Watch 'Citizen Kane' Today on Turner Classic

There were great films before Citizen Kane and there have been many great films after it, but perhaps no movie in the history of cinema changed so many things all at once as did Orson Welles' Best Picture nominee, which will turn 70 in a couple of years. If you haven't seen it, or if it's been a while, a visit to the world of Charles Foster Kane is always worthwhile. Roger Ebert has studied the film frame-by-frame multiple times during his university lectures. You should check out his DVD commentary about the film sometime. As part of 31 Days of Oscar, TCM is showing Citizen Kane later today, at 1:45pm. I know a fair percentage of our readers weren't even born before Welles died in 1985, so asking you to reach back another 40-plus years beyond that might be a tall order. However, this movie so radically altered cinematography, musical scoring, production design, makeup, and most importantly, point of view and chronology, that it just has to been seen critically if you want to be a serious fan of the medium. You didn't see movies told out of sequence before 1941, you never saw shots come up from the floor, you never heard characters talking over each other, and you still don't often see a movie told in the third person, where the story is about a character rather than through his own eyes. Sight & Sound, which is the most prestigous body that ranks films historically, has voted Kane as the best movie ever made in each decade since 1962, and it has topped the past two AFI lists, as well. It may not be the greatest film of all time by contemporary standards, but as far as what it accomplished when it accomplished them and how it did so, this debut film by a then-25-year-old co-writer and director is at the top of the list. Not bad for a movie that nearly had every print thrown into the fire and bombed when it was first released. So check it out later today on Turner Classic Movies.

Comments

[knives]

Actually outside of the chronology thing every trick in CK had been used in German cinema for decades before. Alot of those tricks were also used just a few months later bu the Maltese Falcon.
The More You Know!

[Get The Big Picture]

It is true that German Expressionism inspired Welles - as it did the noir movement in general - but the layered dialogue was a direct carryover from Welles' radio work (the breakfast table scene is lifted almost directly from his 1938 adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days). You'd have to look really hard to find purposeful jump cuts in German films of that era, the kind Welles used in the newsreel footage, and the idea of one actor playing a character over the course of 50 years of his life was fairly new, as well.

The deep focus cinematography wasn't brand new, but it hadn't been executed by anyone as well as Gregg Toland used it here. This film is what made that practice viable. Also, I think Bernard Herrmann's contributions musically are invaluable to the medium, and this was his first film, too. The way the Kane theme finds its way back into the story, the variations he was using, are noteworthy.

Also, The Maltese Falcon wasn't even filmed until a month after Kane was released, so I'm not sure how that movie could've influenced Kane in any way. If anything, it indicates the immediate impression Welles' film had on other directors.

[David]

I don't think it really matters whether or not Citizen Kane was the first movie to use this technique or that technique. Its a bit like people quibbling over whether or not "I Feel Fine" was the first intentional use of feedback in a pop song. At some level, who cares? Yes, it does give some excellent insight into Welles' mind to know that he actually had to build ceilings on his set, and that was revolutionary at the time, but it doesn't really affect watching the film. The reason that this movie is #1 on every list known to man, and Roger Ebert can stand to watch it frame by frame is that it is a phenomenal film. The third person storytelling is pioneering, but it is also incredibly effective. The detached viewpoint was unheard of, but it allows Welles to paint a portrait of a life that is far more real and sympathetic than simply showing a sequence of events. I haven't watched this film as many times as I have to appreciate the fact that the camera is six inches lower when it is from the viewpoint of someone other than Kane, I have watched it so many times because it is quite simply the most complete character study ever put to cellophane. It is great fun to watch Kane as simply a technical piece, and go through shot by shot and analyze how they created this shot or that shot. But Citizen Kane the film is separate from Citizen Kane the pioneering technical marvel, and it stands completely on its own.