Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama movie starring Orson Welles in his first full-length movie. There are rumors that its story is based on the life of the famous businessmen William Randolph Hearst, Howard Hughes, and Samuel Insull. Welles said that his character, Kane, was based on more than one famous person. In F for Fake (1974), he said that Kane was going to be based on Hughes but that Welles became inspired by Hearst.
| Citizen Kane | |
|---|---|
 Original 1941 logo | |
| Directed by | Orson Welles |
| Written by | Orson Welles Herman J. Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Orson Welles Richard Baer (associate - uncredited) |
| Starring | Orson Welles Joseph Cotten Ruth Warrick Everett Sloane George Coulouris Ray Collins Agnes Moorehead |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (theatrical) Paramount Pictures (1991 re-release) Warner Bros. (DVD) |
Release date | May 1, 1941 |
Running time | 119 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $686,033 (estimated) |
Welles worked closely with his cinematographer, Gregg Toland, who was in charge of the camera and the lights. Together, they worked on a new style, "deep focus." Usually, if something close to the camera is in focus, everything that is far away is out of focus. In deep focus, every object is in focus at the same time.
Its working title, before the movie was finished, was RKO 281.
Many have called Citizen Kane the best movie of all time. In 1998, it was number one on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years... 100 Movies.
It is in some ways is like The Power and the Glory (1933).
The last living crew member was director Robert Wise. Also known for making The Sound of Music (1965), he died on September 14, 2005.
Other websites
change
- Citizen Kane on IMDb
- The American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" list Archived 2007-04-03 at the Wayback Machine
- Original Trailer Archived 2006-10-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Greatest Films: Citizen Kane
- Essay Archived 2006-07-01 at the Wayback Machine on the use of mise-en-scene and cinematography
- RaveCentral: Citizen Kane Archived 2005-12-16 at the Wayback Machine
