A note before we start: More than with recently reviewed films, I feel I must point out that all of the pictures within this and most posts since mid-March link to larger images showing the entire screenshot. Usually (but not always) I just shrink the 1.85:1 image to a smaller version, but a different aspect ratio was used in older films. I’ve kept the correct 4:3 ratio for the larger images, but for design reasons have trimmed the smaller images to my standard 1.85:1 ratio. (Actually, a 1.37:1 ratio would have been more correct for the larger images, but I’m lazy and 4:3 is close and easier to figure. Seriously, click the pictures. The zoom effect is wicked awesome.)

I’ve been reviewing fairly recent movies lately, so I decided last week that it was time to finally watch the Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane. That this directly follows The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a bit jarring, but what the heck. Let’s give it a whirl.

Citizen Kane is often referenced as indisputably the best film ever made. While I think that may be a bit of an overstatement, it’s damn good. Technically speaking, it’s a marvel. There’s an air of daring innovation and creativity that we don’t see nearly enough today. I’m not going to be able to touch on all of the greatness in this space, nor am I able. Instead, I’ll look at the bits that interested me and leave the rest for the experts.

The circular structure of the story is captivating to me. Within the first five minutes of the film, we know who Charles Foster Kane is, how he came into money, how he lived, who he married, why he divorced, and how he died. It gets the bare facts out of the way so we can focus the next couple of hours on finding out the sordid details of Kane’s life and what made him tick.

Held together ostensibly by the mystery of Kane’s last word, the story follows a generic reporter, often obscured by shadow, as he visits the important people from Kane’s life and learns of their time with Kane through a series of non-sequential flashbacks. Kane’s dirt-poor mother (above, Agnes Moorehead in her first film role) came suddenly into money and signed her son away to be cared for by the bank. This seems harsh and unthinkable, but Welles uses a simple closeup and, later, one line inform us that Mrs. Kane’s reasons were pure.

Much of the mood of Citizen Kane is built with light and shadow. Above, the reporter gains rare access to Kane’s deceased guardian’s memoirs. Kept under close guard, he is escorted into a darkened room with a shaft of light filtering in through a high window. There are many other examples of mood setting like this, but here it gives a feeling of cold, almost frightening authority as we learn of Kane’s earliest days.

Welles also used some optical illusion to subtly augment the message that audience was being told. For example, right after we watch Mrs. Kane sign papers giving him away, we flash to a parallel scene. Very late in life Kane is forced to give up control of his business. In the middle of that scene Kane walks slowly into the back of what appears to be a room with average height features.

(Click here for Kane in the front of the room. Click here for Kane in the back of the room.)

As his advisors talk about his failure at what had been his focus in life, Kane becomes more and more diminished until he appears to be two feet high. No attention is drawn to the effect. Instead, Welles left it for the viewer to find, either consciously or not. Especially in those days before CGI and extreme visual effects, this illusion is pulled off remarkably.

But that isn’t the only visual effect that Welles used to tell the story of Citizen Kane. One of the more amazing effects cinematographer Gregg Toland’s use of what later became known as Deep Focus. Several times throughout the film, everything on the screen is in focus, from the actor in the very front to the one way in the back. The above picture of Kane in his newsroom is one example of this, but even better is the first picture in this post. The focus is crystal clear on young Mr. Kane in the front, and just as clear on the lettering on the sign in the back (you’ll have to click the picture for that).

It’s an amazing technique, one that forces the audience to decide what to look at in the shot. Welles plays to this requirement of a more involved audience by staging shots so that little cutting is needed. Several scenes are done with remarkable camera work and minimal cutting between shots. Robert Wise, who of course went on to direct many films including The Sound of Music, did a superb job of extending the creativity to the editing of the film.

I’ve gotten to nearly the end of the post and I’ve barely mentioned the story. As I said at the top, the film is really a character study. Kane’s last word is the device used to pull the audience through the film, but by the time we learn Rosebud’s identity, it’s almost irrelevant. The real story has been in beginning to understand the rise and downfall of a complex character.

The wonderful acting in Citizen Kane is surprisingly done by a cast of mostly unknowns. Other than Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead, none of the principal cast went on to do much else of note. Dorothy Comingore, who played Kane’s second wife, was wonderful in the film (Her performance in the scene pictured above brought to mind Jean Hagan’s Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain.) but apparently was blacklisted in the 1950s and never recovered.

While it’s not my favorite film, Citizen Kane has pushed its way near the top of my list of impeccable films.

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