Rosebud

The Golden age of film is rich with actors, actresses, directors and writers that have influenced modern cinema and reshaped our views of film today. Sometimes it can be hard to just pick one out of a sea of so many worthy artists, but one always sticks out in the mind of every film buff, Orson Welles. Orson Welles is to cinema as Mark Zuckerberg is to the internet. Very few directors have had the impact and opportunities Welles has had. Welles was given the offer of a lifetime, a fully funded film in which Welles had full control and final cut privileges. This film would later on become renowned as one of the best films of all time. Unfortunately, like most great films, Citizen Kane didn’t get the recognition it deserved until later on. Citizen Kane was the first film to experiment with things such as deep focus and low angle shots. Welles chose cinematographer Gregg Toland because he knew that they both were known for there experimentation, Toland with film and Welles with theater. Toland later said that he had found the perfect partner to “test and prove several ideas generally being accepted as radical in Hollywood”. Welles and Toland even dug trenches in the set to shoot the famous scene when Kane meets Leland after he has lost the election. Welles wasn’t just innovative with his ideas of how a film should look but how the story of the film should be told. Welles took the regular linear storytelling format and flipped it on its side. This opened up a new realm of possibilities for film later on. Later biographical films such as Lawrence of Arabia showed the characters’ whole life before the film would begin, just as in Citizen Kane.  Even Christopher Nolan’s film Memento borrows from a Welles like narrative style. The number of modern day directors that are fans of Welles and have been influenced by him is astounding. Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, Bryan Singer, Stephen Frears, Brian De Palma, John Frankenheimer, Tommy Wiseau, the Coen brothers, Sergio Leone, Luc Besson and many others have all admitted being influenced by Citizen Kane. I myself have been influenced and inspired by Welles, its hard not to be impressed by such an amazing actor and director whose contributions are endless. The most famous homage to Orson Welles takes place in the final shot of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark by Steven Speilberg in which the camera pans over the government warehouse which is homage to the final scene of Citizen Kane. Steven Speilberg is such a fan of Citizen Kane that he spent $60,500 on the Rosebud sled, but later refused to help Welles fund a film that he was working on. Speilberg even once said that "Rosebud will go over my typewriter to remind me that quality in movies comes first”, he must have forgotten about this when filming the most recent Indiana Jones film. Orson Welles will always be remembered as an amazing actor, director and writer. From his radio broadcast that startled a nation, to his innovative story of the destructive powers of wealth, he will forever be known as one of the greatest artists of the Golden age of cinema.
Citizen Kane-Pinky and the Brain