Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a world famous film, some even say it is the greatest. Orson Welles, director, actor, and producer of the film, collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz and Gregg Toland to create this masterpiece. Welles worked with Mankiewicz on the script and Toland was the cinematographer. Their budget was $800,000 and was filmed in a short amount of time. One of the reasons why this film was so great is because of its innovative uses of technology. They tried new techniques for editing, photography, and sound. Even the narrative and cinematic techniques were amazing for its time. It used things like a subjective camera, deep-focus shots, elaborate camera movements, over-lapping, talk-over dialogue and layered sound, and many transitionary dissolves. The story was told by different characters and from different points of view and perspectives. Although some considered it to be a great film, it was surrounded by controversy. The film seemed to fictionalize and portray the life of Willliam Randolph Hearst, who at the time was a powerful newspaper mogul and publisher, in an unfavorable way. It was said to be unflattering and having uncomplimentary parallels to real life. There was even a documentary about the controversy called The Battle Over Citizen Kane. Hearst wanted the film to be boycotted and threatened lawsuits. It was not a huge success when it was released, but it received nine Oscar nominations and won one Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
work cited: http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html