Hearst Castle in California hosts screening of 'Citizen Kane'

[March 14, 2015]  By Jonathan Polakoff

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's Hearst Castle, the monumental estate built in the early 20th century for publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, was set on Friday to host a screening of "Citizen Kane," the Orson Welles film classic that infuriated the man who inspired it.

Hearst, an old man by the time of the film's 1941 release, was livid over its portrait of a ruthless, wealthy publishing baron, Charles Foster Kane, a fictional character played by Welles and drawn closely to Hearst's likeness. He died in 1951.

But his heirs have recently embraced the movie as a dramatized, if embellished, account of a self-made tycoon and politician whose newspaper empire reshaped U.S. journalism and stirred public sentiments that helped ignite the Spanish-American War in 1898.

"The family would prefer to have people know it's just a movie," said Wendy Eidson, director of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, which is organizing the screening as part of its six-day festival. "It's just fiction."

Tickets for the exclusive 60-person event in San Simeon, California, sold for $1,000. The evening was to begin with a tour of the castle grounds - inspiration of the fictional Xanadu estate in "Citizen Kane" - followed by an 8 p.m. viewing of the film in Hearst's own screening room, restored to its full early-20th century opulence.

The event was being hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, grandson of Herman Mankiewicz, who co-wrote the screenplay with Welles, the film's star and director.

The guest list included John Milius, writer of "Apocalypse Now" and other movies. No Hearst family members planned to attend, although they support the screening, Eidson said.

Eidson pitched the idea as a joke a few years ago to Stephen Hearst, the publisher's great-grandson, who was surprisingly interested, Eidson said.

Produced when Welles was just 25, "Citizen Kane" frequently tops all-time best movie lists and ranks No. 1 on the American Film Institute's roster of greatest American films.

Still, it did not win best picture at the 14th Academy Awards in 1942. The award went instead to John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley," and "Citizen Kane" won for original screenplay.

"The public can mistake fiction, whether in print or film, as history itself," said Jim Allen, director of marketing at Hearst Castle.

Proceeds from the screening will be split between the nonprofit Friends of Hearst Castle and the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.

(Reporting by Jonathan Polakoff; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler)

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