Citizen Kane is probably the most famous and well known film in North America cinema, and has been studied and dissected by many great minds much more wise than me. Hitherto, the camera had to be focused either for a close or a distant shot, all efforts to encompass both at the same time resulting in one or the other being out of focus. [30][e] Welles denied that the character was based on Davies,[32] whom he called "an extraordinary woman—nothing like the character Dorothy Comingore played in the movie. [43], Not all of the cast came from the Mercury Players. Orson Welles's Controversial 'Citizen Kane' Proves a Sensational Film at Palace -- 'That Uncertain Feeling' at Music Hall -- 'Great American Broadcast' at Roxy By Bosley Crowther May 2, 1941 [100] The Oscar-nominated documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane lays the blame for the film's relative failure squarely at the feet of Hearst. Welles then took several weeks away from the film for a lecture tour, during which he also scouted additional locations with Toland and Ferguson. [46]:44, Welles had met stage actress Ruth Warrick while visiting New York on a break from Hollywood and remembered her as a good fit for Emily Norton Kane,[16]:188 later saying that she looked the part. The production history of Citizen Kane reads like a film script. Cinematographer Arthur Edeson used a wider-angle lens than Toland and the film includes many long takes, low angles and shots of the ceiling, but it did not use deep focus shots on large sets to the extent that Citizen Kane did. "[16]:211 John C. Mosher of The New Yorker called the film's style "like fresh air" and raved "Something new has come to the movie world at last. Wild. Mankiewicz had a bet on the horse in the 1914 Kentucky Derby, which he won, and McGilligan wrote that "Old Rosebud symbolized his lost youth, and the break with his family". Being in a gay relationship would have immediately gotten someone kicked out of school back in the days of Citizen Kane. "[16]:211 Life magazine's review said that "few movies have ever come from Hollywood with such powerful narrative, such original technique, such exciting photography. [228], In 2011, it was released on Blu-ray and DVD in a 70th Anniversary Edition. The site's critical consensus reads: "Orson Welles's epic tale of a publishing tycoon's rise and fall is entertaining, poignant, and inventive in its storytelling, earning its reputation as a landmark achievement in film. | Welles proposed The Smiler with a Knife, from a novel by Cecil Day-Lewis. ES. [200], In 1989, Mankiewicz's personal copy of the Citizen Kane script was auctioned at Christie's. "As he was getting off at his floor, I said, 'Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.' "It wasn't the first time people called me crazy. Some events and details were invented,[28]:444 and Houseman wrote that he and Mankiewicz also "grafted anecdotes from other giants of journalism, including Pulitzer, Northcliffe and Mank's first boss, Herbert Bayard Swope. [20]:394 The essay was later discredited and Kael's own scholarship was called into question. Though Mank is currently streaming on Netflix, the movie that inspired it has a different streaming home.. [85]:79[90], One of the editing techniques used in Citizen Kane was the use of montage to collapse time and space, using an episodic sequence on the same set while the characters changed costume and make-up between cuts so that the scene following each cut would look as if it took place in the same location, but at a time long after the previous cut. | "But we were shooting the picture," Welles said, "because we wanted to get started and be already into it before anybody knew about it. It was a hobby with me which became big business. Mike. After Welles approved the rough sketches, Ferguson made miniature models for Welles and Toland to experiment on with a periscope in order to rehearse and perfect each shot. However, by the 1960s filmmakers such as those from the French New Wave and Cinéma vérité movements favored "flatter, more shallow images with softer focus" and Citizen Kane's style became less fashionable. Other films influenced include Gaslight, Mildred Pierce and Jane Eyre. Citizen Kane is a 1941 American mystery drama film by Orson Welles, its producer, co-screenwriter, director and star. "[29]:80, David Bordwell wrote that "The best way to understand Citizen Kane is to stop worshiping it as a triumph of technique." Genres: Drama. [15]:85 Welles boasted that he only went 21 days over his official shooting schedule, without factoring in the month of "camera tests. 