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Citizen Kane was not just a drama shown on-screen, it was based on a real life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and thinly veiled by cinematic flourish. However, Hearst was a powerful man and Orson Welles, an arrogant yet brilliant rising star, had made himself a powerful enemy.

According to PBS, Orson Welles was an ambitious young man who set out to dethrone Hearst, but Hearst would not take this lying down. He banned any mention of this film in his newspapers and intimidated theatre managers into refusing to show the movie. As such, Citizen Kane was initially a box office flop, failing to recoup its production costs. Despite the boycott, Citizen Kane still managed to get nominated for nine categories at the 14th Academy Awards, but only winning for Best Original Screenplay. Hearst’s influence managed to reach into the Academy voters, with many claiming that Citizen Kane was snubbed due to personal dislike of Welles among voters and Hearst’s supporters. The film was reportedly booed by audience members every time it was named at the Oscars.

Although Citizen Kane was a less than flattering depiction of Hearst, there is an interesting theory about why Hearst was so adamant to obscure the film. According to the writer Gore Vidal, “Rosebud,” the phrase that the film centers around, was a nickname given by Hearst to his mistress Marion Davies’s clitoris. Marion Davies was an actress who was well liked in Hollywood, and the controversy over Citizen Kane was said to be “a fight over her honor” as her depiction in the movie as Susan Alexander was as Welles claimed himself– “a dirty trick.”

Out of the three sources I used, only the PBS article seems to be based in fact and backed up by other sources. Although Far Out Magazine titles their article as “Why Citizen Kane was Booed at the 1942 Oscars,” the article clarifies that the booing was only account of Citizen Kane being booed came from Welles himself, who wasn’t even in attendance. Additionally, the Guardian article reads more as celebrity gossip with speculation about Welles and his co-writer Mankiewicz and their hidden motives.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-citizen-kane-was-booed-at-the-1942-oscars

https://www.theguardian.com/unsolvedmysteries/story/0,,1155656,00

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/kane-william-randolph-hearst-campaign-suppress-citizen-kane

When reading this week’s Film Art chapter on narrative form, specifically the section about “playing games with story time”, I kept thinking back to the movie Now You See Me 2. This film stood out to me so strongly because of its unique storytelling structure and the way plot twists are revealed.

I watched this movie, the sequel, before I had ever seen the original movie, so I was probably more confused than the average viewer would have been. But, the film’s narrative is essentially structured as a magic trick in itself, which is fitting for a story centered around magicians.

The film does an excellent job of building up mystery and suspense while remaining entertaining the entire time. There are quite a few different subplots that run throughout the movie. In terms of narrative form, I’m focusing on timelines and temporal frequency.

The movie begins in a flashback of the character Dylan’s childhood. It’s a pivotal scene of his father dying while performing a failed magic trick. For viewers who haven’t seen the first film, this scene feels disconnected until the very end, an example of how the film withholds meaning until the right moment, similar to a magician revealing the trick’s secret. However, the scene makes sense from the start if the viewer has already seen the first movie. I was reminded of this scene when reading about the importance of flashbacks, and what part of the movie they are placed in. Putting this at the beginning of the movie keeps viewers intrigued the whole film, as they are waiting to find out what the significance of the scene is.

Furthermore, the clip I attached is one of the best examples of temporal play in the film. In the beginning, there is a scene where we see the four magicians trying to escape the FBI. They jump down a shoot that they think will bring them to their escape truck, and instead somehow end up in the middle of Japan in a matter of seconds. The audience, sharing the Horsemen’s limited point of view, is completely disoriented. Later on in the movie, the scene is repeated.This time, it is revealed that the entire operation was orchestrated by Walter, the film’s main antagonist. He actually hypnotized and transported them to Japan via private jet during this “instant” transition. By repeating the scene and revealing hidden context, the film “plays games with plot time,” keeping the viewer’s knowledge aligned with that of the main characters.

An article by Gottlieb called “Welles’s Citizen Kane Breaks with Traditional Filmmaking” states that the film Citizen Kane, while groundbreaking and highly influential at the time, was also very controversial. Before the film was released, it faced many problems, and many attempts were made to stop its release. The “Hearst syndicate” tried its best to stop the spread of the film because the main character of the film, Kane, was modeled after William Randolph Hearst (Gottlieb, 2023).

Welles starts the film with the death of the main character and incorporates flashbacks and interviews with those who knew him. It is a story we must piece together and make meaning of on our own as different characters share their own versions of Charles Foster Kane’s life, and we are trying to figure out his true nature. Welles called this technique “prismatic” (Cheshire, 2002). The story is told out of order to provide mystery and intrigue. 

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) changed Hollywood filmmaking. As an outsider to the Hollywood film industry, Welles brought new, unconventional ideas and techniques to make this film. He expanded the type of stories that could be told in Hollywood films, showing corrupt, powerful people (a more controversial topic than typically depicted in Hollywood) (Gottlieb, 2023). Also, he used some new cinematography techniques. For example, he used low-angle shots that revealed the ceiling and depth of field, which “appeared powerful, modern, hyperarticulate” (Cheshire, 2002).

