Citizen Kane would be the first full-length feature film directed by the then twenty-five year old wunderkind Orson Welles. It was released in May of 1941. The film was profoundly anticipated; it may have had a little something to do with the fact that newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, on whom Kane is said to have been based and was much to his chagrin - tried to no avail to have the film banned. Despite the critical plaudits public response being unenthusiastic and the film losing funds, it would still garner the accolades and become celebrated as one of the greatest films ever made in our time.
And 1946 would be the same year that the French critics applied the term film noir to certain domestic American crime films and Kane has at timed been recognized as an honorary noir, largely on account of its elegant baroque style. Welles ever the questing and experimental artist reveals in Citizen Kane the awareness of Surrealism and expressionism, Sergei Eisenstein's montage technique as well as author William Faulkner's experiments with narrative structure and POV.
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| Our house in the middle of a glass ball. |
The visual impact of Citizen Kane comes from the extravagant and elaborate art direction of Perry Ferguson and the method in which the settings are lit and lensed by cinematographer Gregg Toland, a pathfinder who innovated lighting techniques, notably the new uncharted technique of deep focus, whereby objects respectively in foreground and background remain in complete focus. Toland instinctively knew how to create greater fluidity by obviating the need for inter-cutting and reverse angles, resulting in a greater sense of space, allowing figures to be situated in isolation from one another. Welles and Toland expertly utilize the entire repertoire of expressionist devices; the use of wide angle lens, low angled shots and high contrast lighting.
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| Kane meets Caravaggio |
Several subsequent noirs of the 1940s host stylistic elements that were showcased in Kane, elaborate tracking shots, extended takes, complex set design and shot composition as well as subjective perspectives generated specifically through flashback narration. Welles film deemed by critics and theorists alike to be the preeminent example of American Expressionism - provided another major link between European modernist film-making and film noir.