The Making of Citizen Kane - Book Report/Review Example

? Introduction The Making of Citizen Kane gives a fascinating account of all of the steps in making the masterpiece film. Robert Carringer gives a rendering of the behind the scenes of the movie, with a special detail of all that made the film special. What is soon made clear is that the movie was Orson Welles' “baby” from start to finish. Welles had a creative vision for the movie, and, because he was heavily involved in all elements of the film – the scriptwriting, art direction, cinematography and sound – the movie can be said to be a direct manifestation of this this vision. What is also clear was that Welles was a trailblazer, and wanted the movie to be the same. Not for Welles was the standard Hollywood sets and cinematography, as Welles intentionally set out to find an iconoclastic cinematographer and essentially turned him loose to use all the cutting edge techniques he could create. Welles worked hand in hand with Gregg Toland, the cinematographer in question, and his control over the script was just as tight. While Herman Mankiewicz, himself a Hollywood staple, wrote the bones of the script, Welles finessed it into a tight characterization of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. And, while Hearst tried to kill the film, the film did, in fact, almost die, it soon rose up to become what is widely considered the greatest movie ever made. Carringer's book explores exactly how the movie gained this distinction. Discussion The initial chapter details the scriptwriting of the film. Originally called American, the script which was given by Mankiewicz and Houseman had the underpinnings of the eventual story, even if it was overlong and too detailed. The memorable touch of the main character making his deathbed utterance of “Rosebud” was credited to Mankiewicz as an ingenious way to set up the framework of the picture, in which the story of the main character, Kane, is told entirely in flashbacks of Kane's life. The original script as submitted by the team was rudimentary and lacked dramatic structure. There were simply too many scenes which did not move along the story. The portrayal of the main character was similarly unfocused. In other words, Kane himself was an amalgamation of traits and actual events culled from the life of Hearst, but actual characterization of the man was lacking. Who Kane was and what he stood for was not immediately obvious in this first incarnation. Moreover, the original script was essentially a roman a clef of Hearst, as opposed to being what it was supposed to be – a character who is merely based upon Hearst, even if the basis upon Hearst is tight as opposed to loose. The description of how the script took shape – from a series of anecdotes based upon the life of Hearst, into the tight, dramatic script that it became – is fascinating. Traits from different characters were converged into one character. Scenes were deleted because of redundancy or because they really didn't drive the story. Other scenes were added. Welles revised or added 170 pages to the script after taking it over, which comprised over half the original script. Where the Kane in the original script by Mankiewicz was “cardboard,” the Kane in the gradually revised script became enigmatic and complex. Three dimensional instead of one. Some of the seamier revelations of the book were that Herman Mankiewicz, the screenwriter for the movie, had a drinking problem, which is the reason why he decided to do his work away from the Hollywood spotlight. Welles himself was portrayed as a bit of a narcissist at times. For instance, Carringer asserts that, despite the intense work that Mankiewicz put into the script before the Welles revisions, Welles intended that only he, Welles, would get credit for the writing of the script. In the end, Welles had to relent to Mankiewicz, but not before Mankiewicz fought back and built a word of mouth campaign to save his legacy. As it turned out, the screenplay was the only Academy Award that the film won. Next was the description of the art direction. While this chapter was not as filled with intrigue and stories about backbiting and attempted backstabbing, as was the chapter regarding the scriptwriting, this part of the story was fascinating all the same. Carringer brings what might be a stale process to non-film lovers to life. Perhaps art direction was one of the more important elements of the film, as the film was widely seen as unorthodox in its art direction overall look of the film, so the uniqueness of the process is of considerably interest. And, whatever Welles' shortcomings, one thing of which he had no shortage was vision, and the art direction was necessary to accomplish this. To this end, Perry Ferguson was brought in to work with Welles, and the two worked closely together to carry out what was necessary to bring Welles' imagination to life. Carringer describes, in painstaking