Why Is Citizen Kane Important To The Film Industry

Citizen Kane is the life story of a powerful newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane. It is a fictionalized biography of the ruthless publishing baron, William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). In actuality, the characters in the movie are composites, drawn from the lives of several famous American tycoons, but Hearst was the most obvious.

Photography
Gregg Toland, the cinematographer for Citizen Kane, considered the film the high point in his career & thought he might ‘learn something’ from the boy genius (Welles). Welles, used to setting up his own lights in the live theater thought the movie directors were also responsible for the lighting. Toland would let Welles determine the design of most of the lights, but quietly instructed the camera

He was also influenced by the moody, low-key photography of John Ford’s Stagecoach.

Citizen Kane did not look like most American movies of its era. Each image was well thought out. No shot or sequence was taken lightly. The use of deep-focus, low-key lighting, rich textures, audacious compositions, dynamic contrasts between foregrounds & backgrounds, backlighting, sets with *ceilings*, side lighting, steep angles, epic long shots, juxtaposed with extreme closeups, dizzying crane shots, special effects galore--none of these were new, but Welles used them in such profusion.

Photographically, Kane ushered in a revolution ‘challenging the classical ideal of a transparent style’ that doesn’t call attention to itself. In Kane, the ‘style was part of the show’.

The lighting in the movie is generally in mostly high key in those scenes depicting Kane’s youth & dealing w/his years as a crusading young publisher (the happier part of his life). As he grows older & more cynical, the lighting grows darker, more harshly contrasting. Kane’s home, the palatial Xanadu, has a very unwelcoming, dark, dank atmosphere,

Sometimes Kane’s face seems split in half w/one side brightly illuminated, the other hidden in darkness (Chiroscuro lighting - Rembrandt). When Kane tells Bernstein & Leland of his intention to publish a “Declaration of Principles” on the front page of his newspaper promising his readers he will be an honest & tireless champion of their rights as citizens & human beings, his face if fully lit. When he leans down to sign the proclamation, his face is suddenly plunged in darkness--an ominous foreshadowing of Kane’s later character.
Thea B31-Fall Study Guide Ch 12-Citizen Kane 2.

Welles used low-angle shots as a *motif* throughout the picture, especially ‘to emphasize the awesome power of the protagonist’. Combined w/the perspective-distorting wide-angle lens, such low-angle shots as the one filmed from below the floor, portray Kane as a towering colossus, capable of crushing anything that gets in his