The Special Effects in Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane had more special effects shots than one might expect, possibly even more than Star Wars. Let's take a look at some of the innovations created by Welles and his cinematographer in 1940...
In a 2002 commentary for a re-release of Citizen Kane (1941), Roger Ebert made the observation that the film probably has as many, if not more, special effects shots than Star Wars (1977). Even if that’s not true (I couldn’t find anything confirming or denying it), it definitely has more special effects shots than you would think.
You’ll always hear “deep focus photography” talked about when you hear about Citizen Kane, but what does that really mean? At the time, there was a proven formula on how films were made. You got each of the actors in a scene in close-up, the lighting very practical and efficient so you could see the actors’ handsome face, then move onto the next shot. Citizen Kane took a much more ensemble approach, very much like the radio and stage plays that Orson Welles made with his Mercury Theater cast. That’s where the deep focus photography came into play, which we’ll get into more detail later, but first, let’s explore the man who’s largely responsible for the innovation of Citizen Kane.
Much of the credit for the innovation of Citizen Kane goes to cinematographer Gregg Toland. At the time Citizen Kane was made, he was a legend in Hollywood, working with famous directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and William Wyler. He was excited about working with Orson Welles, because he knew that a green director would be open to experiment with new forms of cinematography.
The deep focus photography in Citizen Kane was achieved by using what Toland called “pan focus” which involved stopping the lens down, which allowed for the audience to see everything in the shot, giving us a choice of what to focus on rather than telling us where to look. This may seem like a rudimentary idea now, but it was groundbreaking at the time.
There were a few other innovations that came directly from Citizen Kane. One was shooting at low-angles to emphasize the importance and larger than life persona of Charles Foster Kane. As a result of this, they had to cut holes in the floor for the film cameras and they had to build ceilings on the set for interior locations. Before this, studio sets would simply show the room in a wide shot, then cut into close-ups, avoiding the ceiling at all costs, because guess what… there was no ceiling! Why would you build a ceiling? It would just cost more money. This is one of the examples of why Toland was happy to have a new director willing to experiment with new ideas and new ways of filmmaking.
Another device that was used in the film was a “traveling split-screen” effect, which would combine multiple images to make it appear like one complete shot. This is used many times in the film, but perhaps the best example of it is when Susan Alexander, Kane’s second wife in the film, is bombing in her opera performance. The camera starts at the stage, then goes up to two men on the cat-walk, one of them pinching his nose as if to say “she really stinks.” That’s pretty rude, but I’m not here to criticize the guy. At first, this was just a simple shot that was going to pan up to the two men from the stage, but Welles wanted there to be more of a journey involved in getting up there to the cat-walk. In between the stage and the cat-walk, it seamlessly cuts to a matte painting of curtains and sets backstage, then we find our way up to the two men. It’s a beautiful shot that says so much with so little.
One of the other key components of the special effects in Citizen Kane is the optical printer. An optical printer is a device attached to the film camera that allows filmmakers to re-photograph one or more strips of film (you can see it in the photo above with Welles and Toland for reference). This is the way that special effects have been created in film throughout history. Nowadays, I’m sure you wouldn’t need to use it because of digital technology, but there might be some cases, as in an experimental project.
However, the optical printer was used all throughout Citizen Kane to create special effects. In areas that seem obvious (the snow globe scene with the nurse’s reflection), and other places where it’s a bit more subtle, like when Susan Alexander overdoses. The glass and the spoon are on the bedside table in the foreground, which was one shot, then there’s Susan Alexander in bed with Charles Foster Kane coming in through the door in the background, which makes up shot number two. Here’s a photograph illustrating this:
There are many other instances of the optical printer being used, but I can only get to so many in this little post. If you’re interested in learning more, I highly recommend reading this article by Roger Ebert, who sums up the visual effects in Citizen Kane way better than I ever could.
Orson Welles and Gregg Toland had a near perfect collaboration with Citizen Kane. Toland had the knowledge and expertise, while Welles had the storytelling chops and fresh perspective that created such a fruitful collaboration where their experiments paid off in everyway imaginable. Citizen Kane created much of the film language that we use today, and without the innovations it inspired, we still wouldn’t ever see ceilings in film and TV.
Sources
In researching this post, I listened to Roger Ebert’s audio commentary from 2002 as well as the article A Viewer's Companion to 'Citizen Kane’, which I mentioned above. I also watched a segment from the Criterion Collection with film scholars and effects experts Craig Barron and Ben Burtt.
In researching the optical printer, I came across this article that had some pretty good information about the history of the machine if you’re looking to learn more.