Photo: Carl Van Vechten / Public domain. 1937 portrait, before Citizen Kane. Resized and converted to WebP.
Citizen Kane had its world premiere in New York on May 1, 1941. Orson Welles was still 25, five days short of his next birthday. He directed, produced, co-wrote and starred in a film that follows its central character from youth into old age. Even before considering how it was made, that is an extraordinary amount of responsibility for a first feature.
It was not his first experience of directing. Welles had already worked in theatre and radio; he and John Houseman established the Mercury Theatre in 1937. His 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds preceded his arrival at RKO. Calling him an inexperienced movie director is fair. Calling him someone who had never directed anything erases the work he brought with him.
The credits also complicate the lone-genius version. Herman J. Mankiewicz shared the screenplay credit, Gregg Toland photographed the film and Robert Wise edited it. The Academy Museum's account of the production also identifies optical-effects specialist Linwood Dunn as an important collaborator. Welles's ambition had people around it who could turn difficult ideas into images and sounds.
You can feel the result in the childhood scene. Young Charles plays outside while adults inside decide where he will live. The space lets us watch his ordinary afternoon and the decision that will interrupt it at the same time. The boy does not need to understand the conversation for us to grasp what he is about to lose. A large story about wealth becomes an immediate problem of distance between people.
The film received nine Oscar nominations and won for the original screenplay credited to Welles and Mankiewicz. Its reputation can make a first viewing feel like homework, but the scenes are often restless, funny and cruel. Welles's youth is an arresting fact. Watching the film means discovering how much older, stranger and less certain the world inside it feels.
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