Citizen Kane 1941

In addition to the use of wide angles, low angles, depth of field, the narrative technique of flashbacks, Citizen Kane was a kind of criticism about the use of the press by the powerful. What can be said about Citizen Kane that has not been said so far? 77 years have passed since its premiere on May 1, 1941 at the RKO Palace on Broadway in New York. Today the film is still considered a masterpiece that divided the history of American cinema.

The film, inspired by the life of press mogul William Randolph Hearst, consolidated a very young Orson Welles as one of the most important characters in the history of cinema. He was only 25 years old when he starred, wrote, directed and produced this story that speaks of ambition, corruption and power, but also of loneliness and betrayal, of hurt feelings where lack of love is key to understand the behavior of Charles Foster Kane.

Welles, who directed and acted in the film at the age of 25, captured the relationship between power and the media; the main character Charles Foster Kane uses his newspaper, Inquirer, for propaganda purposes in favor of campaigns of personal interest and as a tool to finish off his enemies. The enormous influence that the press has on citizens was the main reason that prompted Kane to buy the Inquirer newspaper, initially thinking about giving voice to the people. The great importance of what is being published is reflected on the protagonist's obsession by personally reviewing all the articles.

Hearst and the Press.

Experts agree that Foster is a caricature of American businessman William Randolph Hearst, who controlled the newspapers Examiner and Morning Journal. In 1898 he published the declaration of war made by the United States to Spain.  On April 25, 1898 the battleship Maine of the US Navy sank in the Bay of Havana due to a fortuitous explosion. Hearst sent the cartoonist Frederick Remington to the site, who once there found that there was nothing strange to give news and that the sinking could not be attributed to the war with Spain so he sent a telegram: "Everything is calm. There will be no war, I want to return, "Hearst replied:" You provide illustrations that I will put the war. "

Citizen Kane has been leading for 50 years the top ten on the list of best films of all time from the prestigious magazine Sight & Sound. Since 2012, it is Vertigo, by Alfred Hitchcock, which occupies the first position in the ranking that the British publication makes every decade with the help of 846 critics, programmers and distributors.

The renowned critic Roger Ebert said that Citizen Kane was, officially, the best film in history. The passage of time has only stoked the strength of their images, the power of their narrative language with the use of flash-backs, a spectacular staging with scenarios where small details are appreciated, the use of highly contrasted images and the insistence of depth of field, as well as the wide angles and the long sequence shots, which supposed a revolution in cinematographic aesthetics and that have had inspiring effects in later works.

The use of the narrative technique of flashback, the inclusion of the viewer in the plot, camera movements, positioning and angles, as well as sound and editing make the film one of the best American feature films in history of cinema, ratified by the American Film Institute.

"Apart from his impeccable script, which addresses issues such as vital futility, nostalgia, the value of simplicity or ambition, Citizen Kane brought a multitude of technical advances such as an elaborate staging, the detailed use of wide angle and depth of field, the fluid capacity to move the camera beyond the frame, the ingenious use of montage or its innovative use of sound as a narrative mechanism ",

On The Set

Filming this feature was not an easy task. Hearst tried to boycott it and in fact he succeeded. Its premiere was scheduled two and a half months earlier but was postponed due to pressures exerted by the almighty press tycoon, who would attack the film in its media and try to prevent the film from being distributed.

Total creative freedom

Welles was an ambitious young man who was trained in theater and radio. He had carte blanche to do what he wanted despite of not having previous experience in the world of cinema. This was guaranteed by the succulent contract with RKO studios, which would make him the best-paid filmmaker with greater independence in the history of American cinema. Welles moved like a fish in the water during the filming and brought his companions of the Mercury Theater to the set, among them his great friend Joseph Cotten.

Three years earlier, in 1938, he had achieved unparalleled success with his radio address of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. It was a narrative that caused panic among the listeners, who took believed the extraterrestrial invasion. As a result of that, he achieved the genius label and his first film recorded his mastery as a filmmaker.

