Citizen Kane

Posted by Matthew Alexander (matthew@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 28, 2006

Final Grade: A

Mark Twain once said that a classic is something that everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read. In the world of cinema, no one can point to a movie that is more of a classic than Orson Welles’ first feature, Citizen Kane. Ranked number one in Sight and Sound’s polling of directors and critics since who knows how long ago, the movie is worshipped by the cognoscenti yet passed over by the rank and file movie goer. Those who do wind up seeing it - perhaps as part of a college course - often shrug their shoulders, purse their lips and say, “It was… OK.” Allow me, then, a small article to attempt to answer the Big Question: What’s the big deal?

Oftentimes, a movie viewer approaches a movie like he does a novel: he wants a good story and an interesting character or two. Now while a good story is unquestionably an important foundation for any movie, as are interesting characters, like a novel there is more at work in a good movie than just that, even if it only registers at a subconscious level. If you have ever left a movie theater wondering why it was you didn’t care for the film you have just seen, even though in analyzing the plot you can find no glaring faults, chances are it was because those other aspects just didn’t connect with you.

For an extreme example, try sometime to make a home movie of a story you know to be a good one. When you see the results, you will be left with an absolute certainty that something it missing. Most likely, it will be a whole lot of somethings. When a professional director worth his salt films a movie, hours and hours and hours are spent choosing how to compose the shots. Much is made of the transitions from one scene to another. More time is spent choosing the right locations. Light and camera angles must be carefully selected to make the most of the location and the actors in it. In the editing room, many man-hours are dedicated to cutting the film just so. Indeed, it is incredible how much time is spent on deciding whether to fade in or cut to a new scene. Once this decision is made, even more time is spent getting the timing just right, and then making sure the sound fits in with it perfectly well (for example, should we hear the hammer hitting the nail before we cut to the new scene, or should we fade slowly out of one scene, letting the sound fade as well, and then cut to the new scene?) These different aspects of moviemaking, so painstakingly crafted in the better movies, are the small details which most likely escape your notice, but which can transform a good story into a masterpiece. So what is the relevance to Citizen Kane? It was the first film to master these other aspects of filmmaking.

The story is perfectly serviceable. Based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, the movie opens with the death of the main character, Charles Foster Kane. His last word before he dies, Rosebud, stands as a mystery which a newspaper editor decides must be solved. Told through flashbacks from interviews of those who knew Kane, the movie becomes the search for the meaning behind the word Rosebud.

It is a perfectly good story with some fine performances, especially by Orson Welles himself. But it is the way the story is told that makes the film so important. No painting survives just on a cute picture but with the way the artist handles the paint. No mere story is enough to make a novel a classic; it is the author’s mastery of the words which elevate its status. In cinema, the director’s mastery with the camera is the equivalent medium which determines whether the most is made of a good story or not. In the case of Citizen Kane, it could be argued that this was the first example of modern filmmaking.

Long influenced by the medium of theater to which it is closely related, with Citizen Kane movies began to assert themselves as a distinct brand of art. The acting, though at times touched by that old theatrical flair, is more often modern and realistic. Orson Welles used transitions which now are common but were brilliant innovations for 1941. For instance, in one scene someone wishes the young Kane a “Merry Christmas”, and the next scene begins with a now older Kane being wished “and a Happy New Year”. The composition of the shots took advantage of the depth of field in film, as well as the light and shadow. The space outside the field of view became important to the scene, and camera angles were judiciously chosen to heighten an effect (such as low camera angles to make an angry Charles Foster Kane seem to loom over everyone). Great care was taken to film scenes from different perspectives, and then to edit those perspectives together for heightened effect (take special note of the scene where Kane first woos his wife-to-be in her apartment. The editing moves us from a shot of them both, to intimate shots of one or the other according to the rhythm of the conversation.)

More directors have pointed to Citizen Kane as the reason they got into filmmaking than any other movie. The films we see today owe a great debt to this pioneer in the field. Like a language, cinema has evolved since Orson Welles first arrived, and like an older language an older movie, though understandable, might be difficult to feel and understand at first. But what a reward comes to him who struggles to understand, to accustom himself to the older piece and the way in which it was made. Citizen Kane is indeed a great movie. And though I believe it was later eclipsed by Touch of Evil, Orson Welles’ masterpiece from 1958, it is so revered for its impact on filmmaking, for the influence it exerted on the next generation of directors.

The Upside:
Come on, it’s Citizen Kane. Everything.
The Downside:
The acting is at times a bit over the top, like the stage acting which continued to influence Hollywood even in the 1940’s.
On the Side:
William Randolph Hearst struggled mightily to prevent this film from being released and nearly succeeded.

Making the Grade:
The Story: B+
The Acting: B+
Behind the Scenes: A+

DVD Stats:
Release Date: May 1, 1941
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
Directed by: Orson Welles

Writing Credits: Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound Mix: Mono
Color: Black and White
Country: USA
Run Time: 119 min.
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
Trailer

Technorati Tags: Classics, Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, 1941, Cinema, Modern Cinema, History

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