Tema: Film
Tip: Plakat

46 x 30 cm
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Građanin Kejn (engl. Citizen Kane) je američki dramski film iz 1941. godine, režisera, producenta i glavnog glumca Orsona Velsa, koji je i napisao scenario zajedno sa Hermanom Dž. Mankevicom. Ovo je bio Velsov prvi dugometražni film, a mnogi kritičari i stručnjaci ga smatraju najboljim filmom ikada snimljenim. Pedeset uzastopnih godina nalazio se na prvom mestu ankete filmskih kritičara Britanskog filmskog instituta, kao i na vrhu liste 100 godina AFI-ja... 100 filmova 1998. i ažuriranom izdanju iz 2007. godine. Bio je nominovan za devet Oskara, a osvojio je onog za najbolji scenario. Građanin Kejn je hvaljen zbog kinematografije Grega Tolanda, montaže Roberta Vajza, muzike Bernarda Hermana i svoje narativne strukture, a sve ovo je smatrano inovativnim i predstavljalo je presedan.

Ovaj kvazi-biografski film istražuje život i nasleđe Čarlsa Fostera Kejna, koga igra Vels, kompozitnog karaktera zasnovanog na američkim medijskim baronima Vilijamu Randolfu Herstu i Džozefu Puliceru, čikaškim tajkunima Samjuelu Insulu i Haroldu Makormiku, kao i aspektima sopstvenih života dvojice scenarista. Po objavljivanju, Herst je zabranio da se film pominje u njegovim novinama.

Nakon brodvejskog uspeha Velsovog Merkjuri teatra i kontroverzne radio emisije „Rat svetova” iz 1938, Velsa je kontaktirao Holivud. Potpisao je ugovor sa kompanijom RKO Pictures 1939. godine. Iako je to bilo neobično za nekoga ko još nije režirao nijedan film, dobio je slobodu da razvije sopstvenu priču, da koristi sopstvenu glumačku i filmsku ekipu i da ima privilegiju konačne verzije filma. Nakon dva neuspela pokušaja da pokrene projekat, napisao je scenario za Građanina Kejna, u saradnji sa Mankevicom. Film je snimljen 1940, a objavljen je 1941. godine.

Iako je ostvario kritički uspeh, Građanin Kejn nije uspeo da nadoknadi svoje troškove na bioskopskim blagajnama. Film se vratio u pažnju javnosti kada su ga pohvalili francuski kritičari kao što je Andre Bazen i ponovo je objavljen 1956. godine. Kongresna biblioteka ga je 1989. odabrala kao jedan od prvih 25 filmova za očuvanje u Nacionalnom registru filmova Sjedinjenih Država zbog „kulturološkog, istorijskog ili estetskog značaja”.

U vili poznatoj kao Ksanadu, delu ogromnog dvorskog imanja na Floridi, ostareli Čarls Foster Kejn je na samrti. Držeći snežnu kuglu, on izgovara reči „Ružin pupoljak” i umire. Čitulja u filmskim novostima iznosi životnu priču Kejna, enormno bogatog novinskog izdavača i industrijskog magnata. Kejnova smrt postaje senzacionalna vest širom sveta, a producent žurnala zadaje reporteru Džeriju Tompsonu da otkrije značenje reči „Ružin pupoljak”.

Tompson počinje da intervjuiše Kejnove prijatelje i saradnike. Pokušava da priđe njegovoj drugoj ženi, Suzan Aleksander Kejn, sada alkoholičarki koja vodi sopstveni noćni klub, ali ona odbija da razgovara sa njim. Tompson odlazi u privatnu arhivu pokojnog bankara Voltera Parksa Tačera. Kroz Tačerove pisane memoare, Tompson saznaje za Kejnov uspon iz pansiona u Koloradu i pad njegovog ličnog bogatstva.

Godine 1871. zlato je otkriveno kroz rudarski dokument koji je pripadao Kejnovoj majci, Meri Kejn. Ona je unajmila Tačera da uspostavi trust koji će Kejnu obezbediti obrazovanje, kao i da preuzme starateljstvo nad njim. Dok su roditelji i Tačer razgovarali o aranžmanima u pansionu, mladi Kejn se veselo igrao sa sankama po snegu napolju. Kada su ga roditelji upoznali sa Tačerom, Kejn ga je udario sankama i bezuspešno pokušao da pobegne.

U vreme kada je Kejn sa 25 godina stekao kontrolu nad svojim trustom, produktivnost rudnika i Tačerova razborita ulaganja učinili su ga jednim od najbogatijih ljudi na svetu. Preuzeo je kontrolu nad novinama New York Inquirer i započeo karijeru žutog novinarstva, objavljujući skandalozne članke koji su napadali Tačerove (i njegove) poslovne interese. Kejn je prodao svoje novinsko carstvo Tačeru nakon što je usled kraha berze 1929. ostao bez novca.

