Orson Wells
The development of film is a slow process, and occasionally a film will come out of nowhere to bring a new idea, shake the foundation of film art, and then be accepted by the mainstream.
In decades of slow development, every new concept, every spark of inspiration that sparkles with originality and experimentation, will promote the gradual development of film art.
What is rare is that a film can be so radical and full of new elements that the art of cinema seems to have moved forward a decade overnight, and Citizen Kane is such a work.
Citizen Kane
It is difficult to see the revolutionary nature of Citizen Kane from today's point of view, its influence on the art of cinema is so profound that the techniques it uses have become extremely ordinary, and the avant-garde ideas of the time are now unremarkable, just as innovators always make wedding dresses for others, and the value of this film may be overshadowed by its great reputation.
Citizen Kane's signature techniques, such as the application of deep focus techniques and very low-angle shots, actually derived from some of the earlier films, but it was director Orson Wells and cinematographer Greg Tolander's application of these techniques, combined with their many other innovations, that gave the film the power to transform cinema.
First of all, let's take a look at the innovation that this film brings to the art of cinema in terms of imagery.
Who exactly came up with these innovations? Orson Wells, or Greg Tolander? Long debated, it was indisputable that the duo worked together to create one of the richest and most engaging films of the time.
Under Greg Toland's genius technique and orson Wells's graphic control, a new cinematic vocabulary was added to the cinematic language.
Orson Wells (right) and Greg Toland (left)
Citizen Kane's most famous video innovation is the use of deep focus technology.
When early filmmakers used lenses of different focal lengths to bring actors out of the background, or to direct the viewer's attention to specific details, Citizen Kane neatly incorporated all the scenes into the same focal length.
Only a very small aperture can capture such a lens, and the smaller the aperture, the more focal length can be covered in a single shot.
Deep-focus shots from Citizen Kane
Greg Toland used a similar technique in his work on John Ford's film The Way Home the year before Citizen Kane, but Citizen Kane's use of it was truly groundbreaking.
The construction of the scene allows the viewer to see everything clearly in the picture, just like appreciating the painting, and each level adds new information to the story.
In the prospect, Mrs. Kane is methodically doing desk work, and they are handing over custody of their son to Mr. Sechel for a better education for his son. In the middle scene, Kane's father tries to save his son, but in the end he loses to Greed. In the distance, young Kane plays carefree in the snow, unaware that his fate has been changed.
If you switch to a traditional film, these three levels will be shot separately, either through editing or with zoom, but Citizen Kane shows these different contents at the same time, and the importance of the turning point in young Kane's life is magnified by the audience's ability to see each of them at the same time.
The layout of the shot allows the viewer to receive every detail of the picture, giving the film a new and concise way to express complex plots and relationships only through composition and positioning.
Since Citizen Kane, we've seen the use of deep-focus lenses in movies time and time again.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
While the deep-focus lens is Citizen Kane's most famous innovation, Orson Wells and Greg Toland's "tricks" go far beyond that, such as floating cameras that seem to be able to traverse objects, giving the viewer a god-like omniscient and all-powerful perspective.
This application of follow-up shots is not original, but the complexity and number of shots are unique, and it also gives the audience a deeper understanding of the characters and the story.
Fragment of Citizen Kane
In the case of Kane's second wife (pictured above), we see a face illuminated by lightning, only to learn later that she is Susan Kane, a nightclub singer. A clever stacking of the camera passes through the glass, and Susan sits alone to despondent about the wine.
In just one run of the mirror and just 30 seconds, we know who she is, what she does, and how much her ex-husband's death hurt her.
In the clip above, young Kane is playing in the snow, and the camera slowly moves out to the scene where his parents sign to hand over custody, meaning he will be expelled from his original family.
This emotion and the reverse use of the mirror appeared years later when Kane regained his own destiny.
Telling stories with pictures through the use of mirrors has become one of the main ways of expression in the film, and has been repeatedly used by various directors such as Hitchcock and David Finch.
Although orson Wells and Greg Toland's video techniques in Citizen Kane are not all original, the techniques have made their way into mainstream American cinema due to their excellent results.
Greg Toland's use of chiaroscuro in his films drew directly from the expressionist films of the German Weimar Republic, but his use of this to highlight the emotional state of the characters directly influenced the film noir that emerged a few years later.