Controversy

The controversy that generated the film was such that RKO Pictures received monetary offers to destroy it before its public premiere. After a negotiation with Hearst's lawyers, the film company pressured the director to remove some fragments of the film. One of the deleted scenes referred to the suspicious death of Thomas Ince, a movie mogul who died during a Hearst birthday party. During its production, Citizen Kane was known with the code of RKO 281. At first the film was going to be called “American”, but the head of RKO George Schaefer suggested to change it to Citizen Kane. Orson Welles thought about calling the film “John Q”.

The script

There is an open debate about the true authorship of the script, which was awarded the only Oscar of the nine nominations in the 1942 Oscar edition. The veteran screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, a heavy drinker and addicted to the game, had attended many of the parties organized by Hearst in Hollywood. Once, the tycoon denied Mankiewicz entry to one of them, claiming he had problems with alcohol. The veteran film critic Pauline Kael published in 1971 in The New Yorker an investigation that pointed to Herman as the author of the script in an alcoholic rehabilitation center where he was locked up to comply with the writing of the text. In the article Raising Kane the journalist demystifies the role that Welles had in the script and ensures that, despite appearing in the credits, he did not collaborate in a single line. This position was not liked by many critics like Peter Bogdanovich, filmmaker and great friend of Welles who refuted many of Kael's claims. Charles Lederer, screenwriter and one of the journalist's sources, insisted that the Screen Writers Guild was never called upon to arbitrate the issue of credits. In any case, Welles' tendency to egocentricity often moved him to disdain the contributions of his collaborators.

Welles kept the set closed, limited access to footage, and controlled Citizen Kane's publicity to make sure the plot was kept a secret. The first months of filming Welles kept the curious and the press away claiming that they were just rehearsing, which paid off. Filming took place between June 29 and October 23, 1940 on the Paramount set in Hollywood. It was also shot at Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo, as well as at Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York.

The mystery of Rosebud

Rosebud is the great secret of the story, the last word that Kane says before dying and has come to be considered one of the most important last words in the history of cinema. Only at the end of the film does the viewer know that Rosebud is the name of the sled Kane played as a child, the image of a longed-for childhood. But Rosebud is much more; in fact it was the affectionate nickname that Hearst gave to the private parts of his lover, the actress Marion Davies, whom he tried to cast in vain to stardom. In the film, Davies is presented as a frivolous and interested woman, but the truth is that when Hearst went bankrupt, she helped him overcome the crisis by selling her valuable jewelry.

About Rosebud Welles said that it was a resource to "tear" the story. "The Rosebud trick is what I like least about the movie. It's just that, a trick, and it looks like it's taken from a third book about Freud for beginners, "he said. Steven Spielberg bought the famous sleigh at an auction in 1982 for $ 50,000. When Orson Welles heard about this, he said: "I thought we had burned it."

Narrative Error

Maybe few people will have noticed, but the truth is that Citizen Kane has an important mistake at the beginning of the film. If Kane dies alone in his room, how is it possible that the press is intrigued to know the meaning of Rosebud, the last word that comes out of his mouth? Legend has it that there were those who realized the error before the premiere of the film, but Welles asked them not to tell anyone. It seems that critics did not realize this "error", because the film had an overwhelming majority of positive opinions after its release, although it was a commercial failure.

Reference.

Orson Welles claimed that, before performing Citizen Kane, he had prepared himself by watching the film The Stagecoach (1939) by John Ford about 40 times. He locked himself in his house and watched the legendary western each time with a different technician in order to clarify doubts and be clear about how he was going to present his story. So, when he showed up on the set, he really knew what he wanted for his movie.

The original negatives of the film have been lost. They were destroyed during a fire in the 70s. Also, the entire crew that was part of the film has died. Kathryn Popper, the last actress who was still alive, passed away in March 2016. Popper served as personal assistant to Orson Welles and was the one who pronounced the famous phrase "What is Rosebud?"

Cast:

Orson Welles,  Joseph Cotten,  Everett Sloane,  George Coulouris, Dorothy Comingore,  Ray Collins,  Agnes Moorehead,  Paul Stewart,  Ruth Warrick, Erskine Sanford,  William Alland,  Alan Ladd,  Arthur O'Connell

Awards

1941: Oscar Awards: Best Original Screenplay. 9 nominations

1941: National Board of Review: Best Film

1941: Circle of critics of New York: Better film