Citizen Kane (1941)

Citizen Kane (1941)

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The fresh classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly-rated film, with its many remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative techniques and experimental innovations. 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 with Gregg Toland as his talented cinematographer. The film 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).
It was the recipient of nine Oscar nominations with only one win, Best Original Screenplay (Mankiewicz and Welles). The other eight nominations included Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director (Welles), Best B/W Cinematography (Toland), Best B/W Interior Decoration, 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.
The film engendered controversy because it appeared to fictionalize and caricaturize certain events in the life of William Randolph Hearst, a powerful newspaper magnate and publisher, and the film drew remarkable parallels between Kane's Inquirer and Hearst's Examiner, between Kane's extravagant Florida mansion Xanadu and Hearst's palace at San Simeon, and Kane's souring affair with 'singer' Susan Alexander (paralleling Hearst's patronage of mistress/actress Marion Davies). Hearst bought Cosmopolitan Pictures - a film studio - to promote Davies' stardom, while Kane bought Susan an opera house.
Many of the performers from Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre made their screen debuts in the film, among them Joseph Cotten (Kane's oldest and best friend), Dorothy Comingore (Kane's second wife), Ruth Warrick (Kane's first wife), Ray Collins (Kane's political opponent), Agnes Moorehead (Kane's mother), Everett Sloane (Kane's loyal employee and business manager), Erskine Sanford, and William Alland. 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 components include unconventional lighting, inventive use of shadows, deep-focus shots from extreme foreground to extreme background, low-angled shots revealing ceilings, sparse use of revealing close-ups, over-lapping dialogue, a cast of characters that ages throughout the film, and the frequent use of transitionary dissolves and long, uninterrupted sequence shots.
Its complex and pessimistic theme, told from several, unreliable perspectives by several different characters (the associates and friends of the deceased), is 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, became a fabulously wealthy newspaperman, idealistically made his reputation as the champion of the underprivileged, set his egotistical mind on a political career, and then had an ill-advised 'love-nest' affair with a singer, became corrupted by a lust to fulfill the American dream of success, fame, power and immortality, and then self-destructed. After two failed marriages, his final days were spent alone before his death in an ominous castle of his own making. 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."
The intriguing opening is filled with hypnotic dissolves from one sinister, mysterious image to the next, moving forward closer and closer. The film's first sight is a "No Trespassing" sign hanging on a giant gate in the night's foggy mist, illuminated by the moonlight. The camera pans up the chain-link mesh gate that dissolves and changes into images of great iron flowers or oak leaves on the heavy gate. On the crest of the gate is a single, silhouetted, wrought-iron "K" initial. The gate surrounds a distant, forbidding-looking castle with towers. The fairy-tale castle is situated on a man-made mountain, obviously the estate of a wealthy man.
In a succession of views, the camera moves closer and closer to the castle, violating the "No Trespassing" sign by entering the grounds. In the private world of the castle grounds, zoo pens have been designed for exotic animals. Spider monkeys sit above a sign on one of the cages marked 'Bengal Tiger.' The prows of two empty gondolas are tied to a wooden wharf on a private lake, and the castle is reflected in the water. A statue of the Egyptian cat god stands before a bridge with a raised drawbridge/portcullis over a moat. A deserted green from the large golf course is marked with a sign needing repair (No. 16, 365 yards, Par 4). In the distance, a single, postage stamp-sized window of the castle is lit, always seen at approximately the same place in each frame. Palm trees surround a crumbling gate on the abandoned, cluttered grounds. The castle appears in a closer, medium shot. During an even closer shot of the window, the light within the window suddenly goes out. From an angle inside the room facing out of the enormous window, a silhouetted figure can be seen lying stiffly on a bed.
The scene shifts to swirling snowflakes that fill the entire screen. They surround a snow-covered house with snowmen surrounding it, and in a quick pull-back, we realize it is actually a scene inside a crystal glass globe or ball-paperweight in the grasping hand of an old man. The film's famous, first murmured, echoed word is heard uttered by huge rubbery lips that fill the screen:
R-o-s-e-b-u-d!
An old man has pronounced his last dying word as the snowstorm globe is released from his grip and rolls from his relaxed hand, bounces down two carpeted steps and shatters into tiny pieces on the marble floor. A door opens and a white-uniformed nurse appears on screen, refracted and distorted through a curve of a sliver of shattered glass fragment from the broken globe. In a dark silhouette, she folds his arms over his chest, and then covers him with a sheet. The next view is again the lit window viewed from inside. A dissolve fades to darkness.
In an abrupt cut, a row of flags is a backdrop for a dramatic news digest segment of News on the March (a simulation/parody of the actual "March of Time" series), a newsreel, fact-filled documentary that briefly covers the chronological highlights of the public life of the deceased man. The newsreel provides a detailed, beautifully-edited, narrative-style outline and synopsis of Kane's life, appearing authentically scratched, grainy and archival in some segments.
The test screening of the first episode of the series is titled on the first panel, soon followed by the words of a portentous, paternalistic, self-important narrator:

Obituary: Xanadu's Landlord

An explanatory title card with the words of Coleridge's poem is imposed over views of Xanadu (actually a series of shots of San Simeon). Kane and his Xanadu is compared to the legendary Kubla Khan:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree - -

Narrator of Newsreel: Legendary was Xanadu where Kubla Khan decreed his stately pleasure dome. Today, almost as legendary is Florida's Xanadu, world's largest private [views of people lounge around Xanadu and its pool] pleasure ground. Here, on the deserts of the Gulf Coast [the camera views the coastline], a private mountain was commissioned and successfully built. [Workmen are shown building the tremendous castle] One hundred thousand trees, twenty thousand tons of marble are the ingredients of Xanadu's mountain. Contents of Xanadu's palace: [crates with statues and other objects are brought into Xanadu] paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace - a collection of everything so big it can never be catalogued or appraised, enough for ten museums - the loot of the world. [views of endless numbers of crates arriving] Xanadu's livestock: [views of horses, giraffes, rare birds, a large octopus, an elephant, donkeys, etc.] the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, the beast of the field and jungle. Two of each, the biggest private zoo since Noah. Like the pharaohs, Xanadu's landlord leaves many stones to mark his grave. Since the pyramids, Xanadu is the costliest monument a man has built to himself.
Another explanatory title card:
In Xanadu last week was held 1941's biggest strangest funeral.

Kane's coffin emerges from Xanadu as it is borne by coffin-bearers.
Narrator: Here in Xanadu last week, Xanadu's landlord was laid to rest, a potent figure of our century, America's Kubla Khan - Charles Foster Kane.
The newspaper headline of the New York Daily Inquirer appears with a picture of Kane:
CHARLES FOSTER KANE DIES AFTER LIFETIME OF SERVICE
Entire Nation Mourns Great Publisher as Outstanding American

The paper is removed and other headlines, set in different type and styles from around the nation and world, and with conflicting opinions about Kane, are revealed, announcing his death:
The Daily Chronicle:

C. F. Kane Dies at Xanadu Estate
Editor's Stormy Career Comes to an End
Death of Publisher Finds Few Who Will Mourn for Him

The Chicago Globe:

DEATH CALLS PUBLISHER CHARLES KANE
Policies Swayed World
Stormy Career Ends for "U.S. Fascist No. 1"

The Minneapolis Record Herald:

KANE, SPONSOR OF DEMOCRACY, DIES
Publisher Gave Life to Nation's Service during Long Career

The San Francisco...

DEATH FINALLY COMES...

The Detroit Star:

Kane, Leader of News World, Called By Death at Xanadu
Was Master of Destiny

The El Paso Journal:

END COMES FOR CHARLES FOSTER KANE
Editor Who Instigated "War for Profit" Is Beaten by Death

France's Le Matin:

Mort du grand Editeur C.F. Kane

Spain's El Correspendencia:

El Sr. Kane Se Murio!

Other foreign language newspapers (Russian and Japanese) also announce his death.
The castle's owner is Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), publisher of the New York Inquirer:
Another title card:

To forty-four million U.S. news buyers, more newsworthy than the names in his own headlines, was Kane himself, greatest newspaper tycoon of this or any other generation.