Tompson intervjuiše Kejnovog ličnog poslovnog menadžera, gospodina Bernstina. Bernstin se seća da je Kejn unajmio najbolje raspoložive novinare da bi poboljšao cirkulaciju svojih novina. Kejn se uspeo na vlast tako što je uspešno manipulisao javnim mnjenjem o Špansko-američkom ratu i oženio se Emili Norton, nećakom predsednika Sjedinjenih Država.

Tompson intervjuiše Kejnovu otuđenog najboljeg prijatelja, Džedediju Lilanda, u domu za penzionere. Liland kaže da je Kejnov brak sa Emili propao tokom godina, kao i da je on započeo aferu sa amaterskom pevačicom Suzan Aleksander dok se kandidovao za guvernera Njujorka. I njegova supruga i njegov politički protivnik otkrili su aferu, a javni skandal je okončao njegovu političku karijeru. Kejn se oženio Suzan i naterao je na ponižavajuću opersku karijeru za koju nije imala ni talenta ni ambicije, a čak je izgradio i veliku operu za nju. Nakon što je Liland počeo da piše negativnu recenziju na Suzanin operski debi, Kejn ga je otpustio, ali je lično završio negativnu recenziju i štampao je.

Suzan pristaje na intervju sa Tompsonom i opisuje posledice svoje operske karijere. Kejn joj je konačno dozvolio da napusti pevanje nakon što je pokušala da izvrši samoubistvo. Nakon godina provedenih pod Kejnovom dominacijom i života u izolaciji u Ksanaduu, napustila ga je. Kejnov batler Rejmond priča da je, nakon što ga je Suzan napustila, on počeo nasilno da uništava njenu spavaću sobu. Kada je naišao na snežnu kuglu, smirio se i rekao „Ružin pupoljak”. Tompson zaključuje da nije u stanju da reši misteriju i da će značenje Kejnovih poslednjih reči zauvek ostati misterija.

U Ksanaduu, osoblje katalogizuje ili odbacuje Kejnove stvari. Pronalaze sanke na kojima se osmogodišnji Kejn igrao na dan kada je odveden iz svoje kuće u Koloradu. Bacaju ih sa drugim otpadom u peć i, dok gore, kamera otkriva natpis na njima, koje osoblje ne primećuje: „Ružin pupoljak”.

Tokom produkcije, radni naslov Građanina Kejna bio je RKO 281. Snimanje je obavljeno između 29. juna i 23. oktobra 1940. Vels je šefovima studija zabranio dolazak na set. Shvatao je njihovu želju da kontrolišu projekte, te je znao da su očekivali da snimi uzbudljiv film koji će biti nalik radio-drami Rat svetova. Velsov ugovor sa RKO-om dao mu je potpunu kontrolu nad produkcijom filma, nešto što mu nikad kasnije nije bilo dopušteno.

Građanin Kejn izazvao je bezbroj interpretacija tokom proteklih decenija. U knjizi Orsona Velsa: Halo Amerikanci, Sajmon Kejlou tvrdi da Građanin Kejn ne bi trebalo da se shvati samo kao fiktivno nego i kao postfiktivno delo: delo koje privlači publiku da gleda samu sebe dok gleda film. U recenziji iz 1941, Horhe Luis Borhes nazvao je Građanina Kejna „metafizičkom detektivskom pričom” u kojoj je „... (njegov) predmet (psihološki i alegorijski) istraga čovekove unutrašnjosti, preko dela koje je napravio, reči koje je izrekao, mnogih života koje je uništio...” Borhes je naglasio da „Neodoljivo, beskrajno, Orson Vels prikazuje fragmente života čoveka, Čarlsa Fostera Kejna, i poziva nas da ih spojimo i da ga rekonstruišemo.” Kao i, „Film vrvi raznolikostima i nepodudarnostima: prve scene prikazuju blago koje Kejn nagomilava; u jednoj od poslednjih, usamljena žena u raskoši, ali s patnjom u licu, sastavlja slagalicu na podu palate koja je u isto vreme muzej.” Borhes ističe: „Na kraju shvatamo da fragmenti ne čine jedan sklad: omrznuti Čarls Foster Kejn je utvara, haos pojava.”

Film kombinuje revolucionarnu fotografiju sa Oskarom nagrađenim scenarijom (koji su napisali Vels i Herman Dž. Mankevic), i postavu glumaca filmskih debitanata.

Novinareva misija traženja značenja Kejnove poslednje reči vodi ga tome da na kraju zaključuje da se čovekov život ne može rezimirati u jednoj reči. Dok skuplja delove slagalice, shvata da je „pupoljak” „deo koji nedostaje” u njegovom životu. Film se sastoji od fragmenata Kejnovog života, prikazanih u nehronološkom redosledu, tako da ih gledalac može poslagati.

Nakon što ga je napustila druga žena, Kejn počinje da uništava njenu sobu. Zgrabio je snežnu kuglu i kad je mislio da je baci, ugledao je kako u njoj padaju pahuljice snega, nakon čega je promrmljao Pupoljak, usled evociranja još jedne uspomene na događaj.

