Citizen Kane

1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening. 

In class, we learned that Citizen Kane was named by the American Film Institute as the best American film of all time. The 1941 film was written by Herman J Mankiewicz and Orson Welles who also directed and starred in the picture.  Welles was an auteur and portrayed the main character, Charles Foster Kane as a young man all the way through to old age.

Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, ultimately only winning one of them for Best Original Screenplay. The film had been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Black and White Interior Decoration, Best Sound Recording, Best Dramatic Picture Score and Best Film Editing. Welles himself was nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director and for Best Picture. At the time of the ceremony, the film had gotten such a negative reputation in Hollywood that the audience actually booed when the categories were announced.

Citizen Kane was a commercial failure when it was first released in 1941.  RKO was so sure it would be a flop, not only did they almost not release it but they were ready to burn the negative. After the Oscars, RKO put Citizen Kane in a vault.  Welles was never again given that much creative control when making movies later in his career.

Before Citizen Kane, Welles had been mostly known for his radio work with Mercury Theater, including the infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast that caused a panic as people really believed that Martians had landed in New Jersey. Orson Welles was 24-years- old when he started making Citizen Kane and had never made a movie before.  RKO gave him “complete script control, director control, producer control, cast control—everything—and no questions asked” according to William Alland.

The main character, Charles Foster Kane was heavily influenced by the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was born wealthy and like Kane, thought that it would be “fun to run a newspaper.” Hearst’ mistress, Marion Davies, served as the inspiration for Susan Alexander Kane. Hearst also had a mansion in California called San Simeon that was the basis for Xanadu in the film. Hearst was extremely angered by the film portrayal he received.   He ordered that none of his papers reviewed or advertised the film in any way.  

Citizen Kane tells the story of a search for the meaning of a man’s life with themes of love, power, youth and decay.  The film swiftly kills off Kane and all that is seen is a snow globe and his lips as he whispers “Rosebud” setting up the central mystery that drives the film.   This abruptly segues “News on the March” segment that tells the entire story of Kane’s life from a distant journalistic point-of-view as well as setting up the reporter Thompson’s mission of discovering what “rosebud” alludes to.  Thompson interviews or researches several people who knew Kane, at first getting rebuffed by Kane’s second wife Susan, and beginning again with the journal of Kane’s childhood guardian Walter P. Thatcher, before moving on to his business partner Bernstein and his best friend Jed Leland until eventually returning to Susan Alexander Kane. Each person tells Thompson their own recollections about Kane, becoming first-person narrators as the film moves to their points-of-view. 

One memorable aspect of the film include the breakfast montage, which shows the breakdown of Kane’s first marriage over the course of a few minutes as the breakfast table between husband and wife is revealed to grow larger and larger. The snow globe is also unforgettable.  It is seen at various important plot points in the story, first at the beginning when Kane is dying. Then, on the Susan Alexander’s dressing table the first night Kane meets her and again in Susan Alexander Kane’s room at Xanadu just after she leaves him and he is trashing the room. 

In the beginning, money is what takes Kane away from his beloved mother. Thatcher is the one takes Kane away from his mother. Thatcher represents money, financial success, and the bottom line and is quickly hated by young Kane. The snow globe reminds Kane of his mother.   Because Susan owns the snow globe, Kane associates her with his mother.  Both Kane’s mother and Susan Alexander Kane love him for himself.   Kane love for his mother is highlighted by his draw toward the feminine side including his attraction to Susan and his best friend, Jed Leland, who represents a more feminine type of masculinity.

Kane is internally conflicted and is never able to figure out what he should be.  His meteoric rise in finances and power is parallel with his physical decay. As a young man, he is thin and has a heedful of hair. He wears light colored clothes and is able to move quickly. Cinematically speaking, the shots are shorter and the music is quicker and more upbeat. The lighting is mostly high key.

