizen Kane at Paddington 2, but I will try not to take it too seriously… I will not go to my head too much and immediately build my Xanadu ”, in reference to the residence of Charles Foster Kane, the hero of Citizen Kane. The information has given rise to multiple hijackings on social networks.
Paddington 2 is a masterpiece ? https://t.co/PbuJVQcBUY
Rotten Tomatoes’ “Tomatometer” – the site’s name comes from throwing rotten tomatoes at mediocre actors and a scene from Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Quebec feature film, Leolo (1992) in which an actress falls into a bin of tomatoes – is not infallible, its relevance is fragile.
On a whim, a critic can decide to derail the classification, to bring down a film. Lady Bird (2017) by Greta Gerwig was the victim of this mishap. The film was awarded a 100% rating based on 196 positive reviews when the reviewer Cole smithey wrote a negative review, only to lower his grade. Since, Lady Bird Stuck at 99% with 395 reviews.
Mae Tinee, a pen name
As for Citizen Kane, it could sink a little deeper into the ranking. On June 2, 1941, in The New Republic, critic Otis Ferguson lashed out at his bombastic side, noting that there are too many moments in which the actors just talk, over and over again: “Which is good for a theater scene, maybe less for the cinema”, he wrote. It has, however, not been listed by Rotten Tomatoes.
But who is Mae Tinee? According to the site Boing boing, it would be a pseudonym used by film critics of the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper writes, for its part, that Mae Tinee is a pen name which refers to “matinée”, in French, which designates the afternoon session at the theater or at the cinema. It was used between 1915 and 1966 by several journalists to chronicle silent then talking films.
For its part, The Women Film Pioneers Project (WFPP), a scientific project that explores the role of women in the early days of the film industry, believes that it is Frances peck grover (1886-1961) whose personal archives are deposited at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. According to the WFPP, its caustic criticisms in the Chicago Tribune prompted the Chicago Motion Picture Owners’ Association to protest to his employer.
Frances Peck Grover allegedly chose the nickname Mae Tinee – sometimes written Mae Tinée – after writing a rave review of French mothers, a French film directed by René Hervil and Louis Mercanton (1917) with Sarah Bernhardt. When she died at Evanston in May 1961, the New York Daily News evokes “One of the first professional film critics in the country”. There is no indication that Orson Welles sent a wreath.