Druga tema razložena u filmu je ograničenost moći i novca. Iako je Kejn neverovatno bogat i moćan, on ne uspeva da iskoristi to bogatstvo i moć kako bi pobedio na izborima za guvernera, promoviše svoju drugu ženu, Susan, kao opersku zvezdu, ili da zadobije ljubav i odanost onih koji ga okružuju. Na kraju je prikazan kao usamljeni starac, zatvoren u Ksanaduu, ukrašenoj palati koju je izgradio kako bi zadovoljio svoj ego. Njegove skupocene stvari ne mogu da zamene emocionalni gubitak koji je pretrpeo u svom životu.

Druge manje zastupljene teme su rad medija (stvaranje dnevnika, vođenje novina), prevrtljivost vremena (prikazana u raznim uspomenama likova, kao i nemogućnost da se pobegne od prošlosti) i sjaj i beda američkog sna.

Poznavaoci i istoričari filma videli su Građanina Kejna kao Velsov pokušaj da stvori novi stil snimanja filmova korištenjem raznih filmskih tehnika, kombinujući ih sve u jedno (kao i Rađanje jedne nacije D. V. Grifita iz 1915). Velsov glumački stil takođe se može interpretirati kao rani primer metodične glume. Na primer, scena kad Kejn iskaljuje svoj bes s vrha stepeništa na svog političkog rivala Džima Getisa. Vels se spotaknuo i iščašio gležanj tokom snimanja ove scene, ali kamere su nastavile da snimaju, a scena je završila u konačnoj verziji. Kao režiser, Vels nije podnosio glumce koji su se okretali metodičnoj glumi, smatrajući ih nepouzdanima. Voleo je da radi sa glumcima koji su bili prilagodljivi i uvek spremni za rad. Vels je, kao glumac, često praktikovao da čita tekst naglas i provodio više vremena pamteći rečenice (za šta mu nikad nije trebalo mnogo vremena), dok se nije mentalno pripremio. Međutim, postoje neki primeri u Građaninu Kejnu kad se Vels bio zaneo ulogom. U slavnoj sceni iz filma, Kejn golim rukama uništava spavaću sobu svoje druge žene nakon što ga ostavila. Prema biografima, nakon što je Vels uništio sobu i kad je snimanje bilo gotovo, oteturao je s krvavim rukama mrmljajući u bradu, „Osetio sam. Osetio sam.”

Najinovativniji tehnički aspekt Građanina Kejna bilo je korištenje dubinskog kadra. U gotovo svakoj sceni u filmu, prednji plan, pozadina i sve u sredini je u izoštrenom fokusu. To je ostvareno uz pomoć slavnog snimatelja Grega Tolanda putem njegovih eksperimenata sa sočivima i osvetljenjem. Kad god dubinski kadar nije bio moguć - na primer u sceni kad Kejn završava čitanje loše recenzije Aleksandrine opere dok u isto vreme otpušta osobu koja je napisala recenziju - Toland je koristio optičke printere kako bi se celi kadar prikazao u fokusu (jedan deo filma otisnut je na drugi deo filma).

Još jedna neortodoksna metoda korištena u filmu bili su niskougaoni kadrovi, u kojima su u pozadini mnogih scena prikazani plafoni. Budući da su filmovi u to vreme većinom bili snimani u studijima, a ne na lokacijama, bilo je nemoguće snimati iz ugla koji bi pokazivao plafone, jer ih setovi nisu ni imali. Velsova ekipa je koristila musline kojima su prekriveni setovi kako bi se proizvela iluzija uobičajene sobe sa plafonom, dok su mikrofoni bili skriveni iznad platna.

Jedna od pripovedačkih tehnika uvedenih u ovom filmu bilo je korištenje epizodnih prizora na istom setu dok su likovi menjali kostime i šminku između dva snimanja kako bi scena iza svakog snimanja izgledala kao da se događa na istoj lokaciji, ali vremenski puno kasnije u odnosu na prethodnu. Vels je na ovaj način prikazao raspad Kejnovog prvog braka, pa je tako nešto što se događalo godinama prikazano u nekoliko minuta. Pre ove tehnike, režiseri su na filmu morali dugo da objašnjavaju promenjene okolnosti. Na primer, u remekdelu Eriha fon Štrogejma Pohlepa, raspad braka glavnog junaka trajao je skoro sat vremena, čak i u najkraćoj verziji.

Vels je uveo i neke vizuelne efekte kako bi jeftino snimio scena mase i velike enterijere. Na primer, scena u kojoj se kamera u operi dramatično podiže do potkrovlja kako bi prikazala radnike koji se rugaju nastupu druge gospođe Kejn snimljena je pomicanjem kamere iznad pozornice, nakon čega se spušta zastor. Zastor se otvara, a kamera sada prikazuje radnike u višem delu opere.