As he ages, Kane becomes fat and bald. His clothes are darker and he moves more slowly. The music is slow and somber and the shots are longer. Lighting is low key, allowing for darkness and sharper contrasts and Kane is shot from a low angle to make him appear more powerful. Shadows are significant in the film. Citizen Kane also utilized Deep Focus Photography, the use of a wide-angle lens to make everything in a frame be in focus at once and exaggerate the distance between characters.  

 2)  Find a related article and summarize the content.  (on the film, director, studio, actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) You can use the library or the internet.  Cite the article or copy the url to your journal entry. Summarize in your own words the related article but do not plagiarize any content.

http://nypost.com/2014/12/06/how-orson-welles-narcissism-sabotaged-his-career/

It is widely agreed that Orson Welles was a genius when it came to film. However, though his legacy is powerful and fondly remembered even today, his career was thought, by both himself and legions of his fans, to have been sabotaged by Hollywood studios that couldn’t or wouldn’t understand him.  It has also been argued that Welles himself was known to antagonize even the powerful moguls of Hollywood that believed in his talent.

Welles first made a name for himself in theatre, including an African-American version of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” before moving onto radio with his infamous broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.” Due to his immense success despite his young age, RKO Studios gave him unprecedented power and freedom as a director for his premiere film, 1941’s Citizen Kane.

Unfortunately, the resemblance between Welles’ character Charles Foster Kane and newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst caused strife for both Welles and RKO, which was already financially struggling at the time. Hearst’s papers refused to carry any advertisements for the film, denying it a good deal of publicity.

Citizen Kane ran significantly over budget, and as a result, Welles was given far less control when directing his second film, The Magnificent Ambersons, released in 1942. Welles later claimed this film was “butchered” by RKO, which added scenes to the movie that had been filmed by another director.

In actuality, Welles had travelled to South America before editing on the film was complete so that he could shoot the semi-documentary It’s All True, which RKO shut down after that, too, ran over budget. Welles’ contract was also cancelled and the executive who hired him was let go.

According to the editor of both Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Robert Wise, RKO had begged Welles to return and make changes after Ambersons had a “disastrous” test screening. As Chuck Workman, director of the documentary Magician: The Astonishing Work and Life of Orson Welles states, “Welles might have been spoiled by the total control he had in both radio and theatre. He went to Hollywood at a time where directors were not necessarily the final arbiter of their films, and what he wanted was not in sync with what the money men wanted.”

Welles was still in heavy demand as an actor, appearing in films such as Jane Eyre, but studios no longer had faith in him as a director until his 1946 film The Stranger, an independently produced thriller that was Welles’ sole box-office hit as director. The next year, Columbia Pictures’ executive Harry Cohn tapped Welles to direct The Lady From Shanghai, starring Welles’ real life wife, Rita Hayworth.

Though the film was beautifully shot, the narrative was unfathomable, and the noir was Rita Hayworth’s first ever flop as a leading lady. Not only that, but Welles had made the famously redheaded Hayworth go blonde for the role, which engaged Columbia’s executives. For the next decade, Welles didn’t work in Hollywood except for one “Poverty Row” version of “Macbeth” that had to be redubbed by Republic Pictures because Welles was adamant about using thick Scottish accents.

In 1957, legendary actor Charlton Heston convinced Universal Pictures to allow Welles to direct the thriller Touch of Evil, in which they both appeared as actors. Universal ended up taking the film away from him and recutting it after Welles delivered a version that far beyond what censors at the time would allow. Decades later, the version Welles imagined was reconstructed based on a memo from the auteur. Welles showed gratitude to Heston by besmirching his performance until the end of his life.

Welles was also adept at alienating the financial backers of the independent films he made while in Europe. By the time he died at the age of 70 in 1985, Welles left behind six unfinished films. He had been known during life to walk away from projects when he lost interest in them, leaving investors in the lurch. At least one of his unfinished films, The Other Side of the Wind, starring John Huston was being edited in 2014.

Though Welles career had many hits and misses, he is widely regarded as one of the most visionary auteur of the 20^th century and there are plans to celebrate his 100^th birthday at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, a showing of audiences and filmmakers continued adulation for him.

3) Apply the article to the film screened in class.  How did the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director, content, etc.?

