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A Filmmaker's Guide to 'Citizen Kane' (1941)

Part 1: The Opening, the Atmosphere and the Established Themes

By Annie KapurPublished 5 years ago 9 min read
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(It is recommended that you watch the entire film of Citizen Kane (1941) before reading this article as it will help greatly with your understanding).

Citizen Kane (1941) is without a shadow of a doubt in the top ten greatest movies ever made. This is because of its revolutionary filmmaking techniques and the amazing hand that Orson Welles brought to this masterpiece of cinema. There is so much to analyze in this film that if I were to look at all the research papers published on it, I don't think anyone's really finished.

It's been almost 80 years since it was made and released and it still has the same awe-inspiring ability today. It has an incredible ability also, to show you how mostly every single epic drama film after it copied its own style. You can see the same styles used in films like Mississippi Burning (1988), JFK (1991), The Post (2017) and even Spotlight (2015). It has proved to be as influential as it is expansive on teaching the audience about revolutionary filmmaking, sharp focus and incredibly worked cinematography and themes.

What we're going to look at today is the opening and how it establishes everything, setting it up and making sure that the ending is in place way before the story itself begins. We have to ask ourselves why we started at the end at all. Remember, Citizen Kane (1941) is not a tragedy, it's not trying to shock or fool us by having Charles Kane die at the end.

Instead, the film gives us the ending and then, as it goes back to the beginning we start off with a very different Charles Kane to the one that dies at the beginning of the film. It also gives the audience time to figure out what "rosebud" means, and if you haven't seen the film (seriously, you haven't seen this film?) then I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Let's get on with the analysis then, shall we? As I've said already, we're looking at the way the themes are established and how the atmosphere of Kane's death impacts the way we watch the rest of the film. There seems to be a dark shadow or cloud hanging over Charles Kane the whole time you watch it. Let's have a look why that is by analyzing the opening scene.

The Opening

First of all, we have to establish what we mean by the "opening." In this we are not talking about the opening shot—we're talking about the opening scene. The news outlets that report on Kane's death is the exact scene we're talking about alongside the funeral of Charles Kane. This is the only part we are looking at in the film, so hopefully we can all stay on the same page.

What we have is the opening shot where Charles Kane dies saying "rosebud" and then the news outlets that report on his death. It's a good chronology for the beginning of the film because we're shown the death scene. This is important for letting us know what the majority of the movie is about. Charles Kane doesn't really care about anyone but himself, so why does he say "rosebud" upon his death? Most of the rest of the movie will allow the audience to figure out what this means.

The whole purpose of the opening is to give you something without context. This is a good start to a film since you can then establish certain character traits without directly saying them out loud. For example the fact that there is even something/someone called "rosebud" is a character trait of Charles Kane seeing as it must be something important to him. Oh, and if you're watching carefully enough you'll probably figure it out before the film's halfway mark.

What we're going to do now is analyze how the atmosphere works in the opening scene and how it sets the tone for the rest of the film. I have to admit that this was done absolutely precisely and I cannot fault the atmosphere one bit. It is so incredibly clever, it will blow your mind.

Atmosphere

This is a very well-done part of the film since the atmosphere that is established in the opening scene seems to linger for the rest of the film. That's what you get when your film begins at the end or in the middle of the film. This has been copied by many other films later on, including:

  • The Prestige (2006)
  • Fight Club (1999)
  • Memento (2000)
  • Gandhi (1982)
  • Pulp Fiction (1994)

There's many more as well. The reason for this is making the dark cloud of thought linger throughout the rest of the film. Therefore, the film isn't about reaching an ending at all, the film is about how it got there. Citizen Kane (1941) establishes this in the best way by the very first scene of the film being the death of Charles Kane. Look at this darkened atmosphere:

Opening Sequence

We have numerous atmospheric items. The first two pictures show this foggy mountain on which the mansion stands, Xanadu. This is especially good because right from the beginning, we've got this destroyed, almost villainous idea in our heads. Why? Well, it's because of the fog.

