Citizen Kane is a 1941 film directed and co-written by Orson Welles. It tells the story of Charles Foster Kane and his rise and fall as a wealthy newspaper publisher. The film was groundbreaking for its deep focus cinematography, innovative narrative techniques, and portrayal of its central character. It received widespread critical acclaim and is considered one of the greatest films ever made, though it was a commercial failure upon initial release.

1. ‘The greatest film ever’ - Citizen Kane (Orson Welles 1941)
In 1998, the American Film Institute put Citizen Kane at the top of its list of
the one hundred greatest movies of all time. Released in 1941, it was the first
movie Orson Welles co-wrote, directed, and produced. Welles was only
twenty-five at the time and widely considered to be a theatrical genius.
Citizen Kane didn’t receive the viewership or accolades it deserved until the
1950s, when the film’s considerable innovations became clearer. The
cinematographer, Gregg Toland, who went on to achieve great fame, used
techniques such as deep focus, low camera angles, and optical illusions to tell
Kane’s story. For the first time, ceilings were visible in several scenes, created
by draping black fabric over the lights and microphones that hung from the top
of the sound stage. Toland’s skilful application of new or rarely used
techniques proved revolutionary. Some of the film’s innovations that had
contributed to its commercial failure, including the non-linear narrative and
sombre conclusion, eventually set Citizen Kane apart from films with more
traditional structures and happy endings. Along with its remarkable cinematic
achievements, what ultimately elevated Citizen Kane to such revered heights
was the character of Kane himself. Despite the reporter's attempts to uncover
the real Kane, Kane remains an enigma. The depth of Kane's isolation and
loneliness results in a portrait that has haunted and will continue to haunt
generations of audiences.
When Orson Welles released Citizen Kane it lost money at the box office. The
public wasn’t ready for such an experimental approach to film form. But time
has shown that Welles did something more important than just pleasing an
audience. He changed the face of filmmaking in Hollywood by pushing the
techniques in new directions and challenging the rule of “invisibility.”
Citizen Kane made cinematic advances on many fronts, and its most significant
contribution to cinematography came from the use of a technique known as
deep focus. Deep focus refers to having everything in the frame, even the
background, in focus at the same time, as opposed to having only the people
and things in the foreground in focus. The deep focus technique requires the
cinematographer to combine lighting, composition, and type of camera lens to
produce the desired effect. With deep focus, a filmmaker can showcase
overlapping actions, and mise-en-scène (the physical environment in which a
film takes place) becomes more critical. Effectively manipulating the mise-en-

2. scène for deep focus actively engages the whole space of the frame without
leaving the viewer confused. Deep focus is most effective in scenes that depict
Kane’s loss of control and his personal isolation because it gives the audience a
clear view of the space Kane commands as well as the space over which he has
no power.
The cinematic style of Citizen Kane, especially its use of extreme deep-focus
photography, was ground-breaking and innovative as the film’s narrative
technique. At the time, the prevailing Hollywood style was characterized by
diffuse lighting and shots with a very shallow depth of field. It was Welles’
cinematographer, Gregg Toland, who pioneered this use of deep-focus.
Despite Hollywood’s standard of using apertures of between f2.3 and f3.2 for
interior shots, nearly all of the film was shot at f8 or smaller.
Welles's achievements in this film marked a new direction in cinema. Many
critics argue that Citizen Kane, with its inventive use of lighting and shadow, is
the first film noir, or at least the direct predecessor of noir, a genre that
employs dark, moody atmosphere to augment the often violent or mysterious
events taking place.
In Citizen Kane, Welles and Toland blend camera movement with the drama of
the scenes, and use it more spectacularly. They extend the device in two
directions, and in doing so they challenge Classical Hollyood’s convention of
Invisible Style. A good example is the introduction to El Rancho, where Susan
Alexander works as a singer. The camera begins on a sign outside the
restaurant and then climbs upward to the roof. Then it glides forward, through
another sign, and approaches a skylight. When it reaches the skylight, Welles
uses an “invisible” dissolve to cut to a high-angle long-shot of the interior of El
Rancho. This camera movement calls attention to itself as a spectacle. Not only
is it unusual to begin a scene by climbing up a building and floating across its
roof, the cut through the glass window (skylight) is obviously impossible.
Welles uses the crane shot to blend a miniature model of the outside of the
restaurant with an actual set. The shot establishes space and sets up the scene,
but it does this in an overt and noticeable way.

3. Is Citizen Kane the Greatest Film Ever Made? (Orson Welles, 1941)
What is viewed by many in the critical community as the greatest achievement
in the history of cinema, is seen by others as anything from average to
downright boring. Thus this is not an objective question and is subject to
individual opinion rather than an outright statement of fact.
Your task is to write a 1,000 word film review, the title of your film review is
the question above. Your job is to write a well-rounded film review, you should
be able to show appreciation of the artistic merits of the film my commenting
on the use of the micro features in specific scenes. You need to comment on
the narrative techniques used to tell the film story and how this had an impact
on you. In addition, I encourage you to constructively air your opinions on any
dislikes of the film, but again in doing so, you must refer to specific aspects of
the film.
Below you will find a structure to help you write your review and also possible
discussion points you may want to cover. There are also clips of the film saved
on the Macs.
 Opening paragraph – summarise the film and it’s story/plot - give early
suggestions about your general view of it
 Provide general indications to what you liked and disliked about the use
of micro features in the film – ensure that you make clear that this film
was ground breaking/ innovative for its time
 Become more specific about the positive things you liked about the film.
What did you like? Why? Refer to specific scenes/ sequences and their
use of the micro features or the use of narrative tools
 Discuss the negative things you thought about the film. What didn’t you
like? Why? Refer to specific scenes/ sequences and their use of the
micro features or the use of narrative tools
 Characterization – talk about the characters (what do we really know
about Kane?), did you like them? Did the actors play them well? What
was it about their portrayal what you liked or didn’t like? Other
impressions of the characters, did you feel empathy for certain
characters? How? Or Why? Are there certain characters that audience
members will not like? Why not?

4.  Final comments – general comments that summarize your view of the
film, and also any moral lessons that you feel came across. Most
importantly provide a comment on whether Citizen Kane is the greatest
film ever made and whether you can see its influence on contemporary
film.
Discussion points
 Film opening
 News Reel as a narrative device
 Use of lighting within the film
 Flashbacks as narrative devices
 Use of deep focus
- When Kane’s mother gives him up (you can also refer to other
micro features)
- Thatcher loses his estate
 Cinematography as spectacle
 Elliptical editing/ compression of time (there is more than one example)
 Montage
 Whose perspective was the story told from?