Citizen Kane (1941)
Directed by Orson Welles
The following presentation was created from
information found at:
http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html
• Citizen Kane is probably
the world's most famous
and highly-rated film,
with its many remarkable
scenes and performances,
cinematic and narrative
techniques and
experimental innovations
(in photography, editing,
and sound).
Orson Welles was only 25
when he directed this film.
• Collaborated with
Herman J. Mankiewicz on
the script (and also with
an uncredited John
Houseman), and with
Gregg Toland as his
talented
cinematographer. [The
amount of each person's
contributions to the
screenplay has been the
subject of great debate
over many decades.]
Past
influences
Toland's camera work
on Karl Freund's
expressionistic horror
film Mad Love (1935)
exerted a profound
influence on this film.
The film, budgeted at
$800,000, received
unanimous critical
praise even at the
time of its release,
although it was not a
commercial success.
RKO (Radio-KeithOrpheum) The company
who produced the film
The film engendered
controversy (and efforts at
suppression in early 1941 and
efforts at suppression in early
1941 through intimidation,
blackmail, newspaper smears,
discrediting and FBI
investigations) before it
premiered in New York City on
May 1, 1941, because it
appeared to fictionalize and
caricaturize certain events
and individuals in the life of
William Randolph Hearst - a
powerful newspaper magnate
and publisher. The film was
accused of drawing
remarkable, unflattering, and
uncomplimentary parallels.
Oscar Nominations
- GALORE
Welles' film was the recipient of
nine Oscar nominations with only
one win - Best Original
Screenplay. The other eight
nominations included Best Picture
(Orson Welles, producer), Best
Actor and Best Director (Welles),
Best B/W Cinematography
(Toland), Best Art Direction, Best
Sound Recording, Best Dramatic
Picture Score (Bernard Herrmann
with his first brilliant musical
score), and Best Film Editing. With
his four Academy Awards
nominations, Welles became the
first individual to receive
simultaneous nominations in
those four categories.
Kane
•
Charles Foster Kane
•
New York Inquirer
•
Multi-millionaire newspaper publisher, and
wielder of public opinion, called "Kubla Khan“
•
•
•
Political aspirant to Presidency by campaigning
as independent candidate for New York State's
Governor, and by marrying the President's
niece, Emily Monroe Norton
Extravagant, palatial Florida mansion, Xanadu
filled with art objects
Souring affair/marriage with talentless 'singer'
Susan Alexander (the Hays Code wouldn't
permit extra-marital affair)
(Difference: Susan Alexander suffers
humiliating failure as opera singer, attempts
suicide, separates from Kane)
•
Character of Walter Parks Thatcher
•
Character of Boss James 'Jim' W. Gettys
Hearst
•
William Randolph Hearst
•
San Francisco Examiner, New York Journal
•
Same kind of press lord, "yellow journalist," and
influential political figure
•
Political aspirant to Presidency by becoming New
York State's Governor
•
"The Ranch" palace at San Simeon, California, also
with priceless art collection
•
A beloved mistress - a young, and successful silent
film actress Marion Davies
(Difference: No breakdown in Davies' unmarried
relationship with Hearst)
•
Similarities between mistress/wife Ganna Walska of
Chicago heir Harold Fowler McCormick who bought
expensive voice lessons for her and promoted her
for the lead role in the production of Zaza at the
Chicago Opera in 1920
•
Similarities with financier J.P. Morgan
•
Similarities with Tammany Hall (NYC) Boss Charles F.
Murphy
Cinematic
Technique
More importantly, the
innovative, bold film is an
acknowledged milestone in
the development of
cinematic technique,
although it 'shared' some
of its techniques from
Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940)
and other earlier films. It
uses film as an art form to
energetically communicate
and display a non-static
view of life. Its
components brought
together the following
aspects:
Chiaroscuro: the distribution of light
and shade in a picture
• use of a subjective camera
• unconventional lighting,
including chiaroscuro,
backlighting and high-contrast
lighting, prefiguring the
darkness and low-key lighting of
future film noirs
• inventive use of shadows and
strange camera angles,
following in the tradition of
German Expressionists
• deep-focus shots with
incredible depth-of field and
focus from extreme foreground
to extreme background (also
found in Hitchcock's Rebecca
(1940)) that emphasize miseen-scene
mise-en-scene: The arrangement of performers
and properties on a stage for a theatrical
production or before the camera in a film.