Narrator: Its humble beginnings in this ramshackle building, a dying daily. [Views of the old Inquirer Building] Kane's empire in its glory [A picture of a US map shows circles widening out over it] held dominion over 37 newspapers, two syndicates, a radio network, an empire upon an empire. The first of grocery stores, paper mills, apartment buildings, factories, forests, ocean liners, [a sign reads COLORADO LODE MINE CO.] an empire through which for fifty years flowed in an unending stream the wealth of the earth's third richest gold mine. [Piles of gold bullion are stacked up and a highway sign reads, COLORADO STATE LINE] Famed in American legend [Kane Jr. is pictured with his mother in a framed portrait] is the origin of the Kane fortune, how to boarding house keeper Mary Kane [a view of Kane's old home, Mrs. Kane's Boarding House] by a defaulting boarder in 1868 was left the supposedly worthless deed to an abandoned mine shaft - the Colorado Lode. [A large bucket tilts, pouring molten ore into a mold] Fifty-seven years later, [A view of the Washington DC Capitol Building] before a Congressional investigation, Walter P. Thatcher, grand old man of Wall Street, for years chief target of Kane papers' attacks on trusts, recalls a journey he made as a youth.
In front of a Congressional investigating committee, Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris) recalls his journey in 1870 to Mrs. Kane's boarding house in Colorado, when he was asked to raise the young boy.
My firm had been appointed trustee by Mrs. Kane for a large fortune which she had recently acquired. It was her wish that I should take charge of this boy, this Charles Foster Kane.
Thatcher refuses to answer a Congressman's question (accompanied with laughter and confusion) about whether the boy personally attacked him after striking him in the stomach with a sled. Thatcher prefers to read a prepared statement of his opinion of Kane, and then refuses to answer any other questions:
Mr. Charles Foster Kane, in every essence of his social beliefs, and by the dangerous manner in which he has persistently attacked the American traditions of private property, initiative, and opportunity for advancement, is in fact, nothing more or less than a Communist!
That same month in New York's Union Square, where a crowd is urged to boycott Kane papers, an opinionated politician speaks:
The words of Charles Foster Kane are a menace to every working man in this land. He is today what he has always been - and always will be - a Fascist!

Narrator: And still, another opinion.
Kane orates silently into a radio microphone in front of a congratulatory, applauding crowd. A title card appears, a quote from Kane himself:
I am, have been, and will be only one thing - an American.

Another title card:

1895 to 1941
All of these years he covered, many of these he was.

Narrator: Kane urged his country's entry into one war [1898 - The Spanish-American War] - opposed participation in another [1919 - The Great War - an image of a cemetery with rows of white crosses] - swung the election to one American President at least [Kane is pictured on the platform of a train with Teddy Roosevelt] - spoke for millions of Americans, was hated by as many more. [an effigy, a caricature of Kane, is burned by a crowd] For forty years, appeared in Kane newsprint no public issue on which Kane papers took no stand, [Kane again appears with Roosevelt] no public man whom Kane himself did not support or denounce - often support [Kane is pictured with Hitler], then denounce.
A title card:
Few private lives were more public.

Narrator: Twice married, twice divorced. [Kane and first wife Emily are dressed in wedding clothes, walking outside the White House] First to a president's niece, Emily Norton, who left him in 1916. [A newspaper article reads: "Family Greets Kane After Victory Speech" - his wife and young son are pictured with him outside Madison Square Garden] Died 1918 in a motor accident with their son. Sixteen years after his first marriage, two weeks after his first divorce, [At the Trenton Town Hall, newspaper reporters and photographers crowd around when Kane comes out with Susan] Kane married Susan Alexander, singer at the Town Hall in Trenton, New Jersey. [A poster from one of Susan's performances: "Lyric Theatre, On Stage, Suzan Alexander, Coming Thursday"] For Wife Two, one-time opera singing Susan Alexander, Kane built Chicago's Municipal Opera House. [The cover of an opera program: "Chicago Municipal Opera House presents Susan Alexander in Salammbo, Gala Opening" and a drawing of the Opera House] Cost: $3 million dollars. Conceived for Susan Alexander Kane, half finished before she divorced him, the still-unfinished Xanadu. Cost: No man can say.
A title card:
In politics - always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Narrator: Kane, molder of mass opinion though he was, in all his life was never granted elective office by the voters of his country. But Kane papers were once strong indeed, [a newspaper machine rolls newspapers through, EXTRA papers move upward] and once the prize seemed almost his. In 1916, as independent candidate for governor, [a view of a banner, KANE for GOVERNOR] the best elements of the state behind him, the White House seemingly the next easy step in a lightning political career, then suddenly, less than one week before election - defeat!...