1941
Before the Film
His film has a reputation in some circles for being the greatest film ever made. Such claims for any film are likely to be extravagant and in this case possibly more motivated by political factors than anything else. The film was basically ignored by the Hurst papers, since the film is a thinly disguised “bio-pic”. This is not to say this isn’t a great film, but there are clearly other films – even by Orson Welles himself, like The Magnificent Amberson’s which many feel may be a better film.
None the less, the film got little mention in the awards and all the Hurst papers refused to mention it at all.
Welles was something of a Wunderkind who came to Hollywood from both radio and the legitimate stage. He had reached a level of fame unparalleled with his infamous radio broadcast of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds which caused a near panic (apparently answering the question as to whether people believe what they hear and see on radio, T.V. and the movies). This is the subject of the film The Night that Panicked America
Welles also went over budget on his films and often seemed to delay on the editing until the studio stepped in and took over. It would almost appear that he was afraid to let his films be seen in his version n case they were rejected, but preferred to let them be “butchered” so any problems could be laid at some one else’s door step.
Welles had been working with a clique of actors many of whom would follow him to Holywood and become major stars including Jospeh Cotton and Agnes Moorehead..
Although there has been some discussion about just who wrote what in the screen play, Ruth Warrick has held that an early version of Kane exists in the school Welles attended.
Welles had free rein with the film – a virtually unheard of situation for anyone never mind a new comer to Hollywood like Welles. In order to get an understanding of film technique Welles is reported to have said that he watched < a href=http://imdb.com/title/tt0031971/ target=-“_blank”>John Ford’s film, < a href= http://imdb.com/title/tt0031971/ target=-“_blank”>Stagecoach (1939) more than 70 times!. He then hired one of the best cinematographers in the business, < a href=http://imdb.com/name/nm0005904/ target=”_blank”>Gregg Toland to shoot the film.
The film is known for its dazzling photography which some people feel is “over the top” – that the director and cinematographer were like kids with a new toy and they did everything they wanted. Watch the cinematographic work in the film carefully.
The story itself is claimed to “reference” the newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hurst whose affair with Marion Davis – even to the degree that the term “Rosebud” was an affection term used by Hurst for a specific part of her anatomy.
After the Film
Starting from the very early “newsreel” sequence which clues the audience in on the life of Charles Foster Kane and sets up the device which the film use – that of finding out the meaning of Kane’s final word – “Rosebud”, photography is foregrounded. The movie cites films in general. Using a newsreel as a way to fill in a part of the story is reflexive.
The narrative is not linear, but rather told through a series of flashbacks which are the stories told to the reporter who is trying to find out the “significance” of Kane’s mysterious last word.
The film uses a wide variety of camera angles (often low) to emphasize the “size” of Kane making him look like the towering figure he is in the film.
The film uses physical space to represent psychological space. The famous “breakfast scene” in which Kane (Welles) and his first wife (Ruth Warrick) breakfast over a number of years and grow further and further apart until finally she is reading the competition’s paper
Similarly the vastness of Xanadu allows for the physical separation of Kane and his second wife, Susan Alexander (Dorothy Cumingore). As she sits on the floor doing jigsaw puzzles.
The photography shifts the point of view in the various scenes which are sometimes repetitive. The scene of the opening of the new opera is told from two people’s points of view – once from a member of the audience and once from Susan’s. In the first version the camera shows the curtain rising from the audience’s point of view, while in the second the camera is clearly placed upstage and looks towards the curtain which rises against a blackness that fills the auditorium.
The high contrast light occurs throughout the film. It illuminates the library giving it a dramatic and monumental feeling cluing us in on the importance of the location.
The use of the glass ball with the snow which triggers the memories of his early life gives us clues about what “Rosebud” is. (There is of course a problem about the fact that the entire room is bathed in snow when Kane looks into the glass ball just before he dies). The snow links what may b his earliest memories to his last ones. Just what Rosebud stands for to us and to Kane is unclear. No one thing can sum up a life the reporter says – is Rosebud his lost childhood? Is it his first “property”? Is it his memory of where his life took its most significant turn?
There is an incredible number of shots in the film which carry meaning – the small kiosk with Kane’s picture when he starts to run for office that changes into the huge picture of him at the rally; the fenced in Xanadu with the smoke coming from the chimney; the two stagehands that are revealed high up in the fly space above the stage as the camera travels up through the rigging where one holds his nose as Susan starts to sing (and the other nods I agreement).