“I admit it: it’s hard to write about a movie like this without using well-worn platitudes. Forget the top 100, this is a film whose title has become synonymous with “greatest ever”, even though the voters in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll of greatest films chose the more recent Vertigo, thereby ending Citizen Kane’s 50-year reign as numero uno. Not surprisingly, much has been written, spoken, filmed and compiled about such an influential film, and much of it covers similar territory. For instance:
“What we talk about when we talk about Citizen Kane (a listicle for the lazy or uninitiated):
1. Orson Welles’ brilliance
2. The Mercury Theatre
3. The War of the Worlds radio broadcast
4. William Randolph Hearst
5. The special RKO Pictures contract
6. Orson Welles’ young age = 25
7. Greatest Film, etc. etc.
8. Rosebud (SPOILER)
9. Welles, Welles, Welles
10. References to frozen peas (maybe my house only)
“While most of these elements are worth discussing, I recently rewatched the film, and couldn’t help but notice the murderers’ row of technical talent compiled for this classic. For example, if you don’t revere cinematographer Gregg Toland’s work on the screen, consider for a moment the challenge of working with a novice director full of Big Ideas, and using that opportunity to unleash creativity. Toland’s inventive use of low angles and deep focus added volumes of subtext to Kane’s characters. He also employed radical visual techniques with altered viewpoints, including figures shot in heavy shadows or stark beams of light, through window frames and glass globes, and even in full-length mirrored reflections which managed to convey isolation among the film’s large scope and cavernous spaces of Xanadu or an opera house. Editor Robert Wise regularly employed breathtaking dissolves and montages to keep this mammoth-sized tale taut. One of the film’s great sequences captures the rise and fall of Kane’s marriage through a few scenes of bantering across a breakfast table, stitched together with quick camera pans. It’s two and a half minutes of pure joy, with no fat to trim.
This technical wizardry wouldn’t be possible without the unique puzzle that is Kane’s screenplay, credited to Herman Mankiewicz and Welles. It’s a larger than life character study of an old man who lies dead within the first few minutes of footage. It is worth noting that Kane’s primary existence is as a public figure on a huge stage, in his life and after his death. Therefore, we are only provided his legacy Rashomon-style, through newsreel footage, rumors and the contradicting memories of those who actually knew him. Overall though, the script, the visuals, the craft of the film is a trap. As much as Kane occupies most of the screen time, we’ll never truly understand his motives, as he is far too complex to be captured completely. However, we are left to ponder: Do life milestones define us or determine our fate? With Citizen Kane, at least we understand that the journey toward understanding can be very rewarding.
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