About

Widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest films of all time, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is the story of a reporter (William Alland) tasked with a complex assignment. He must decipher the meaning of the enigmatic media magnate, Charles Foster Kane’s (Orson Welles), dying words by interviewing those who knew him. Much of the narrative of the film is crafted through the interplay of light and shadow, denoting truth, power and secrecy.

After working in theatre and radio, Citizen Kane was Orson Welles’ first film, and as such, his approach to the medium was unorthodox, allowing for new forms of experimentation with staging and light. Cinematographer, Gregg Toland, requested to work on the film so that he could test his unconventional ‘pan-focus’ techniques. This form of deep focus cinematography required using a tiny aperture (letting very little light into the camera), but enabled narratives to unfold in a single shot, using the foreground, middle ground and background to craft complex and layered storytelling without the need for cuts. Welles also sought a form of realism in his sets, and his use of low angle shots meant that rooms required ceilings. This unusual framing meant that the 110 sets created for the film could not be lit from above, and resulted the film’s theatrical underlighting. In an almost unprecedented instance, Gregg Toland’s integral role in manipulating light to underpin the film's narrative is marked by the fact that Welles shared his Direction/Production title card with his cinematographer, who he described as "the best director of photography that ever existed".