Film je udario temelje novim tehnikama specijalnih efekata uz pomoć šminke, koje je stvorio šminkerski umetnik Mel Berns, verodostojno postarivši glumce za nekoliko decenija u svrhu priče. Primer su mutna kontaktna sočiva koja su Kotena prikazala kao starca. Vels je kasnije tvrdio da je šminka korištena i na njemu za scenu u kojoj se pojavljuje kao mladić.

Vels je doneo svoje iskustvo sa zvukom sa radija. U jednoj sceni, stariji Kejn udara Susan u šatoru na plaži, a dva lika nemo zure jedno u drugo dok se u pozadini može čuti kako se na obližnjoj zabavi žena histerično smeje. Njena nepostojanost ukazuje na Susanine i Kejnove patnje. Vels je drugde vešto iskoristio zvučne efekte kako bi kreirao atmosferu, kao što je ledeni odjek monumentalne biblioteke, gde se novinaru suprotstavlja preterano uslužni bibliotekar.

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Među filmskom kritikom i publikom široko je rasprostranjeno mišljenje da je ovaj film remek-delo filmske umetnosti i često se navodi kao „najbolji film svih vremena“. U anketi poznatih reditelja, koja je prvi put sprovela 1992, „Građanin Kejn“ se takođe našao na vrhu. Film se takođe našao na vrhu oba spiska „100 godina... 100 filmova“, spiska najboljih američkih filmova, koji je sastavio Američki filmski institut.

1. Citizen Kane (1941) ·
2. Casablanca (1942) ·
3. The Godfather (1972) ·
4. Gone with the Wind (1939) ·
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) ·
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939)......................................

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Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film directed, produced by, and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, and was Welles`s first feature film. The quasi-biographical film examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a composite character based on American media barons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, and Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick, as well as aspects of the screenwriters` own lives.

After the Broadway success of Welles`s Mercury Theatre and the controversial 1938 radio broadcast `The War of the Worlds` on The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Welles was courted by Hollywood. He signed a contract with RKO Pictures in 1939. Although it was unusual for an untried director, he was given freedom to develop his own story, to use his own cast and crew, and to have final cut privilege. Following two abortive attempts to get a project off the ground, he wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane with Herman J. Mankiewicz. Principal photography took place in 1940, the same year that its innovative trailer was shown, and the film was released in 1941.

Upon its release, Hearst prohibited any mention of the film in his newspapers.[6] Although it was a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs at the box office. The film faded from view after its release, but returned to public attention when it was praised by French critics such as André Bazin and re-released in 1956. In 1958, the film was voted number nine on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo.

Citizen Kane is frequently cited as the greatest film ever made. For 50 years (five decennial polls: 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2002), it stood at number one in the British Film Institute`s Sight and Sound decennial poll,[8] and it topped the American Film Institute`s 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. The Library of Congress selected Citizen Kane as an inductee of the 1989 inaugural group of 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being `culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant`. The film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories and it won for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Mankiewicz and Welles. Citizen Kane is praised for Gregg Toland`s cinematography, Robert Wise`s editing, Bernard Herrmann`s score and its narrative structure, all of which have been considered innovative and precedent-setting.

On a vast palatial estate in Florida, elderly wealthy newspaper publisher and industry magnate Charles Foster Kane dies in his mansion, Xanadu, uttering his last word, `Rosebud`. With Kane`s death sensational news around the world, a newsreel producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of `Rosebud`. Thompson sets out to interview Kane`s friends and associates. He tries to approach Kane`s second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic nightclub owner, but she refuses to talk to him.

Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher, where he learns of Kane`s early years in a Colorado boarding house. When gold was discovered in 1871 through a mining deed belonging to Kane`s mother, Mary Kane, she hired Thatcher to establish a trust that would provide for Kane`s education and assume guardianship of him, protecting him from his brutal father. While the young Kane plays happily in the snow with his sled, his parents introduced him to Thatcher and told him he would live with him, prompting the boy to angrily strike Thatcher with his sled and attempt to run away.

At age 25, Kane gained control of his trust and, through the mine`s productivity and Thatcher`s shrewd investing, becomes one of the richest men in the world. Kane bought the New York Inquirer newspaper and embarked on a career of yellow journalism, publishing scandalous articles that attacked Thatcher`s (and his own) business interests. Thompson interviews Kane`s personal business manager, Mr. Bernstein, who recalls that Kane hired the best journalists available to build the Inquirer`s circulation. Kane rose to power by successfully manipulating public opinion regarding the Spanish–American War and marrying Emily Norton, the niece of the President of the United States, before eventually selling the newspaper to Thatcher in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash.

Thompson interviews Kane`s estranged best friend, Jedediah Leland, in a retirement home. Leland says that Kane`s marriage to Emily disintegrated over the years, despite their having a son, and he began an affair with amateur singer Susan Alexander while running for Governor of New York as a `fighting liberal`. His opponent, Jim W. Gettys, discovered the affair, revealing it to Emily and the press, the public scandal ending Kane`s political career. Kane married Susan and forced her into becoming an opera singer, which she had neither talent nor ambition for, and built a large opera house in Chicago for her to perform in. Kane fired Leland from the Inquirer after he wrote a bad review of Susan`s disastrous opera debut, finishing and printing the negative review himself. Susan protested that she never wanted the opera career anyway, but Kane forced her to continue the season.

