Hearst family ends Citizen Kane feud

THE 1941 film Citizen Kane will be shown at Hearst Castle, ending a seven-decade-long feud.

Citizen Kane

THE 1941 film Citizen Kane will be shown at Hearst Castle, the elaborate California estate built by the newspaper magnate who inspired Orson Welles's cinema classic, ending a seven-decade-long feud.

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Citizen Kane will be shown on March 9 at the visitor centre theatre as part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, with the blessing of the late William Randolph Hearst's family.

Hearst sought to derail the film, which portrayed the rise and fall of an obsessively controlling character, and banned his newspapers from reviewing or mentioning it.

Festival director Wendy Eidson said the film had probably never been seen at the estate.

Great-grandson Steve Hearst said the screenings would help place "Kane" in its proper context. "Citizen Kane is a classic American film but is in no way a historically accurate depiction of William Randolph Hearst or his favourite place in the world, his ranch," he said.

Mr Hearst said that "Xanadu" was depicted by Welles as a "dark and brooding fictional fortress" but the real Hearst Castle had always been "lively".

"This remarkable film paints a portrait of two masters of the media, William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles himself. We can enjoy it just as fully as a work of artistic fiction, not fact," he said.

Agencies