Citizen Kane: The fresh, sophisticated, and classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), 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). Its director,
star, and producer were all the same genius individual - Orson Welles (in his film debut at age 25!), who
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.] 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 (partly due to its limited distribution and delayed release by RKO due to pressure
exerted by famous publisher W.R. Hearst) - until it was re-released after World War II, found welldeserved (but delayed) recognition in Europe, and then played on television. The film engendered
controversy (and efforts at suppression in early 1941) 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 (especially in regards to the Susan Alexander
Kane character) to real-life. The notorious battle was detailed in Thomas Lennon's and Michael Epstein's
Oscar-nominated documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996), and it was retold in HBO's cable-TV
film RKO 281 (1999) (the film's title refers to the project numbering for the film by the studio, before the
film was formally titled): The gossip columnist Louella Parsons persuaded her newspaper boss Hearst that
he was being slandered by RKO and Orson Welles' film when it was first previewed, so the Hearst-owned
newspapers (and other media outlets) pressured theatres to boycott the film and also threatened libel
lawsuits. Hearst also ordered his publications to complete ignore the film, and not accept advertising for
other RKO projects. However, the title character Charles Foster Kane is mostly a composite of any number
of powerful, colorful, and influential American individualists and financial barons in the early 20th century.
The real-life Hearst was born into wealth, whereas Kane was of humble birth - the son of poor boardinghouse proprietors. And Kane also was separated from both his mother and his mistress, unlike Hearst.
Welles' film was the recipient of nine Oscar nominations with only one win - Best Original Screenplay
(Mankiewicz and Welles). The other eight nominations included Best Picture (Orson Welles, producer),
Best Actor and Best Director (Welles), Best B/W Cinematography (Toland), Best Art Direction (Perry
Ferguson and Van Nest Polglase), Best Sound Recording (John Aalberg), Best Dramatic Picture Score
(Bernard Herrmann with his first brilliant musical score), and Best Film Editing (Robert Wise). With his
four Academy Awards nominations, Welles became the first individual to receive simultaneous
nominations in those four categories. More importantly, the innovative, bold film is an acknowledged
milestone in the development of cinematic technique; it uses film as an art form to energetically
communicate and display a non-static view of life Its 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) by several different characters (the associates and friends of the deceased) - 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 his father and mother, was raised by a banker, and became a fabulously wealthy,
arrogant, and energetic newspaperman. He made his reputation as the generous, idealistic champion of the
underprivileged, and set his egotistical mind on a political career, until those political dreams were
shattered after the revelation of an ill-advised 'love-nest' 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. After two failed marriages and a transformation into a morose, grotesque, and tyrannical
monster, his final days were spent alone, morose, and unhappy before his death in a reclusive refuge of his
own making - an ominous castle filled with innumerable possessions to compensate for his life's emptiness.
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" - in
part, the film's plot enabling device. 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.
Filmic Elements: Citizen Kane made cinematic advances on many fronts, and its most significant
contribution to cinematography came from the use of a technique known as deep focus. Deep focus refers
to having everything in the frame, even the background, in focus at the same time, as opposed to having
only the people and things in the foreground in focus. The deep focus technique requires the
cinematographer to combine lighting, composition, and type of camera lens to produce the desired effect.
With deep focus, a filmmaker can showcase overlapping actions, and mise-en-scène (the physical
environment in which a film takes place) becomes more critical. Effectively manipulating the mise-enscène for deep focus actively engages the whole space of the frame without leaving the viewer confused.
Deep focus is most effective in scenes that depict Kane’s loss of control and his personal isolation because
it gives the audience a clear view of the space Kane commands as well as the space over which he has no
power. Gregg Toland, the cinematographer Welles chose for Citizen Kane, had used the technique in an
earlier film he had worked on, The Long Voyage Home, but Citizen Kane marked the first time it was used
so extensively or effectively. Citizen Kane introduced Hollywood to the creative potential of other
cinematic techniques as well. One such innovation was a technique known as the "wipe," where one image
is "wiped" off the screen by another. Other innovations involved unique experiments with camera angles.
Welles’s chosen Mercury Theatre cast was an asset to the film and vital to the success of techniques like
deep focus. These cast members were classically trained theatrical actors, and none had ever made a movie
before Welles brought them to Hollywood. Their stage training, rather than being overpowering, helped
them to place themselves firmly in each scene, which complements the use of deep focus. The
cinematography and acting technique combined so perfectly that the total control Welles was given over
casting was justified. The combination of innovative techniques, not one individual technique, is what
makes Citizen Kane such a cinematically important film.
Citizen Kane employs creative storytelling techniques as well. Acting almost as a biopic (biographical
film), Citizen Kane portrays a long period of time realistically, allowing the characters to age as the story
goes on. Instead of being told in a linear, completely chronological manner, Kane’s story unfolds in
overlapping segments that add more information as each narrator adds his or her story. Telling Kane’s life
story entirely in flashbacks was another innovative approach to storytelling. Flashbacks had been used in
earlier films, but Citizen Kane used them most effectively. The flashbacks are given from the perspectives
of characters who are aging or forgetful, which casts doubt on the memories being discussed. In other
words, these are unreliable narrators whose own opinions and interpretations affect their accuracy. The
storytelling techniques succeed in painting Charles Foster Kane as an enigma, a tortured, complicated man
who, in the end, leaves viewers with more questions than answers and inevitably invokes sympathy rather
than contempt.
Welles's achievements in this film marked a new direction in cinema. Many critics argue that Citizen Kane,
with its inventive use of lighting and shadow, is the first film noir, or at least the direct predecessor of noir,
a genre that employs dark, moody atmosphere to augment the often violent or mysterious events taking
place. Citizen Kane introduced Hollywood to the creative potential of cinematic technique. Even apart from
the controversy the film stirred, a multitude of innovations made Citizen Kane the most exciting movie in
the history of cinema at that time.