Brilliance from the master of cinema, Orson Welles

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2000)

Citizen Kane is said to be the greatest film ever made. I haven't seen all of the films ever made in the world; therefore I couldn't make a decision, but if the greatest film is out there, and even slightly resembles Kane, it is nothing short of sheer brilliance. The intense Orson Welles, the mastermind of the film, was a perfectionist; and it showed. He did not confine his film to the limits of the period it was made in and it helped to revolutionize the film industry with Kane. The lighting, editing and cinematography were all basically new to the world. Based on this, it shocked the film industry into being the greatest film ever created.
The main factor that sets Citizen Kane apart from other films as being brilliant is the lighting. Welles manipulated the lighting so that it wasn't just another causality of a motion picture, but served as symbolism and emotion. Also, he used the type of lighting more often used in theater productions. For example, every reporter conveyed in the film was filmed in shadow, regardless of the natural lighting in the scene. This showed that Welles pictured all reporters as one like being: they had no personality of their own and were only focused on unearthing the meaning of Kane's final word, 'Rosebud'. This view of Welles', actually, was very apropos, considering that Welles and the film were hounded by the media as a result of the Hearst scandal. Also, Kane's elaborate mansion, Xanadu, was also filmed in shadow. This symbolized that Xanadu was a product of Kane's dark obsession with greed and his quest for power and acceptance. The lighting in this film heightened effect of various characters and objects throughtout the film and made the message of the film more visual to the audience.
Another aspect that made this film revolutionary was the editing. Orson Welles was the first director/screenwriter to use the effect of flashbacks, so the film was not in chronological order, as the case with others of its period. For example, the film started with Kane uttering `Rosebud' and slumping over in death. Basically, the entire film was composed of a series of flashbacks. The reporters interviewed all of the integral people in Kane's life and each person reflected back on their most important experiences with him. The various people traced back from his happy and poor childhood to his cold and lonely death. Another aspect of the editing used in the film was to show the passage of time between scenes and how it affected the principle characters in it. For example, when Kane and his first wife, Emily, were sitting at the breakfast table, they began with sitting very close to each other and acting very warmly towards each other. The scenes were formatted in a montage, in which Kane and Emily sat farther and farther apart (and acted estranged) as time progressed. Also, when Susan Alexander, Kane's second wife, was feeling alone in their loveless marriage, she began to do a jigsaw puzzle. Again, a montage was composed of her gradually doing the puzzle and a cut to the clock and so on, until the puzzle was completed.
Citizen Kane also expressed revolutionary cinematography. Orson Welles and the rest of the staff went beyond any other film with the techniques they used to create Kane. For example, Welles dug a hole in the floor in order to create a low angle in the shot. This gave the characters an order of power and also caused the studio to furnish the sets with ceilings. They had to do this because the low angles exposed the ceilings in the shots, and all of the sets built in the forties did not have ceilings. Also, it was filmed in deep focus photography. Films of that era usually focused upon the main object in a shot, and the background was out of focus. In Citizen Kane, Everything, including the background, was in focus, causing the scene to have greater depth and the audience to be able to see what the characters are doing in the background.
So is Citizen Kane the best film ever created? I am not the world's biggest film buff, but I do know that it is incomparable to anything that I have ever seen before. It is truly original, and that is what makes it so incredibly brilliant. One main factor makes Citizen Kane regarded as the greatest film ever madeÂ… and that factor is Orson Welles. He was the mastermind behind a film that changed the face of cinema as we know it. Besides being remembered as the greatest film ever made, Kane is also remembered for the word `Rosebud'. What did Welles want that word to signify? Happiness cannot be bought. As you watch the movie, you will figure out what it means for yourself and also expand your mind for having watching such brilliance.