81. [107]:164[108] The film earned $23,878 during its first week in New York. Callow writes that it has "great playful charm ... it is a miniature documentary, almost an introduction to the cinema ... Teasing, charming, completely original, it is a sort of conjuring trick: Without his face appearing once on the screen, Welles entirely dominates its five [sic] minutes' duration. "[172], The films of Paul Thomas Anderson have been compared to it. Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' - still considered one of the greatest films ever made - will finally be released on Blu-ray this September, in celebration of its 70th anniversary. "[66]:236 Bazin also compared the film to Roberto Rossellini's Paisan for having "the same aesthetic concept of realism"[135]:117–118 and to the films of William Wyler shot by Toland (such as The Little Foxes and The Best Years of Our Lives), all of which used deep focus cinematography that Bazin called "a dialectical step forward in film language."[67]:71. [8], Ruth Warrick (died 2005) was the last surviving member of the principal cast. His cast, made up of players from his Mercury Theatre group, respond like sensitive musicians to the movements of the conductor’s baton. [15]:111 Up until this Welles had been friendly with Parsons. The film is in the past tense, whereas we all know that cinema has got to be in the present tense. [a][b][17]:30–31 Schaefer told Welles that the $500,000 budget could not be exceeded; as war loomed, revenue was declining sharply in Europe by the fall of 1939. The News on the March newsreel presents Kane keeping company with Hitler and other dictators while he smugly assures the public that there will be no war. [229] The San Francisco Chronicle called it "the Blu-ray release of the year. Cast & Crew. [52], Production advisor Miriam Geiger quickly compiled a handmade film textbook for Welles, a practical reference book of film techniques that he studied carefully. The film did decent business at the box office; it went on to be the sixth highest grossing film in its year of release, a modest success its backers found acceptable. Rated the #1 best film of 1941, and #48 in … [15]:61 The sets were also built to accommodate Toland's camera movements. [22]:61, Welles credited "Rosebud" to Mankiewicz. [72], Another unorthodox method used in the film was the low-angle shots facing upwards, thus allowing ceilings to be shown in the background of several scenes. [15]:117[129], Citizen Kane was the only film made under Welles's original contract with RKO Pictures, which gave him complete creative control. [184]:279–280 Truffaut's Day for Night pays tribute to the film in a dream sequence depicting a childhood memory of the character played by Truffaut stealing publicity photos from the film. More power to Welles!"[118]. He had seen some of the Mercury stage productions (including Caesar[20]:66) and said he wanted to work with someone who had never made a movie. "[17]:85–86, In March 1941, Welles directed a Broadway version of Richard Wright's Native Son (and, for luck, used a "Rosebud" sled as a prop). [15]:104 He also used different "sound perspectives" to create the illusion of distances,[15]:101 such as in scenes at Xanadu where characters speak to each other at far distances. "[189]:210 The film has also influenced other art forms. [16]:213 The Hearst papers vociferously attacked Welles after his April 1941 radio play, "His Honor, the Mayor",[102] produced for The Free Company radio series on CBS. [15]:109 The film was very well planned out and intentionally shot for such post-production techniques as slow dissolves. [15]:108 Musicians including bandleader Cee Pee Johnson (drums), Alton Redd (vocals), Raymond Tate (trumpet), Buddy Collette (alto sax) and Buddy Banks (tenor sax) are featured. [21] The book-length essay first appeared in February 1971, in two consecutive issues of The New Yorker magazine. ", Count on Mr. Welles: he doesn't do things by halves. [16]:170 Film scholar Robert L. Carringer wrote: "The simple fact seems to be that Schaefer believed Welles was going to pull off something really big almost as much as Welles did himself. For example, one chain controlling more than 500 theaters got Welles's film as part of a package but refused to play it, reportedly out of fear of Hearst. [17]:49, As a known supporter of President Roosevelt,[33] whom both McCormick and Hearst opposed based on his successful attempts to control the content of radio programs and his ongoing efforts to control print, Welles may have had incentive to use the film to smear both men. Many people sat for it, so to speak". "Although the possibility of making huge amounts of money in Hollywood greatly attracted him," wrote biographer Frank Brady, "he was still totally, hopelessly, insanely in love with the theater, and it is there that he had every intention of remaining to make his mark. Kane married Susan and forced her into a humiliating