Editing

The use of matte paintings in Citizen Kane was not a first, but it was novel in that they were not used to depict fantasy scenery, such as in The Wizard of Oz, but to make believable scenes look more impressive, or difficult camera angles possible, such as the one depicted above.


The out-of-order presentation of Citizen Kane depicts his life in a way that was very unconventional for the time, but has since been adopted by many movies (Pulp Fiction, Memento). Even though Kane dies at the very beginning of the movie, the viewer has a good understanding of his life because it is told by all of the side characters. The very beginning of the movie presents a question, “what is rosebud?” and by the end, the viewer’s curiosity is satiated with an unfamiliar twist that was right under his nose throughout the whole movie.