detail, the storyboards, sketches and set designs that formed the backdrop of Welles' tale. Little tidbits to fascinate the reader is thrown in for good effect – that some of the artwork survives in the Museum of Modern Art; that there were three “Rosebud” sleds, two of which were burned during the filming; and that some of the statues which adorned the set are now stored in a warehouse basement in Culver City's Laird Studios. Other anecdotes relates to some of the influences which were prominent in the set designs of the Kane mansion, including Italian palaces and Egyptian sphinxes. What is clear, however, is that everything in the set design was meticulously rendered, with no detail spared. Yet, somehow, the set only cost just under $60,000, or 7% of the budget - a bargain, considering that the average set design in a Hollywood film during this period typically ran around 10% of the budget. Perhaps the movie Citizen Kane is known for its art direction, so that chapter on this is important. But, perhaps even more important, was the chapter about cinematography, for this is the element of the film which was really considered groundbreaking for its time. Whatever else one can say about Citizen Kane, nobody can say that that the cinematography of the film was not unique and was a large part of why the film is now considered such a renowned and revered icon. To this end, Carringer emphasized that the choice of cinematographer, was, fittingly enough, somebody who was innovative, unconventional, nonconformist, and not a part of the Hollywood system – Gregg Toland. Toland was, according to Carringer, a man who was always on the cutting edge, constantly pushing the boundaries of Hollywood cinema towards the next level. He was also always on the cutting edge of technology. To this end, the marriage between him and the young, iconoclastic Welles, was a perfect one. With Welles and Toland at the helm, the movie shaped up to become the timeless masterpiece that it is partially because of the daring visual elements that were incorporated into the film. Among these, according to Carringer, was a sequence shot with light levels consisting only of the streams from a projection window and other small lights. Another unconventional scene is one which was the first of its time, which was the exaggerated moving camera effects. Another visual element which was groundbreaking was described by Carringer thusly - “The reporter enters a telephone booth to call his boss in New York. The camera looks into a cross section of the booth. The reporter stands about four feet from the camera. A wide angle lens is used on the camera to increase the depth. High contrast lighting is used in the nightclub background to enhance the sense of depth. All three depth plans are in clear focus.” (Carringer, 1985, p. 72). In other words, the scene contained three different planes, all of which are in focus and in-depth, from the extreme foreground to the extreme background. Like so many other elements of the film, this was never seen before. Carringer makes clear that Welles and Toland together were a couple of rebellious rule-breakers, much to the dismay of the conventional suits in Hollywood. Radical innovation was anathema to the Hollywood establishment, and, indeed, most of the cinematography of this movie hinged on just such innovation. Toland smashed conventions, such as diffused lighting, shallow field depth and soft tonality in favor of sharp, deep, high-contrast images and increased field depth. This was all being made possible by a number of technological innovations in the field. Among these were a new generation of arc lamps and exponentially faster film stock. Lens coating, which allowed improved light transmission by way of a microscopically thin layer of magnesium fluoride, was another innovation which made the Toler-Welles collaborative iconoclasm possible. What Toland did so brilliantly, according to Carringer, was to capitalize on these new inventions, blazing a cinematic trail with new processes and devices which, while was considered daring in this movie, has since become a part of standard filmmaking. Carringer's portrait of the relationship between the two men forms the focus of the cinematography chapter. The relationship was portrayed as a vivid game between the two, in that Welles would come up with one outlandish idea after another, and Toland would carry them out. Welles' creativity and Toland's technological ability and own creativity fueled one another, and the result was an ingenuity which was previously unheard of. What really set Citizen Kane apart, however, was not just that the visual elements were stunning and groundbreaking. It was that the visual elements harmonized perfectly with the rest of the film. Rather than being a “visual plan in search of a theme” (p. 83), as was the case in earlier films which used Toland, Citizen Kane was perfectly realized with these iconic images. Toland “got” Welles and