Like with the article about Vivien Leigh, this article draws parallels in my mind between the film’s star and the character they play.  I knew that Charles Foster Kane’s early life of being sent away to be raised by a guardian was influenced by his own early life, and that, also like Kane, Welles had a privileged upbringing and was able to tour the world as a young man, broadening his horizons and inspiring him to become accomplished in his own right.

The adult Kane’s adventures borrowed heavily from the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, but it is clear after reading this article that Kane was infused with some aspects of Welles as well. Much like Kane, Welles had his own ways of doing things. He didn’t like being told “no” and he liked his work being questioned even less. Though Welles was inarguably a genius, he could oftentimes be insufferable or careless. He didn’t like to dwell on things that didn’t fit into his vision, and if he could, would cut them out of his life as if they didn’t exist.

Despite this, Welles shared many good qualities with his character as well. Like Kane, who showed unselfish devotion to his son, Welles deeply cared for his own daughters. Also, though Welles remained unrepentant at using Hearst as inspiration for Kane, he did later regret dragging Hearst’ mistress Marion Davies through the mud by basing the annoying and childish Susan Alexander Kane on her, as Davies was actually a talented comedic actress and a warm person. This is especially significant, as Welles had gone so far as to name Kane’s sled and one of the most famous plot devices in movie history “rosebud” as a dig at Hearst, “rosebud” being the name Hearst had for a certain part of Davies’ anatomy.

While this showed that Welles could change as he aged, it also signifies a key difference between himself and Kane, who held steadfastly onto his own stubborn ideals and died absolutely alone, a far cry from Welles’ own face, dying in old age surrounded by friends and family with countless fans to remember him fondly and a tremendous career to look back on.  

Just as Leigh’s personal experiences helped give life to Scarlet O’Hara, Welles’ own life uninhibited him into giving the rich, candid and forever renowned performance as Charles Foster Kane.

4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including  your personal opinion,  formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article.  I am less interested in whether you liked or disliked a film, (although that can be part of this)  than I am in your understanding of its place in film history or the contributions of the director.

Citizen Kane is often cited as one of, if not the, greatest films ever made. Having seen many films, both old and new, Citizen Kane, without a doubt, has the most beautiful cinematography. The visuals are stunningly striking and are even more impressive considering the film was made over seventy years ago. While the film is entirely in black and white, the imagery draws the viewer in as if inviting them to be Kane’s guest at Xanadu or trek into the enormous warehouse to marvel at the man’s treasures.

The way the story is framed through the recollections of Kane’s acquaintances keep the viewer intrigued as the remembrances become more and more intimate. The side players are just as interesting as the main character, if not more so. I personally believe that an entire movie could have been made just about Jedidiah Leland and his descent into alcoholism as he watches his once best friend slowly lose all sense of his morals and let pride overtake his life.

Susan Alexander Kane is also a fascinating character. She starts off as a sweet and naïve young girl who Kane befriends. Over time, just as Kane changes for the worse as he ages, so does Susan after the pair marry. She becomes emotionally strained and shrill as her husband forced an opera career upon her, even building an opera house for her and hiring a singing teacher, making a fool of them both in these efforts.  

Kane himself is enigmatic and larger than life. He desires greatness, but in the process of achieving it, he uses and abuses those he cares for, ultimately losing every one of them.  Despite his shortcomings, he is not someone the audience wants to root against. Likewise, he is not someone to cheer for either. The beginning newsreel makes it clear how Kane’s life ends. There is no saving him from himself.  

All in all, Citizen Kane isn’t about the titular character losing or triumphing in the end, but his journey to that point in the eyes of those closest to him. I believe that is what keeps viewers so enthralled and inclined to watch and re-watch this film time after time.

(Note: My great-great-grandpa William Goldman was involved in the court case against Paramount and block booking so it was cool to hear a little about that in class. J )

CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM

1) (x) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

2) (x) If I have reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.

3) (x) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.

4) (x) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.

5) (x) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

6) (x) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the sources within the paper and in the bibliography.

7) (x) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.

8) (x) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.