Susan consents to an interview with Thompson and describes the aftermath of her opera career, which Kane allowed her to end after she attempted suicide. After many unhappy years at Xanadu, Kane and Susan`s relationship turns bitter and violent, prompting Susan to leave. Kane`s butler Raymond recounts that, after Susan moved out of Xanadu, Kane began violently destroying the contents of her former bedroom. When Kane discovered a snow globe, he calmed down and tearfully said `Rosebud`. Having exhausted every lead, Thompson concludes that he cannot solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kane`s last word will remain unknown. Kane`s possessions at Xanadu are catalogued or discarded by the mansion`s staff, who find the sled the eight-year-old Kane was playing on the day he was taken from his home in Colorado, and throw it into a furnace with other items. Unbeknownst to anyone, the sled`s trade name is `Rosebud`.

The beginning of the film`s ending credits states that `Most of the principal actors in Citizen Kane are new to motion pictures. The Mercury Theatre is proud to introduce them.` The cast is then listed in the following order, with Orson Welles` credit for playing Charles Foster Kane appearing last:

Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland, Kane`s best friend and drama critic for The Inquirer. Cotten also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane, Kane`s mistress and second wife.
Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane, Kane`s mother.
Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane, Kane`s first wife.
Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys, Kane`s political rival for the post of Governor of New York.
Erskine Sanford as Herbert Carter, editor of The Inquirer. Sanford also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, Kane`s friend and business manager at The Inquirer.
William Alland as Jerry Thompson, a reporter for News on the March. Alland also voices the narrator of the News on the March newsreel.
Paul Stewart as Raymond, Kane`s butler.
George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher, a banker who becomes Kane`s legal guardian.
Fortunio Bonanova as Signor Matiste, vocal coach of Susan Alexander Kane.
Gus Schilling as John, headwaiter at the El Rancho nightclub. Schilling also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Philip Van Zandt as Mr. Rawlston, News on the March producer.
Georgia Backus as Bertha Anderson, attendant at the library of Walter Parks Thatcher.
Harry Shannon as Jim Kane, Kane`s father.
Sonny Bupp as Charles Foster Kane III, Kane`s son.
Buddy Swan as Charles Foster Kane, age eight.
Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy newspaper publisher.
Additionally, Charles Bennett appears as the entertainer at the head of the chorus line in the Inquirer party sequence,: 40–41  and cinematographer Gregg Toland makes a cameo appearance as an interviewer depicted in part of the News on the March newsreel. Actor Alan Ladd, still unknown at that time, makes a small appearance as a reporter smoking a pipe at the end of the film.

Hollywood had shown interest in Welles as early as 1936.: 40  He turned down three scripts sent to him by Warner Bros. In 1937, he declined offers from David O. Selznick, who asked him to head his film company`s story department, and William Wyler, who wanted him for a supporting role in Wuthering Heights. `Although the possibility of making huge amounts of money in Hollywood greatly attracted him,` wrote biographer Frank Brady, `he was still totally, hopelessly, insanely in love with the theater, and it is there that he had every intention of remaining to make his mark.`: 118–119, 130 

Following the 1938 `The War of the Worlds` broadcast of his CBS radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Welles was lured to Hollywood with a remarkable contract.: 1–2, 153  RKO Pictures studio head George J. Schaefer wanted to work with Welles after the notorious broadcast, believing that Welles had a gift for attracting mass attention.: 170  RKO was also uncharacteristically profitable and was entering into a series of independent production contracts that would add more artistically prestigious films to its roster: 1–2, 153  Throughout the spring and early summer of 1939, Schaefer constantly tried to lure the reluctant Welles to Hollywood.: 170  Welles was in financial trouble after failure of his plays Five Kings and The Green Goddess. At first he simply wanted to spend three months in Hollywood and earn enough money to pay his debts and fund his next theatrical season.: 170  Welles first arrived on July 20, 1939,: 168  and on his first tour, he called the movie studio `the greatest electric train set a boy ever had`.: 174 

Welles signed his contract with RKO on August 21, which stipulated that Welles would act in, direct, produce and write two films. Mercury would get $100,000 for the first film by January 1, 1940, plus 20% of profits after RKO recouped $500,000, and $125,000 for a second film by January 1, 1941, plus 20% of profits after RKO recouped $500,000. The most controversial aspect of the contract was granting Welles complete artistic control of the two films so long as RKO approved both projects` stories: 169  and the budget did not exceed $500,000.: 1–2, 153  RKO executives would not be allowed to see any footage until Welles chose to show it to them, and no cuts could be made to either film without Welles`s approval.: 169  Welles was allowed to develop the story without interference, select his own cast and crew, and have the right of final cut. Granting the final cut privilege was unprecedented for a studio because it placed artistic considerations over financial investment. The contract was deeply resented in the film industry, and the Hollywood press took every opportunity to mock RKO and Welles. Schaefer remained a great supporter: 1–2, 153  and saw the unprecedented contract as good publicity.: 170  Film scholar Robert L. Carringer wrote, `The simple fact seems to be that Schaefer believed Welles was going to pull off something really big almost as much as Welles did himself.`