An essay from the Library of Congress (Cheshire, 2002) called “Citizen Kane” explains the new techniques used in the film that helped change the film industry forever. 

The film used wipes (a shot transition in which one image gradually takes the place of another through a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal movement across the screen, while both images remain partially visible), which was innovative at the time.

One other technique that cinematographer Gregg Toland used was deep focus. This is where everything in the frame is in focus (clearly visible and sharp): the foreground, middleground, and background. In other words, there is a large depth of field. Deep focus and long takes were used to make the scenes feel more realistic and true to nature, which is something that Andre Bazin would appreciate (as he has a deep desire for realism in film).

Overall, this source is important because it describes how new techniques used in the film changed Hollywood filmmaking – which stories were told and how they were told.

How does a movie like Citizen Kane, made in 1941, stay relevant in the present? Option one would be to make a film that engages the audience with cinematography and elliptical editing so smooth you won’t even notice the swift manipulation of time. Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland’s use of these techniques creates a rich and layered narrative. Or option two, make it good enough for future writers to joke about it.

Take Keanu Reeves, for example. In 2014, he released an April Fool’s joke about reimagining the movie. The new version, titled Citizen Kane 3-D, was directed by and starred Keanu Reeves, and added a martial-arts subplot to the tale of a wealthy media tycoon who dies friendless, haunted by his childhood.

Keanu isn’t the only one good at making playful remarks; in fact, The Simpsons created an entire episode dedicated to the parody and reveals the Simpsons character Mr. Burns’ backstory while doing so. This clever homage and original storytelling intertwining shows how Citizen Kane remains part of our cultural fabric. Unable to link the real episode, I have included a video from NowThisNerd to help foster the story. He also details how the Simpsons start their referencing journey, but he does a good job of making clear comparisons for our purposes.

These playful reinterpretations aren’t just jokes; they’re how classic films stay relevant across generations. They introduce timeless stories to new audiences and keep the conversation going, ensuring that the original works don’t get forgotten.

After watching Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, I wondered why this film is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. The film left a lingering impression on me – particularly in its portrayal of Kane’s failure to understand others’ desires until his death. Although this film emotionally resonated with me, I still couldn’t understand why it is considered revolutionary. To gain a deeper understanding of why Citizen Kane is regarded as a revolutionary film, I viewed an analytical video about it on YouTube. The video explains that we may not immediately see this movie as revolutionary. In the past, films rarely experimented with visual storytelling or narrative structure to the extent that Citizen Kane did. The video especially highlights how the cinematic techniques that once set Citizen Kane apart are now standard in modern cinema. Although those techniques were not entirely new, Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland combined them in a new way that reinvented the language of cinema.

Some interesting innovations include the following:

1. Deep Focus
   Some of the film’s most notable innovations include the use of deep focus. According to Film Art, deep focus is “a use of the camera lens and lighting that keeps objects in both close and distant planes in sharp focus”. In earlier films, filmmakers typically used different focal lengths to separate the figures from the background. However, in Citizen Kane, the entire scene was kept in focus through the use of a small aperture, which allowed more of the image to remain sharp within a single frame. This allowed viewers to take in the whole frame simultaneously. An example of this technique appears in the scene where young Kane plays in the snow outside the window, while inside, his mother and Mr. Thatcher are making decisions about his future.

2. Montage Sequence
   Another notable cinematic technique used in Citizen Kane is a montage sequence, which is a film editing technique used to condense time through a series of short shots. In this instance, Welles utilizes this technique to compress sixteen years of marriage into just a few minutes. The audience observes the emotional tone between Kane and his wife evolving throughout their relationship, as multiple breakfast scenes seamlessly dissolve into one another. Even though the exact year or time is never shown, it becomes evident that Kane’s marriage is gradually declining.
   
3. Labyrinth of Flashbacks and Different Points of View
   Unlike most films of its time, Citizen Kane does not follow a linear narrative structure. Instead, it followed a radical approach to storytelling. This non-linear narrative structure allows the story to unfold through differing perspectives and recollections. The movie begins with Kane’s death, and the story unfolds as a reporter interviews several people to find out what “Rosebud” means. Each person who was once close to Kane takes the audience back in time, revealing different parts of his life. This kind of narrative technique had never appeared in films before. However, many later films abandoned the strictly linear narrative, adopting techniques such as flashbacks and flash-forwards in ways that reflect Citizen Kane’s influence on modern storytelling.

After learning about these techniques, I came to understand why Citizen Kane is regarded as revolutionary. The cinematography, shifts in perspective, and narrative structure illustrate the film’s transformative impact on modern cinema. Ultimately, exploring its innovative techniques allowed me to appreciate how Citizen Kane continues to shape the style and storytelling of modern films.