That shot in the second photo is a long shot with a slight upward crane to show us the sheer height of this thing. The whole point of this is to create this atmosphere of something great with a cast of darkness around it. It's like the opening to a mystery. We have no idea what's happened yet, we don't know who lives there yet but what we do know is that they may not be all good and something has probably gone wrong.

The atmosphere that we get by the last two frames is one slightly different but still causing a very similar reaction in the audience. Funny, because the death scene in Citizen Kane (1941) looks just like the death scene in Nosferatu (1922), or at least very similar.

The effect of the small amount of light coming through the window isn't just there to let us see what's going on, it's also there to show us that something new is starting. The atmosphere establishes that Charles Kane is such a figurehead that his death slightly changes the way the world is seen in the film.

The large gothic arched windows give us some ability to see inside the property we were once viewing and now, we are able to view the full scale size of them. This is effective as well because of the way it portrays the character of Charles Kane. By this time, these windows are already considered old architecture or classic architecture and would've been very expensive. We'll go into themes in our next part but it gives us something to look out for in his character.

The Established Themes

Establishing themes is very important to do in your opening as introducing them through the movie can hurt the way your movie flows, making it less fluent than you would've hoped. The way in which various films establish themes is either through the opening two to three scenes or through the way in which the characters interact with each other.

With Citizen Kane (1941), it is the former. The first few scenes establishes where we stand for the rest of the film and it actually progresses by just building on these key ideas instead of introducing new ones. The way in which this is done is through the news report that plays in the second half of the first scene.

The News and the Media

The very first theme that is established is the news and the media. Of course, this is done through the fact that Charles Kane's death is reported on by the news and they explain that Kane himself was in charge of several newspapers, mainly though, The Inquirer. This is of such high importance because as the film progresses, the audience get to see the changes in the way Kane manages the newspapers and what is and isn't reported on. When it gets to the climax of the film, the audience tend to understand that Charles Kane's long death report on the news in the second half of the first scene is probably that one final act of a delusion of grandeur that Kane definitely had.

Obsession

The news report also establishes the theme of obsession very well, something that Charles Kane has throughout the film. The news anchor explains that Xanadu has a "collection of everything"—noting the fact that Kane collected statues, paintings and even animals in that large plot of land he owned in his life. These material items all add to our understanding of Charles Kane's character and into the interest of what contributed to his death even though he was old. The main thing about the theme of obsession is to see what drove it. In the first few scenes of the film after the opening, we see Kane as an ambitious man but not the same man who dies at the beginning. The difference is there to make the audience question how it happens.

Wealth and Money

Wealth and money is a theme that is shown through the cinematography as well through the set, scenery and even dialogue. The first thing we have is the long shot and the slight upwards crane towards the top of Xanadu. It's showing you the sheer size of this place, which seems to represent the character of Charles Kane.

The next piece of cinematography is the bird's eye view long shot with the slight downwards crane when we see Kane's funeral. Again, it's showing you the size of the land as his casket is carried out of the door. The cinematography in the news report is all about showing you the size of Kane's character through other things and so, showing you indirectly, his worth and his wealth.

Love

Love and lovelessness are big themes in the film since we constantly progress into the idea that Kane cares for nobody but himself. But, when we hear the words "rosebud" when the snow-globe shatters, we realise he did care about something, but until you watch the whole film you really do have no idea what that something is. Then, we're just left in a state of brilliant dramatic irony. The news will be looking for "rosebud" forever. It's this everlasting quest to find out what it means that makes that love for "rosebud" apt to linger. This is the entirely opposite message given by the film about Kane's attitude toward love.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed part one of our series on Citizen Kane (1941), along with this and JFK (1991), I'll probably never finish this thing! Citizen Kane (1941) is undoubtedly one of the most revolutionary films ever made. The writing, the cinematography, the incredible amounts of absolute drama was all up to Orson Welles' brilliant and unrivaled talents. I hope you take these aspects on board and we'll be back next time in this series for more analysis on Citizen Kane (1941).

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About the Creator

Annie Kapur

190K+ Reads on Vocal.

English Lecturer

🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)

🎓Film & Writing (M.A)

🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd)

📍Birmingham, UK

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