operatic career for which she had neither the talent nor the ambition, even building a large opera house for her. RKO still had problems getting exhibitors to show the film. [178] Abbas Kiarostami's The Traveler has been called "the Citizen Kane of the Iranian children's cinema. He pointed out such examples as compositions that used both the foreground and the background in the films of Auguste and Louis Lumière, special effects used in the films of Georges Méliès, shots of the ceiling in Erich von Stroheim's Greed and newsreel montages in the films of Dziga Vertov. [16]:205 Writers for national magazines had early deadlines and so a rough cut was previewed for a select few on January 3, 1941[15]:111 for such magazines as Life, Look and Redbook. [45]:230 Filmed at the same time as Citizen Kane itself, it offers the only existing behind-the-scenes footage of the film. [80]:47, The major studios gave screen credit for make-up only to the department head. [85]:63 Because it was Herrmann's first motion picture score, RKO wanted to pay him only a small fee, but Welles insisted he be paid at the same rate as Max Steiner. Welles said his initial idea for the film was "Basically, the idea Rashomon used later on,"[17]:53 however Kurosawa had not yet seen the film before making Rashomon in 1950. Citizen Kane opens with the camera panning across a spooky, seemingly deserted estate in Florida called Xanadu. "[227], In 2003, Welles's daughter Beatrice Welles sued Turner Entertainment, claiming the Welles estate is the legal copyright holder of the film. By the ninth week it only made $7,279. Orson Welles Joseph ... Citizen Kane is a mystery drama about Charles Foster Kane and the subsequent uncovering of life story, as a group of reporters discern and piece together the meaning behind the infamous publishing tycoon’s last word. Bazin stated that "even if Welles did not invent the cinematic devices employed in Citizen Kane, one should nevertheless credit him with the invention of their meaning. [168]:48–50 Toland's cinematography influenced his own work on The Best Years of Our Lives. The Mercury Theatre is proud to introduce them. Toland described the achievement in an article for Theatre Arts magazine, made possible by the sensitivity of modern speed film: New developments in the science of motion picture photography are not abundant at this advanced stage of the game but periodically one is perfected to make this a greater art. The film then returns to the omniscient perspective in the final scene, when only the audience discovers what "Rosebud" is.[68]:82–83. [16]:216 It did well in cities and larger towns but fared poorly in more remote areas. [68]:81 The News on the March sequence gives an overview of Kane's entire life (and the film's entire story) at the beginning of the film, leaving the audience without the typical suspense of wondering how it will end. [63], At the time, it was almost unprecedented for a film trailer to not actually feature anything of the film itself; and while Citizen Kane is frequently cited as a groundbreaking, influential film, Simon Callow argues its trailer was no less original in its approach. Welles was a visionary genius, a master of razzle-dazzle. Through its use, it is possible to photograph action from a range of eighteen inches from the camera lens to over two hundred feet away, with extreme foreground and background figures and action both recorded in sharp relief. The contract was deeply resented in the film industry, and the Hollywood press took every opportunity to mock RKO and Welles. Subsequent prints were derived from a master positive (a fine-grain preservation element) made in the 1940s and originally intended for use in overseas distribution. [153], Roger Ebert called Citizen Kane the greatest film ever made: "But people don't always ask about the greatest film. "[53]:1171, The make-up for Citizen Kane was created and applied by Maurice Seiderman (1907–1989), a junior member of the RKO make-up department. [8], During post-production Welles and special effects artist Linwood G. Dunn experimented with an optical printer to improve certain scenes that Welles found unsatisfactory from the footage. The goal was to put pressure on the other studios to force RKO to shelve Kane. [17]:61–62, Welles credited Toland on the same title card as himself. Any film to go after the dark heart of the American dream, from The Godfather (1972) to There Will Be Blood (2007), owes Citizen Kane a debt. [135]:124 Carringer wrote that Bazin was "the one who did the most to enhance the film's reputation. Corrado had appeared in many Hollywood films, often as a waiter, and Welles wanted all of the actors to be new to films. Thompson concludes that he is unable to solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kane's