Welles spent the first five months of his RKO contract trying to get his first project going, without success. `They are laying bets over on the RKO lot that the Orson Welles deal will end up without Orson ever doing a picture there,` wrote The Hollywood Reporter.: 15  It was agreed that Welles would film Heart of Darkness, previously adapted for The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which would be presented entirely through a first-person camera. After elaborate pre-production and a day of test shooting with a hand-held camera—unheard of at the time—the project never reached production because Welles was unable to trim $50,000 from its budget. 30–31  Schaefer told Welles that the $500,000 budget could not be exceeded; as war loomed, revenue was declining sharply in Europe by the fall of 1939.: 215–216 

He then started work on the idea that became Citizen Kane. Knowing the script would take time to prepare, Welles suggested to RKO that while that was being done—`so the year wouldn`t be lost`—he make a humorous political thriller. Welles proposed The Smiler with a Knife, from a novel by Cecil Day-Lewis.: 33–34  When that project stalled in December 1939, Welles began brainstorming other story ideas with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who had been writing Mercury radio scripts. `Arguing, inventing, discarding, these two powerful, headstrong, dazzlingly articulate personalities thrashed toward Kane`, wrote biographer Richard Meryman.

I wished to make a motion picture which was not a narrative of action so much as an examination of character. For this, I desired a man of many sides and many aspects. It was my idea to show that six or more people could have as many widely divergent opinions concerning the nature of a single personality...There have been many motion pictures and novels rigorously obeying the formula of the `success story`. I wished to do something quite different. I wished to make a picture which might be called a `failure story`.

— Press statement issued by Welles regarding the impending release of Citizen Kane (January 15, 1941: 283–285 
One of the long-standing controversies about Citizen Kane has been the authorship of the screenplay.[22]: 237  Welles conceived the project with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was writing radio plays for Welles`s CBS Radio series, The Campbell Playhouse.: 16  Mankiewicz based the original outline on the life of William Randolph Hearst, whom he knew socially and came to hate after being exiled from Hearst`s circle. 

In February 1940 Welles supplied Mankiewicz with 300 pages of notes and put him under contract to write the first draft screenplay under the supervision of John Houseman, Welles`s former partner in the Mercury Theatre. Welles later explained, `I left him on his own finally, because we`d started to waste too much time haggling. So, after mutual agreements on storyline and character, Mank went off with Houseman and did his version, while I stayed in Hollywood and wrote mine.`: 54  Taking these drafts, Welles drastically condensed and rearranged them, then added scenes of his own. The industry accused Welles of underplaying Mankiewicz`s contribution to the script, but Welles countered the attacks by saying, `At the end, naturally, I was the one making the picture, after all—who had to make the decisions. I used what I wanted of Mank`s and, rightly or wrongly, kept what I liked of my own.`: 54 

The contract stated that Mankiewicz was to receive no credit for his work, as he was hired as a script doctor.: 487  Before he signed the contract Mankiewicz was advised by his agents that all credit for his work belonged to Welles and the Mercury Theatre, the `author and creator`.: 236–237  As the film neared release, however, Mankiewicz began wanting a writing credit and even threatened to take out full-page advertisements in trade papers and to get his friend Ben Hecht to write an exposé for The Saturday Evening Post. Mankiewicz also threatened to go to the Screen Writers Guild and claim full credit for writing the entire script by himself.: 204 

After lodging a protest with the Screen Writers Guild, Mankiewicz withdrew it, then vacillated. The question was resolved in January 1941 when the studio, RKO Pictures, awarded Mankiewicz credit. The guild credit form listed Welles first, Mankiewicz second. Welles`s assistant Richard Wilson said that the person who circled Mankiewicz`s name in pencil, then drew an arrow that put it in first place, was Welles. The official credit reads, `Screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles`.: 264–265  Mankiewicz`s rancor toward Welles grew over the remaining twelve years of his life.: 498 

Questions over the authorship of the Citizen Kane screenplay were revived in 1971 by influential film critic Pauline Kael, whose controversial 50,000-word essay `Raising Kane` was commissioned as an introduction to the shooting script in The Citizen Kane Book,: 494  published in October 1971. In it she called Citizen Kane the `culmination` of that `sustained feat of careless magic we call `thirties comedy." The book-length essay first appeared in February 1971, in two consecutive issues of The New Yorker magazine.: 494  In the ensuing controversy, Welles was defended by colleagues, critics, biographers and scholars, but his reputation was damaged by its charges.: 394  The essay`s thesis was later questioned and some of Kael`s findings were also contested in later years.

