By Nadia Ranaputri

Image credit: The Film Stage

Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, William Alland, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Dorothy Comingore, Ruth Warrick, Erskin Sanford, Agnes Moorehead. 

If you look at any list of the best films of all-time, there is no doubt that Citizen Kane is on that list. In fact, it has not only been considered being one of the greatest films of all-time, but the greatest film of all-time. It has been referenced countless times in other films and TV shows, and the techniques that made the film revolutionary at the time became the staple aspects of the films made today. Sometimes is even used to describe other films to the highest degree, like a friend of mine saying that a certain film was "the Citizen Kane of superhero films", or the infamous description of Tommy Wiseau's The Room as being "the Citizen Kane of bad movies". If a film is considered Citizen Kane levels of good (or in The Room's case, bad), then it must be worth seeing, right? Point is, even if you haven't seen Citizen Kane, there's a chance that you might have at least heard of it. But how did it become the icon that it is today? There are many aspects that made Orson Welles' masterpiece into what it is now, from the technical aspects to the storytelling, Citizen Kane is a film that opened the doors to new and exciting ways to present a story, with elements that were uncommon at the time, but inspired many future films to follow in its footsteps. 

Citizen Kane tells the life of Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), a wealthy businessman in charge of a newspaper company, The Inquirer. On his deathbed, Kane utters his last word: Rosebud. Kane's death becomes a front and center topic of the news, and with it, his last word. This eventually leads to the driving point of the story, with reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) being tasked with the case of discovering the meaning behind Kane's last word by interviewing former colleagues, wife, and estranged friend.

There are many things that Citizen Kane juggles, from an ill-fated romance, political pursuits, power dynamics, and living the American Dream. Most of the film is told through flashbacks and through the lens of those who knew him, but not from Kane himself. By the time "News on the March" segment begins, it might have already hinted that much of Kane's life will be told through the viewpoint of an outsider, with each viewpoint being either similar or differ from one another, depending on how you look at it. While we do get a much deeper look through flashbacks, they're simply fragments that shape the outline of his life. Charles Foster Kane was someone that flourished and at the top of his game, yet he is flawed and lonely. We may know his life story, but we don't really get to know who Kane truly was as a person, we only know him from the lens of others. Hence "Rosebud", the word that appeared at the end of his life, and the word that started the basis of the entire film. Despite Kane's success, he was an enigma from the beginning, and remains to be one at the very end.

Image credit: IMDB

On a technical note, Citizen Kane's cinematography is stunning and while the camera angles used in the film has been used in others before it, the film's cinematographer Gregg Toland uses it at the advantage telling the story in a visual way. It utilizes deep focus shots that shows you everything that is happening in the room as characters talk or do something, rather than simply cutting to focus on different aspects of a scene (One Hundred Years of Cinema's take on the film describes this better than I do). Almost every single scene seems meticulously crafted, shaped similarly to that of a stage play. Instead of doing multiple cuts in one scene, the camera roams freely across the screen in continuous takes that allow the audience to move alongside the characters and the setting of the scene itself, like the breakfast scenes between Kane and his first wife that symbolizes a steady decline of their marriage. The camera knows where to place itself where it is most effective in both providing striking cinematography whilst giving the audience a complete picture of everything that is happening during a scene. This is emphasized by the staging of the scene and placement of the characters in each frame. 

Nowadays, it's no longer unusual for films to follow a non-linear structure, but back in the 1940s, it was a new way of storytelling. It doesn't open in the middle nor the start of Kane's life, but rather at the end of his life. The rest of his life story is then carried out by a broadcaster, hence the iconic News on the March section, and later other figures who were integral to Kane. Best of all, it remains captivating from start to finish. You're just as eager to find out about this relatively vague figure of Charles Foster Kane as the characters, and just as eager to know what the heck "Rosebud" actually means. The non-linear structure of the film made it the revolutionary piece of art that was truly ahead of its time, and sets the foreground for new and exciting ways of storytelling, all while still being compelling. Even the editing is worth applauding for, not a single cut felt jarring and made the scenes consistent, never too short, never too long; just enough to give fragments of vital information for the audience. Every scene felt integral to the film, if you took even one scene out, the film would feel incomplete. 

Image credit: BFI

Citizen Kane earns its reputation for being one of the best films of all time. With the limits of film at the time, it's hard to deny that this film could be considered ambitious for its time. It was able to break the standard norms of storytelling and film-making itself. The cinematography, whilst stunning, is also a fine piece of visual storytelling in itself. The closer you look, the more you see the reasoning behind every angle, every character position, the lighting, and even the significance of inanimate objects. And beneath the visuals is an interesting character study told from the perspective of those that knew him. Despite the controversial debate regarding screenwriting credits between Orson Welles and screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles still played a vital part in shaping the film to be the icon that it is today, particularly when you consider the fact that when Welles was only in his 20s when he starred, produced, wrote, and directed Citizen Kane. In the process, it paved the way for modern film-making, inspiring many filmmakers to step out of their comfort zone. Citizen Kane is a film that withstands the test of time, so much so that it is still talked about even more than seven decades later, and it's easy to see exactly why it remains to be timeless masterpiece. 

Stars: 4.8/5