JD John David Rhodes On In Our Time (BBC)

“Why do we insist on this film being so cinematically pure when it's made by this brilliant producer of theatre and radio? The whole point of cinema is an impure medium that is able to cannibalize its sister media. And I think that's what makes it so exciting. You're seeing these electric sparks as these different media are rubbed up against each other.”

In Our Time (BBC) · Ideas & Essays · November 2026

Context

Asked whether the radio-trained actors in Citizen Kane seemed stagey, Rhodes argues that the film's theatrical and radio residue is a strength, not a flaw.

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Transcript

In Our Time (BBC) Around 22:44 into the episode

Speaker 1

the narrative, distribute the narration around a number of characters, mix up the chronology, etc. Carlin Pressberger was certainly impressed by it, and you can see it in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. There's almost a direct reference to it.

Speaker 2

…that he brought in actors from the radio. And there's been suggestions, therefore, they were rather wooden and stagey compared with the fluid actors and the unstagey persons who came from Hollywood. Is that the case? They didn't seem all that stagey to me. So you're shaking your head, J.D. Well,

Speaker 4

I wouldn't have described them as wooden. I don't mean that. I just mean, well, I think there's two things. I think there's one, there's the sort of revelation of these people who have not been seen on screen. I think sometimes the vocal performance style is what that's where you hear some of the residue of the theater, which I think is an important part of the way that the film blends these different media. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. No, I'm not, yeah, no, I'm trying to insist that it's a good thing. Also, I think, you know, like, why do we insist on this film being so cinematically pure when it's made by this brilliant producer of theatre and radio? And also cinema, the whole point of cinema is an impure medium that is able to cannibalize its. Sister media. And I think that's what makes it so exciting, is you're kind of seeing these electric sparks as these different media are rubbed up against each other.

Speaker 1

And yet, when the film had, you know, part of its major rediscovery from the end of the 50s, really, was in France, and the film was celebrated, became a sort of icon of this new kind of ultra-cinematic cinema, hailed by French critics because of its use of deep focus, long takes, etc. And so it…

Speaker 3

There was a real sense in how Wells performs that he is classically trying. I mean, his sort of, you know, his kind of diction is amazing. But then there's an, and I don't want other people to feel, there's that incredible scene when he trashes Susan's bedroom.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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“If anyone heard Rosebud, it would be that nurse. But the film offers evidence of the nurse coming in after that word's already been uttered. So it doesn't really explain how we even know that this was his last word. The whole thing hinges on a kind of impossibility. … By knowing what Rosebud is, we kind of don't know anything.” — John David Rhodes, In Our Time (BBC)

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