Citizen Kane
An American
Masterpiece
Orson Welles
• Wrote, directed and starred in
Citizen Kane
• Inspired by the work of John
Ford
• Watched Stagecoach of forty
times in preparation
• Lost Academy Award to John
Ford’s How Green Was My
Valley
Citizen Kane’s Impact
• Took the next step in the evolution of film
– Birth of a Nation
– Battleship Potemkin
• Welles enlisted new techniques by using
different lenses and camera tricks
Contrast
• Contrast is the range of tones between pure
white and pure black.
• Low contrast images have a wide range and
appear soft to the eye
• While high contrast images have a small range
and appear stark.
Focus
• Depth of field is the amount
of acceptable focus behind
and in front of the subject.
• Short focal lenses tend to
produce a wide depth of
field, where everything on
the set appears in focus
("deep focus").
• Long focal lenses produce a
shallow depth of field,
where only the subject area
is in focus.
Overlapping Dialogue
• Having characters speak before another
character finishes
• Was done before in a comedy
• First time when it was done in a drama
Flashback
• a scene or event from the past that appears in
a narrative out of chronological order, to fill in
information or explain something in the
present
Cut Through Time
• A montage used to show the passage of time
• Often the same scene will be shot repeatedly
only with each take taking place at a later time
• Allows the viewer to see how relationships
grow and change
Academy Awards
• Oscar Nominations
– Outstanding Motion Picture - RKO Radio Pictures (Orson Welles,
Producer)
– Best Director - Orson Welles
– Best Actor - Orson Welles
– Best Writing (Original Screenplay) - Orson Welles and Herman J.
Mankiewicz
– Best Art Direction (Black-and-White) - Perry Ferguson, Van Nest
Polglase, A. Roland Fields, Darrell Silvera
– Best Film Editing - Robert Wise
– Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) - Gregg Toland
– Best Music (Score of a Dramatic Picture) - Bernard Herrmann
– Best Sound Recording - John O. Aalberg
• Only won the award for Best Writing
Awards and Honor
• Considered the best film
ever in many polls
• Steven Spielberg has the
sled used in the movie
hanging above his
workstation to remind him
of excellence
Controversy
• William Randolph Hearst
was very upset about the
film
• His paper boycotted the
movie
• In the end the film seemed
to reflect more on Welles
life than Hearst
Other notable movies
•
•
•
•
•
The Grapes of Wrath
The Long Voyage Home
His Girl Friday
How Green Was My Valley
The Little Foxes
Essay
• What film making techniques were advanced
in Citizen Kane, and how where they used?
• What makes Citizen Kane a particularly
American story?
• What is Rosebud?