last word will forever remain an enigma. Mary Kane Ruth Warrick. Kane's death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreel's producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of "Rosebud". O. Orson Welles. Welles states, "There's all that stuff about McCormick and the opera. Paul Stewart recalled that on the ninth take the Culver City Fire Department arrived in full gear because the furnace had grown so hot the flue caught fire. "It's impossible to say how much I owe to Gregg," he said. It was simultaneously released on VHS. [40]:85 Welles pioneered several visual effects to cheaply shoot things like crowd scenes and large interior spaces. He also had many movie theaters ban it, and many did not show it through fear of being socially exposed by his massive newspaper empire. This was partially rectified in 2016 with the release of the 75th Anniversary Edition in both the UK and US, which was a straight repackaging of the main disc from the 70th Anniversary Edition. With one brain cell working, the chief realized that such hysterical barking by the trained seals would attract too much attention to the picture. "[115][k], A few reviews were mixed. Ruth Warrick Emily Norton Kane. Nevertheless, the film's commercial performance fell short of its creators' expectations. [8] Despite never having appeared in feature films, some of the cast members were already well known to the public. He made a plaster mold of Welles's body down to the hips. Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance; 'Rosebud'. Cast & Credits Cast Where most Hollywood film scores were written quickly, in as few as two or three weeks after filming was completed, Herrmann was given 12 weeks to write the music. [15]:69[17]:77–78[h] "At $809 Orson did run substantially beyond the test budget of $528—to create one of the most famous scenes in movie history," wrote Barton Whaley. She also claimed that the estate of Orson Welles was owed 20% of the film's profits if her copyright claim was not upheld. "[124], It was widely believed the film would win most of its Academy Award nominations, but it received only the award for Best Original Screenplay. [170]:113–116, 300–302, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon is often compared to the film due to both having complicated plot structures told by multiple characters in the film. [68]:90–91, Welles was influenced by the editing theories of Sergei Eisenstein by using jarring cuts that caused "sudden graphic or associative contrasts", such as the cut from Kane's deathbed to the beginning of the News on the March sequence and a sudden shot of a shrieking bird at the beginning of Raymond's flashback. 68", "Welles's "Citizen Kane" Oscar sells for $860,000", "Oscars Auction: Statuettes from '30s, '40s Sold in Los Angeles", "Working draft script for Citizen Kane, here with its original title, 'American, "Orson Welles Working Scripts (Sale 7269, Lot 208)", "An Orson Welles Group of Working Script Pages from Citizen Kane (Lot 46023)", "An Orson Welles Large Collection of Black and White Film Stills from Citizen Kane (Lot 46024)", "Orson Welles's camera, other items up for auction", "For 'Citizen Kane,' a Fresh Start at 50", "RKO Focuses On Upscale Market for Classic Films", "Criterion: Citizen Kane: 50th Anniversary Edition", "Time Warner phasing out Turner Pictures: Time Warner Inc", "Warner Brings Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' to DVD Sept 25", "Welles' daughter could get profit from 'Kane, "The New Season DVDs: Movies That Said, 'Look What I Can Do, "Turner Says It's Testing To Colorize 'Citizen Kane, "The Complete Citizen Kane' documentary is now online", The American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" list, It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, National Board of Review Award for Best Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_Kane&oldid=994502924, Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award, Films with screenplays by Herman J. Mankiewicz, United States National Film Registry films, Cultural depictions of Neville Chamberlain, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. He became fascinated with the look of low angles, which made even dull interiors look interesting. Two consecutive issues of the Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs the... Rosenbaum also compared the film on VHS and Betamax in 1985 collaborated in several films in following. Official shooting began the executives would sometimes arrive on set unannounced the entire cast crew! Told director Henry Jaglom that it might be false:215–216, he then started on. As America Comes to resemble it carefully, you can view trivia about each Citizen.. 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