what Welles was trying to accomplish with this film, and, because of this, the visual elements blended seamlessly into the rest of the film's elements. Sound and special effects were other elements which set the film apart. Special effects were necessary, states Carringer, because of the film's limited budget. Thus, Welles was not given the budget for rallies – special effect trickery created the rallies for him. Special effects were also used by Welles simply because Welles was fascinated by them and wanted to use them for drama. Lips whispering “Rosebud” and keys being typed on a typewriter are superimposed on one another during one memorable sequence, and this was the result of special effects as well. The film is filled with just these elements, and Carringer does an excellent job of describing them. As for the sound of the film, Carringer credits it with underscoring all of the meaning of the film, and, thus, is the reason why the story has such an impact. The sound of the film was heavily influenced by Welles' background in radio, and is, of all the elements in which Welles involved himself, was with what Welles was most familiar. In Citizen Kane, the sound was as it was recorded on the set, which gave the sound “an immediacy and spontaneity similar to that of radio shows” (p. 104). Carringer then goes on to detail the intrigue which happened during the release of the film and just before it. For one, as is well known, Hearst threatened to sue so that the film never saw the light of day. Of course, the film was able to make it through this particularly precarious time, only to suffer critical and box office disappointment. Directly after the film had its run and was shut out of major Academy Awards, it was retired to the vaults. The loss to RKO on the film was $150,000. Critics and moviegoers simply were not ready for the film, explained Carringer. Slowly, however, beginning in 1952, the film experienced a revival of sorts, aided by the invention of the television, which could play the film on a round-the-clock basis, and the emergence of art houses and film society circuits. Critics began to recognize the film for what it was, and director Peter Bogdanovich's Museum of Modern Art Welles retrospective was seen as “landmark” in the rehabilitation of the film (p. 119). The revival of the film in wide release, to coincide with Welles' return to the Broadway in King Lear, and the critical reception which accompanied this, pushed the film further still. At last, critics recognized that the film was groundbreaking and the most influential since Birth of a Nation. Eventually, the orthodoxy became that the film was America's greatest of all time and “Citizen Kane remains critically entrenched as a towering force in the history of film and the standard by which all other films are to be judged” (p. 120). Conclusion In The Making of Citizen Kane, Carringer creates an indelible portrait of not just the overall making of the movie, but of Welles himself. Welles is portrayed as a headstrong iconoclast, who sought out unconventional choices for the art director, the cinematographer, and overall look and feel of the film. He deliberately chose men who were not of the Hollywood system to help complete his vision. The studio originally wanted George Stevens for the art direction, as Stevens was known as reliable and a studio workhorse. Instead, Welles insisted on a more unconventional choice, Ferguson, who was perfect for the job not just for his brilliance in artistry but for his even temperament. The even temperament would certainly come in handy in dealing with the headstrong Welles. The choice of cinematographer, Gregg Toland, was even more unconventional, as Toland was not a creature of the Hollywood studio system. Like Welles, Toland was a rebel, and had his own way of doing things. This was also important in setting the tone for the film, as Carringer makes clear that the film that became Citizen Kane was to be unlike any other before it, and Toland helped create this unconventional film. Of course, this kind of unorthodoxy in film was not recognized in its time – critics were not ready for it, and audiences even less so. The film, after being reviled and slandered by its target, Hearst, was received only lukewarmly by the community, and it was buried for many years and forgotten. Its revival from the ashes and subsequent recognition perhaps is only fitting. This is because only the benefit of hindsight could give perspective on how great the film truly is, and how it influenced all that came after it. As with many articles of culture which are not appreciated because they are too “different,” Citizen Kane could only be deemed a masterpiece after the fact. Carringer vividly brings all the elements which made it thus to life, which makes this book a compelling masterpiece unto itself. Bibliography Carringer, R. (1985) The Making of Citizen Kane. Berkeley: University of California Press. Read More