Rating of
4/4
Citizen Kane
SteelCity99 - wrote on 04/21/18
Orson Welles / United States of America / 1941... When any film critic puts such terms into one single sentence, the inevitable memory that instantly pops up into the mind is arguably the best American film ever made: Citizen Kane. To make a review and a deep analysis of such giant icon may inevitably cause the writer to resort to terms like "best", "greatest", "influential", and "landmark". However, to resort to such words is the most truthful and factual reaction any cinema admirer normally experiences. Citizen Kane is one of the greatest films in the history of the motion picture. Without the creation of this gigantic magnum opus, the history of the art of filmmaking would not be the same nowadays. A statement comparing the influence of Citizen Kane over cinema and the influence of the Second World War over human history reaches almost the same magnitude regarding the peculiarities of their own topics. Orson Welles, as the underrated director that he really is, established a new narrative structure without forgetting in the slightest way what the filmmaking process intrinsically had to involve, like mixing the brilliance that Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) conglomerated and raising the bar to an unimaginable level.
The legendary story begins when a group of reporters start to make an exhaustive investigation about the meaning of the last enigmatic word spoken by the newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane seconds before he heaves his last breath inside his extravagant mansion, Xanadu: "Rosebud". Through flashbacks we see the rise of a journalism emperor until he reaches the top of the world just to fall, irremediably. The film received 9 Academy Award nominations for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture, Best Sound, Recording, Best Director and Best Picture, winning only the first Oscar. Obviously, the fact that the film was stolen eight (!) awards it really deserved mainly by Gary Cooper's Sergeant York (1941) and John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941) emphasizes Orson Welles' visionary brilliance, not only because Citizen Kane was a box-office failure while being generally disliked, but also because cinematic geniuses do not fully obtain the recognition they deserve in their own eras. It may seem inconceivable nowadays, but frankly, How Green Was My Valley (1941) offered the inspirational power-of-family feeling that Citizen Kane could not provide while the Second World War was brutally taking place.
This filmic phenomenon opens with the introduction of the Xanadu mansion with a noticeably style that deliciously combined film-noir cinematography with a macabre sensation of horror and solitude. Through a masterful camera work and a genius use of lights and shadows, the death of the main character Charles Foster Kane is shown during the first five minutes, an event that caused the conventional narrative structure of American cinema to be completely challenged and shattered into pieces, like telling the ending of a story before it starts to develop. Naturally, the purpose of such technique has not passed unnoticed nowadays. Getting straight to the point, that is, the mortality of the human race despite the material and financial empire one single person may create through talent and influence over masses, may have been one of the characteristics that provided hatred and boredom to the film from the audience. However, this genius work of art is the result of the multitalented cinematographic capacities of an ahead-of-his-time auteur. The direction of Citizen Kane is extraordinarily ambitious and fast-paced, but with the help of the screenplay he developed with the collaboration of Herman J. Mankiewicz, a screenplay that belongs to the category of the best ones ever written and brought to the screen by human hands, took a premise that constituted an audacious and striking political commentary against the brainwashing that journalism causes in a consumerist society to the most superior category of cinema.
Such powerful capitalist testament required believable and transcendent performances, a task that was basically achieved by the mere presence, tenacity and authoritarian personality of Charles Foster Kane alone. And how could such a colossal cinema icon could be effectively captured if not with a revolutionary camera work? The cinematography enhances the patriotic effectiveness the film had without being nauseating, a sensation that modern mindless directors are pretty much successful at creating. Welles went too far... and he had several good reasons. The aerial shots are spellbinding, pretty much like Fritz Lang accomplished in M (1931), but Welles portrayed the world from a very high perspective, seemingly resembling the view that the character of Kane had towards the world. The world, according to him, was a giant sphere to be conquered, a sphere full of people whose minds could be influenced for serving a particular purpose. It was the moral of such worldwide individuals the one that would irrevocably determine particular life decisions. Consequently, journalism was his motor, his principal motive to fill a psychological void that a rather empty and unpleasant childhood had created. These characteristics are strengthened by an awesome storytelling. Relativity and the personal trust towards people play a very important implicit role in the plot. The screenplay relies on the perspective of a reporter who gathers several versions of the life of the famous citizen. Through their own versions, which may not necessarily connect with each other, we have a very modest sample of how such a wonderful man raised out of the blue. This would be the structure that would influence several other films in the future, such as Akira Kurosawa's Rashômon (1950).
To ruin the meaning of "Rosebud" is atrocious, so a particular film fan may better be careful of those who found the particular meaning pointless and ludicrous. We, as the audience, are offered the opportunity to solve the mystery behind that legendary filmic word. We see "Rosebud" after witnessing vast scenarios with a spectacular set decoration. We see Kane die. We are able to see that Kane was still a man with emotional connections and unfulfilled ambitions of materialism. He was just one more citizen, despite the monster he represented in society. Several citizens Kane are found nowadays and the idea behind the story that Welles imposed was the cleverest prophetic sample of the unkind personalities of superficial politicians. The reasons that put this film among the best ever created abound. Modern audiences may still share the initial reaction that the audiences of seven decades ago had, but their numbers have gradually decreased, and the day with which critics dreamed of has finally arrived, since the actual reputation of Citizen Kane has overshadowed the prejudiced opinion and predominant blindness that it was subject to, not to mention the never-ending conservatism of the AMPAAS. In case that you are planning to whisper "Rosebud" as your final world, do not feel guilty or surprised. It's natural.
100/100
