Orson Welles and Citizen Kane

Ego is simultaneously a blunt weapon and a shield from the world. In the case of Orson Welles, ego is the key for interpreting a career of such uneven result that, were it not for strength of ego, he never would have succeeed at all. But because of that same ego, he upset many, lost great fortunes, and was always searching for work. The other key for interpreting Welles is performance; not just of actors standing before cameras, but the more existential theme of new identity is connected with wearing a mask, playing to crowds, and reacting to circumstances. this issue of performace is central to Welles, since most of heis films are concerned with madness and control, and power and weakness: attitudes adopted both in his movies and by the characters in them.

Welles was born a brilliant and beautiful child, interested in music, magic, and painting. His mother died when he was nine years old, his father when he was fifteen, and he spent the rest of his childhod as the ward of a doctor. He tried becoming an actor, first in Ireland, then in England, and finally in New York. Quickly established on radio for possessing one of the world's most distinctive voices, he embarked on a fruitful collaboration with actor John Houseman, forming the Mercury theater in 1937. The next year the pair produced the famous Haloween broadcast of H. G. Wells's 1898 novel, 'The War of the Worlds', and garnered great attention for their staging of classic plays in unusual ways, for instance in the so called 'voodoo' version of 'The Tragedy of Macbeth', which featured an all-black
cast.

Having developed a reputation for being a polymath and a big personality given to wine, women, food, and song, Welles received an unparalleled carte-blanche opportunity at RKO Pictures to make any film he wished. He chose to embellish the life of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst with certain autobiographical touches of his own and produced 'Citizen Kane' in 1941. Despite artistic innovations
in narrative, camera techmnique, set design, performance, and use of symbolism, 'Citizen Kane' was a commercial failure, although it did garner Welles an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. RKO Pictures again gave him great liberties on 'The Magnificent Ambersons'in 1942 although the studio recut this movie and released it to even greater commercial disappointment and critical indifference.

Disgusted by the experience, and by now seen as a poor risk, Welles was only
entrusted with three more Hollywood movies: 'The Stranger in 1946, 'The Lady from Shanghai' in 1947, and Touch of Evil in 1958. From the late 1940's onward he spent his life in Europe, working on other people's films so that he could finance his personal projects, beginning with Macbeth in 1948.

THE OUTSIDER WITHIN
Although Welles became an industry outsider, his charms onscreen were still in demand as an actor and narrator. He produced memorable works such as 'the Tragedy of Othello: the Moor of Venice' in 1952, 'Mr. Arkadin' in 1955, and 'Le Proces' in
1962, as well as two masterpieces, both notable for being produced in penury and for being extraordinarily effective - 'Chimes at Midnight' in 1965 and 'F for Fake' in 1974.

Welles lso used his considerable charm to promote himself on TV shows where his hulking body was seen to grow ever larger with each year. His obesity, like his artistic temperament and the subjects he chose for screen projicts, tended to iluminate a provound confidence in his abilities, juxtaposed with disgust at his physical person. His size was often hyperbolized with makeup, costume, lighting, and
caamera angles. That this ego would choose to manipulate so grotesque a body through onscreen performance is a naked exposure of sacrificing self for the sake of creativity.

In 1975, the American Film Institute gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award. His work was reconsidered and he was promoted as a misunderstood artist. Welles's abilities and 'Citizen Kane' are now held up as paragons of cinema.