Questions of authorship continued to come into sharper focus with Carringer`s 1978 thoroughly researched essay, `The Scripts of Citizen Kane`. Carringer studied the collection of script records—`almost a day-to-day record of the history of the scripting`—that was then still intact at RKO. He reviewed all seven drafts and concluded that `the full evidence reveals that Welles`s contribution to the Citizen Kane script was not only substantial but definitive.`

Citizen Kane was a rare film in that its principal roles were played by actors new to motion pictures. Ten were billed as Mercury Actors, members of the skilled repertory company assembled by Welles for the stage and radio performances of the Mercury Theatre, an independent theater company he founded with Houseman in 1937.`He loved to use the Mercury players,` wrote biographer Charles Higham, `and consequently he launched several of them on movie careers.`

The film represents the feature film debuts of William Alland, Ray Collins, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, Paul Stewart and Welles himself. Despite never having appeared in feature films, some of the cast members were already well known to the public. Cotten had recently become a Broadway star in the hit play The Philadelphia Story with Katharine Hepburn: 187  and Sloane was well known for his role on the radio show The Goldbergs.: 187  Mercury actor George Coulouris was a star of the stage in New York and London.

Not all of the cast came from the Mercury Players. Welles cast Dorothy Comingore, an actress who played supporting parts in films since 1938 using the name `Linda Winters`, as Susan Alexander Kane. A discovery of Charlie Chaplin, Comingore was recommended to Welles by Chaplin,: 170  who then met Comingore at a party in Los Angeles and immediately cast her.: 44 

Welles had met stage actress Ruth Warrick while visiting New York on a break from Hollywood and remembered her as a good fit for Emily Norton Kane,: 188  later saying that she looked the part.: 169  Warrick told Carringer that she was struck by the extraordinary resemblance between herself and Welles`s mother when she saw a photograph of Beatrice Ives Welles. She characterized her own personal relationship with Welles as motherly.

`He trained us for films at the same time that he was training himself,` recalled Agnes Moorehead. `Orson believed in good acting, and he realized that rehearsals were needed to get the most from his actors. That was something new in Hollywood: nobody seemed interested in bringing in a group to rehearse before scenes were shot. But Orson knew it was necessary, and we rehearsed every sequence before it was shot.`

When The March of Time narrator Westbrook Van Voorhis asked for $25,000 to narrate the News on the March sequence, Alland demonstrated his ability to imitate Van Voorhis, and Welles cast him.

Welles later said that casting character actor Gino Corrado in the small part of the waiter at the El Rancho broke his heart. Corrado had appeared in many Hollywood films, often as a waiter, and Welles wanted all of the actors to be new to films.: 171  Other uncredited roles went to Thomas A. Curran as Teddy Roosevelt in the faux newsreel; Richard Baer as Hillman, a man at Madison Square Garden, and a man in the News on the March screening room; and Alan Ladd, Arthur O`Connell and Louise Currie as reporters at Xanadu.

Production advisor Miriam Geiger quickly compiled a handmade film textbook for Welles, a practical reference book of film techniques that he studied carefully. He then taught himself filmmaking by matching its visual vocabulary to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which he ordered from the Museum of Modern Art,: 173  and films by Frank Capra, René Clair, Fritz Lang, King Vidor: 1172 : 1171  and Jean Renoir.: 209  The one film he genuinely studied was John Ford`s Stagecoach,: 29  which he watched 40 times. `As it turned out, the first day I ever walked onto a set was my first day as a director,` Welles said. `I`d learned whatever I knew in the projection room—from Ford. After dinner every night for about a month, I`d run Stagecoach, often with some different technician or department head from the studio, and ask questions. `How was this done?` `Why was this done?` It was like going to school.`

Welles`s cinematographer for the film was Gregg Toland, described by Welles as `just then, the number-one cameraman in the world.` To Welles`s astonishment, Toland visited him at his office and said, `I want you to use me on your picture.` He had seen some of the Mercury stage productions (including Caesar and said he wanted to work with someone who had never made a movie.: 59  RKO hired Toland on loan from Samuel Goldwyn Productions: 10  in the first week of June 1940.

`And he never tried to impress us that he was doing any miracles,` Welles recalled. `I was calling for things only a beginner would have been ignorant enough to think anybody could ever do, and there he was, doing them.`Toland later explained that he wanted to work with Welles because he anticipated the first-time director`s inexperience and reputation for audacious experimentation in the theater would allow the cinematographer to try new and innovative camera techniques that typical Hollywood films would never have allowed him to do.  Unaware of filmmaking protocol, Welles adjusted the lights on set as he was accustomed to doing in the theater; Toland quietly re-balanced them, and was angry when one of the crew informed Welles that he was infringing on Toland`s responsibilities. During the first few weeks of June, Welles had lengthy discussions about the film with Toland and art director Perry Ferguson in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening he worked with actors and revised the script.

