It was exactly 60 years ago that the biography epic Citizen Kane was released and nominated for a whopping 9 Academy Awards. And strange to say, the film is a great primer for the would-be video biographer.
The film was immediately controversial - being a thinly disguised parody of reclusive media mogul William Randolph Hearst, and an object lesson about the emptiness of wealth. According to legend, it was the invisible hand of Hearst that put paid to Citizen Kane's Oscar ambitions - the film managed only one award: Best Screenplay. And it lost money.
Now considered by many to be the best film of all time, it was written, produced, and directed by - and it starred - 26 year old Orson Welles. (Twenty six years old!) He would never rise to these heights again, the curse of the artist who creates a work of genius at first try.Even today, the movie plays surprisingly well at local art houses or on video. Styled as a kind of behind-the-scenes personal history documentary, its story structure is complex without being difficult to follow. It features a documentary-within-the-documentary and is propelled forward by the intrigue of unraveling the film's Big Mystery: What did the great Charles Foster Kane mean when he uttered his last words: "Rosebud" (whilst dropping a snow globe)?
For video biographers, personal documentary makers, and all of us interested in preserving personal and family history, Citizen Kane is still surprisingly rich in lessons and inspiration, and well worth the rental of the video DVD.
So, what are some of the lessons from Citizen Kane that we can apply to our work?
1. Timing is Everything, Chronology is not
Citizen Kane starts at the end of the subject's life. We are then treated to a "newsreel" focusing mostly on Kane's mid life business career, followed by a reading of his guardian's memoirs and then a jump back to his childhood (in snow - that's a clue by the way). Then we re-enter the present for an interview - then we jump back to the past, and that combination (interview then flashback) is repeated as we hear from key people in Kane's life: his news editor, his best friend, his second wife, and finally his butler.
The lesson here is that in telling the story of a life in a personal documentary, we need not be slaves to strict chronology. Audiences are a lot smarter than we sometimes give then credit for. You can start with ancestors and end with retirement (or death) - but the reverse order will also work. So will telling a parallel or part of the story, broken into bits and interspersed with the main timeline.
2. Let the Part Tell the Whole
Another lesson for the personal historian or video biographer comes with Citizen Kane's use of montages and specific incidents to compress information and help tell the story.
Montages are visual images cut into a sequence in close succession. As video biographers, we might use home movies (if we have them) or we might use personal images. For subjects who have been through a historic event - such as a war - a montage of archive images will work well.
And as personal historians and personal documentary makers, we know that we cannot include every detail. So keep an eye and ear out for a defining story or event. While it may only be one specific incident, it may speak volumes about the person as a whole.3. Use Narration
Citizen Kane makes use of narration through the four interview subjects and through the narrator of the newsreel. They each tell of the Charles Foster Kane that they knew.
The benefit of third party narration in personal documentary - that is, narration beyond the interview subjects - is that it can cover large areas or long time periods very efficiently. Sometimes a video biography subject just takes too long to tell a great story. But use third party narration sparingly.
As a video biographer, I often use my own voice for narration. I have also imposed on friends and even used professionals from time to time.
4. Tell the Story in Pictures Whenever Possible
Like any major motion picture, Citizen Kane tells its story through words as well as visual images. And it has periods where there is no dialogue or narration - "thinking time" I like to call it. In the final scene, as Kane's "Xanadu" estate is being packed up and the "rubbish" burned, the whole mystery is revealed in silence as we see the flames consume the very thing at the heart of the story. The denouement is shown, not told.
In producing a personal documentary, remind yourself that film and video are fundamentally visual media. They are not radio. So make use of as many images and the most interesting footage you can get. Wherever possible, show don't tell. Try to let your audience draw their own conclusions. And make space for thinking time.
5. Focus on Formative Events
All of Charles Foster Kane's life was a search for love and validation, motivated by a harsh separation from his mother and his carefree boyhood. Indeed, it is a boyhood memory (snow) and a boyhood object (his sled, branded "Rosebud") that he has on his mind at the point of his death.
Hasn't it been said that it takes most of us the rest of our lives to make sense of our childhoods (an endeavor that we all have mixed success with)?
So, as personal historians and video biographers, focus especially on the early, formative events of your subject's life: poverty perhaps that leads to ambition and success; a bad father that contributes to making a man a paragon of the role; parents withholding love that make it difficult for a subject to now show affection; or a splendid, sunny childhood that helped make a subject optimistic and cheerful throughout their life.
Our job is not to make any such assertion or to draw any such conclusion. But our job is to tease out the early experiences of our subjects for what they may tell those who follow about the people they became.
Still Relevant
The influence of Citizen Kane and the power of human stories can be seen in the current crop of Oscar hopefuls - almost every film nominated for Best Picture is a biography picture in one guise or another.
One movie in particular - The Social Network - closely parallels the themes of Citizen Kane and gives us a modern echo of that striving, empty man at the center of a vast empire.
But my pick for this year's Best Picture? The King's Speech.
Picture credits: Wikipedia (public domain).
Jane Lehmann-Shafron is a video biographer who co-founded Your Story Here LLC Personal Documentary, a video production company that specializes in video biographies. Based in Orange County CA, her award-winning films have been featured in festivals in the United States and Canada. She can be contacted on 949-742-2755 or through her website.
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