(73) Orson Welles on Watching Too Many Films – YouTube
There will always be a debate towards what the “best” movie of all time is. However, there is no debate that Citizen Kane is one of the most culturally and cinematically impactful movies ever created. Orson Welles, with his first ever time directing a film, forever changed the way that cinema was created. New ideas on how to portray lighting, focus, narrative, among many others, were created in Citizen Kane for one key reason: Welles had no idea what he was doing.
When I say that Orson Welles had no idea what he was doing, of course Welles had a conceptual vision for what he wanted his first direct film to become, but Welles had no preconceptions on what was and wasn’t possible in the process of creating film. That was his greatest strength.
In an interview with Orson Welles (linked above), he notes that you mustn’t “soak yourself in film.” What he means by this is that you shouldn’t dive too deep into what is and isn’t possible in filmmaking. Welles’ creativity stemmed from the fact that he had no idea on what was possible at the time. Gregg Toland, the working cinematographer on Citizen Kane, brought Welles’ radical-at-the-time ideas to life.
For example, the low shots in the film were a radical new idea at the time. Cloth ceilings were integrated into the set of Citizen Kane to give more of a realism effect. Cinematographer Gregg Toland adds “The Citizen Kane sets have ceilings because we wanted reality, and we felt that it would be easier to believe a room was a room if its ceilings could be seen in the picture.” The confidence to pull off such a revolutionary idea at the time came from the unbounded creativity of a director who had no idea what the “rules” were.
Even though Welles’ belief to not “soak yourself in film” sounds good in prospect, it is important to mention the anomaly that is Citizen Kane. Welles mentions it himself in the interview, that most brilliant filmmakers in the next generations will already know the ins and outs of the filmmaking process. It is simply unlikely that a masterpiece will be created just because the creative vision has no prior experience in the creation of a new subject, Orson Welles was simply an anomaly. Overall, even though it is highly unlikely to create genius from nothing like Welles, it is still possible. New filmmakers in the next generation shouldn’t bound their creativity to what is already known, but towards what hasn’t been done. That’s how great films like Citizen Kane are created.
Leave a Reply