• low-angled shots
revealing ceilings in sets
(a technique possibly
borrowed from John
Ford's Stagecoach (1939)
which Welles screened
numerous times)
• sparse use of revealing
facial close-ups
• elaborate camera
movements over-lapping,
• talk-over dialogue and
layered sound
• the sound technique termed
"lightning-mix" in which a
complex montage sequence is
linked by related sounds
• a cast of characters that ages
throughout the film
• flashbacks, flashforwards and
non-linear story-telling
• the frequent use of transitionary
dissolves or curtain wipes, as in
the scene in which the camera
ascended in the opera house into
the rafters to show the
workmen's disapproval of Mrs.
Kane's operatic performance; also
the famous 'breakfast' montage
scene illustrating the
disintegration of Kane's marriage
in a brief time
• long, uninterrupted shots or
lengthy takes of sequences
Overview of the STORY
• Complex and pessimistic theme of a spiritually-failed man is told from
several, unreliable perspectives and points-of-view (also metaphorically
communicated by the jigsaw puzzle) providing a sometimes contradictory,
non-sequential, and enigmatic portrait.
• The film tells the thought-provoking, tragic epic story of a 'rags-to-riches'
child who inherited a fortune, was taken away from his humble
surroundings and became a fabulously wealthy, arrogant, and energetic
newspaperman.
• Political dreams were shattered after the revelation of an ill-advised 'lovenest' affair with a singer.
• Kane's life was corrupted and ultimately self-destructed by a lust to fulfill
the American dream of success, fame, wealth, power and immortality.
• Transformation into a morose, grotesque, and tyrannical monster, his final
days were spent alone.
• Refuge of his own making - an ominous castle filled with innumerable
possessions to compensate for his life's emptiness.
The Million $ Question: Who or what is
ROSEBUD and what does this name represent
in the film?
• The discovery and revelation of the mystery of the life of
the multi-millionaire publishing tycoon is determined
through a reporter's search for the meaning of his single,
cryptic dying word: "Rosebud“
• However, no-one was present to hear him utter the elusive
last word.
• The reporter looks for clues to the word's identity by
researching the newspaper publisher's life, through
interviews with several of Kane's former friends and
colleagues.
• Was it a favorite pet or nickname of a lost love? Or the
name of a racehorse? At film's end, the identity of
"Rosebud" is revealed, but only to the film audience.
Some useful/useless Facts – Trivia
• Filming was completed on October 23, 1940, after 82
shooting days. Some 276,500 feet of film had been
exposed. The production cost $686,000, of which Welles
received $100,000.
• The scene where Kane destroys Susan's room after she's
left him was done on the first take. Director/star Orson
Welles' hands were bleeding, and he is quoted as saying, "I
really felt it.“
• Despite all the publicity, the film was a box office flop and
was quickly consigned to the RKO vaults. At 1941's
Academy Awards the film was booed every time one of its
nine nominations was announced. It was only re-released
for the public in the mid-1950s.
More for your money
•
Xanadu's design is based on William Randolph
Hearst's elaborate home in San Simeon and
Mont St Michel in France.
•
For the new footage in the opening newsreel to
look suitably grainy, editor Robert Wise came
up with the idea of physically dragging the
footage across a stone floor and running across
a cheesecloth filled with sand. These efforts
went unappreciated in some quarters: one
cinema distributor contacted RKO to complain
about the film stock being of inferior quality
and demanded a replacement print.
•
Orson Welles chipped his anklebone halfway
through production and had to direct for 2
weeks from a wheelchair. When he was called
upon to stand up onscreen, he wore metal
braces. The injury occurred in the scene where
Kane chases Gettys down the stairs and Welles
tripped.
“film”
trivia
The film showcased a technique called "universal
focus." To get the image of Kane and the poster
picture during the speech sequence, short lenses
were used. At the same time, the key light (the
main lights) were gradually increased to get both
images sharp and clear.
In 2007, the American Film Institute once again
ranked this as the #1 Greatest Movie of All Time.
This film was previously the #1-ranked entry on
the AFI's previous list of 1998.
The original nitrate negatives are gone; they were
lost in a fire during the 1970s.
When everyone goes on a picnic in tents in the
Florida Everglades, the background is a rear
projection of an RKO prehistoric monster movie,
possibly The Son of Kong (1933).