The chiaroscuro of Citizen Kane is illuminated
The upward shot of the ceiling appears in "The Flying Mountain", but Wells uses this technique to influence the audience's understanding of the scene, or to highlight the importance of a character and the tension of the relationship between the characters.
Back-up shot of Citizen Kane
The film also uses large close-ups to highlight and strengthen the characters' looks, using montage techniques to condense the process of a 16-year marriage into just a few minutes; using the rub out transition to bring the audience from one scene to the next scene without breaking the dramatic tension in it; and using the superimposed way to stack the images together, so that the real scene can reflect the psychological state of the characters.
A large close-up of Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane's extraordinary visuals benefit from every subtle technique, every shot movement, every extremely low-angle shot, all more than superficial effort, which drives the story to open a window into the character's heart.
However, such a rich visual feast also requires a great story to make the most of it, which is also revolutionary for shaping the film, and "Citizen Kane" is how to choose a good story and tell a good story.
The most prominent difference between "Citizen Kane" and the previous similar films is its contradictory tone throughout the film, the protagonist of the film is the richest and most successful person in the world, but the whole film is filled with the atmosphere of failure melancholy.
Kane was an idealist who stood up for the rights of poor people, but we saw him abandon his ideals again and again. The film depicts the love and friendship of this great man and how this greatness depletes the feelings of others toward him.
Basically, the story of Citizen Kane can be summed up as a group of journalists trying to decipher the meaning of his mysterious last words after the death of a famous newspaper tycoon.
However, in order to take the audience from the starting point to the other side of the mystery, the film takes us through a series of labyrinthine flashbacks, through the perspectives of different characters, through a series of mutilated, subjective and occasionally contradictory memories, deep into the protagonist's life, to obtain information from those who know him best.
Throughout the film, we experience multiple perspectives, which is the first time for a typical Hollywood movie.
A full-time observer walks through the windows of the mansion and hears Kane's last words, a moment exclusive to the viewer, a perspective blurred by layers of snow.
Just after Kane's death, we get a second perspective, which is the news footage, which concisely lists the important events of his life, and thus tells us what will happen in the movie over the next hour and forty-five minutes.
From this point on, the audience already understands the main plot points in the film, but the focus of Citizen Kane is not on the events themselves, but on why they happen, how they shape the characters in the film, and how the characters change the world around them.
The film reveals how greed and ambition, as well as an irresistible environment, can turn a young idealist into a decaying old man.
From the newsreel we learn about the actual events of the film, but the forces that have corrupted Kane are revealed in a series of flashbacks, memories from five relatives and friends, each of whom pieces together his life like a puzzle.
This narrative technique is unlike any previous film, and it's a bold attempt at cinematic storytelling that completely breaks the audience's expectations and breaks the linear narrative they're accustomed to.
Suddenly, the events you've already seen can be rewritten or given new meanings, and it opens the way for those who come after, such as Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, Last Year in Marionbad, Nolan's Fragments of Memory, and so on.
Fragments of Memory
This fragmented narrative forces the viewer to pick up the fragments and reorganize and integrate until everything goes well.
At the end of the film, the reporters are unable to uncover the secret of Kane's last words.
But as Thomson puts it: "None of this says anything, I don't think these four words can explain a person's life, I guess 'Rosebud' is just a piece of cardboard in a jigsaw puzzle, a piece missing." ”
It is only after this that the film returns to the omniscient perspective of the beginning, where the camera skims through the maze of artworks piled up, which is the only thing left in Kane's life, revealing to the audience and only to the audience the true meaning of Kane's last words " rose bud " , the name of his childhood sleigh.
"Rose bud" is a metaphor for the absence of his childhood, a kind of remembrance of the simple time before success.
At the age of 25, Orson Wells created one of the most important films in film history.
If the rumors are to be believed, Wells only saw the film once in its entirety, six months before its release, and the film had just been completed, and he almost finished watching the entire film at the test screening, but he chose to leave before it was over.
One wonders if he did so because he experienced Kane's pain.
Orson Wells's life was mixed with success and failure, he had everything, but he always longed for more, and greatness brought him only suffering.
A closer look reveals that this is why he became one of America's greatest directors.