On June 29, 1940—a Saturday morning when few inquisitive studio executives would be around—Welles began filming Citizen Kane.: 107  After the disappointment of having Heart of Darkness canceled  Welles followed Ferguson`s suggestion and deceived RKO into believing that he was simply shooting camera tests. `But we were shooting the picture,` Welles said, `because we wanted to get started and be already into it before anybody knew about it.` 

At the time RKO executives were pressuring him to agree to direct a film called The Men from Mars, to capitalize on `The War of the Worlds` radio broadcast. Welles said that he would consider making the project but wanted to make a different film first. At this time he did not inform them that he had already begun filming Citizen Kane. 

The early footage was called `Orson Welles Tests` on all paperwork.  The first `test` shot was the News on the March projection room scene, economically filmed in a real studio projection room in darkness that masked many actors who appeared in other roles later in the film. `At $809 Orson did run substantially beyond the test budget of $528—to create one of the most famous scenes in movie history,` wrote Barton Whaley.

The next scenes were the El Rancho nightclub scenes and the scene in which Susan attempts suicide. Welles later said that the nightclub set was available after another film had wrapped and that filming took 10 to 12 days to complete. For these scenes Welles had Comingore`s throat sprayed with chemicals to give her voice a harsh, raspy tone.: 170–171  Other scenes shot in secret included those in which Thompson interviews Leland and Bernstein, which were also shot on sets built for other films.

During production, the film was referred to as RKO 281. Most of the filming took place in what is now Stage 19 on the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood. There was some location filming at Balboa Park in San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. Photographs of German-Jewish investment banker Otto Hermann Kahn`s real-life estate Oheka Castle were used to portray the fictional Xanadu.

In the end of July, RKO approved the film and Welles was allowed to officially begin shooting, despite having already been filming `tests` for several weeks. Welles leaked stories to newspaper reporters that the `tests` had been so good that there was no need to re-shoot them. The first `official` scene to be shot was the breakfast montage sequence between Kane and his first wife Emily. To strategically save money and appease the RKO executives who opposed him, Welles rehearsed scenes extensively before actually shooting and filmed very few takes of each shot set-up.  Welles never shot master shots for any scene after Toland told him that Ford never shot them. To appease the increasingly curious press, Welles threw a cocktail party for selected reporters, promising that they could watch a scene being filmed. When the journalists arrived Welles told them they had `just finished` shooting for the day but still had the party.  Welles told the press that he was ahead of schedule (without factoring in the month of `test shooting`), thus discrediting claims that after a year in Hollywood without making a film he was a failure in the film industry.

Welles usually worked 16 to 18 hours a day on the film. He often began work at 4 a.m. since the special effects make-up used to age him for certain scenes took up to four hours to apply. Welles used this time to discuss the day`s shooting with Toland and other crew members. The special contact lenses used to make Welles look elderly proved very painful, and a doctor was employed to place them into Welles`s eyes. Welles had difficulty seeing clearly while wearing them, which caused him to badly cut his wrist when shooting the scene in which Kane breaks up the furniture in Susan`s bedroom. While shooting the scene in which Kane shouts at Gettys on the stairs of Susan Alexander`s apartment building, Welles fell ten feet; an X-ray revealed two bone chips in his ankle.

The injury required him to direct the film from a wheelchair for two weeks.  He eventually wore a steel brace to resume performing on camera; it is visible in the low-angle scene between Kane and Leland after Kane loses the election. For the final scene, a stage at the Selznick studio was equipped with a working furnace, and multiple takes were required to show the sled being put into the fire and the word `Rosebud` consumed. Paul Stewart recalled that on the ninth take the Culver City Fire Department arrived in full gear because the furnace had grown so hot the flue caught fire. `Orson was delighted with the commotion`, he said.

When `Rosebud` was burned, Welles precisely choreographed every aspect of the scene while he had composer Bernard Herrmann`s cue playing on the set.

Unlike Schaefer, many members of RKO`s board of governors did not like Welles or the control that his contract gave him.  However such board members as Nelson Rockefeller and NBC chief David Sarnoff  were sympathetic to Welles. Throughout production Welles had problems with these executives not respecting his contract`s stipulation of non-interference and several spies arrived on set to report what they saw to the executives. When the executives would sometimes arrive on set unannounced the entire cast and crew would suddenly start playing softball until they left. Before official shooting began the executives intercepted all copies of the script and delayed their delivery to Welles. They had one copy sent to their office in New York, resulting in it being leaked to press.

Principal shooting wrapped October 24. Welles then took several weeks away from the film for a lecture tour, during which he also scouted additional locations with Toland and Ferguson. Filming resumed November   with some re-shoots. Toland had to leave due to a commitment to shoot Howard Hughes` The Outlaw, but Toland`s camera crew continued working on the film and Toland was replaced by RKO cinematographer Harry J. Wild. The final day of shooting on November 30 was Kane`s death scene.[19]: 85  Welles boasted that he only went 21 days over his official shooting schedule, without factoring in the month of `camera tests`.[20]: 195  According to RKO records, the film cost $839,727. Its estimated budget had been $723,800.