In film history, very few
directors get total creative control of the projects they do. To get this type of control, a director must
be innovative, stylish, while able to tell an empathetic story to the
masses. No one in the history of film
had as much control over their film as much as Orson Welles’ did with his
magnum opus, Citizen Kane, even under
the head of major studio RKO. So it
becomes interesting that over seventy years later, when Mexican director
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was given a very similar type of project when he
made Birdman for Fox
Searchlight. Both of these films
innovated what could be done with film at the time, and reversed it on its own
head. It is very obvious to see where a
director like Inarritu learned a lot from the innovations of Citizen Kane, and took it forward to his
own movie, as the films are very similar in themes and dynamics. Not only are the stories similar, but some of
the filming techniques that are used in Citizen
Kane are even furthered in Birdman. Just as Citizen
Kane is remembered as a great masterpiece of film history, Birdman one day will be mentioned in the
same history for its many innovations.
Birdman follows a cast characters who are backstage during
rehearsals of a performance of Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The show is adapted, directed, and starred by
former box-office star Riggan Thomson.
Thomson is trying to make a shift to dramatic theater, even though he is
well known for his series of films featuring the superhero Birdman. Thomson has been defeated in the failure of
his series of roles after Birdman, and it is made evident by the tone he sets
for his play that he seriously needs this comeback to keep any semblance of
self-confidence. All the way, he battles
the thoughts of his Birdman alter ego, who acts as Thomson’s Mr. Hyde. While Thomson is more reserved, quiet, and
self-conscious, Birdman continues to remind Riggan of the glory days, and how
Thomson is still and will always be great.
As the story develops, Thomson begins to follow Birdman’s thought
process and realize that he is still just as pompous as when he was on the top
of his game. This even carries to
Thomson believing he can fly, and save the world from monsters and
villains. What Inarritu projects is how
Thomson’s mental illness extremely bloats his self-confidence and ego, to the
point where it injures him, and those who love him. In fact, depending on how you view the movie,
his ambition and ego possibly kill him.
Welles has the very similar
theme of a deadly inflated ego driving ambition. One major difference is that Welles shows
Charles Foster Kane’s childhood, and the psychological mindset he continued to
battle. As Kane was given away as a
child to protect him, it definitely harmed his ego, and for the rest of his
life, he fought the mindset that nothing he did was good enough. It seems that throughout the various tales
told about Kane by the people who were closest to him, whether this be his
employees, friends, or wives, that Kane always wanted more than he already had,
and was never fully content. In a sense
that is very comparable to Riggan Thomson, Kane wants to control everything
that happens to him, hoping that this will make up for his harmed past. His nonstop ambition attempts to build
himself up, as he takes down everyone around him in the same swift motion. As Kane begins to grow in his newspaper
business, he realizes that he needs to take some people out who are holding him
back, or do not agree with his vision of the future. This is made evident with Kane’s attack on
the man who practically raised him, Walter Parks Thatcher. Charles begins a series of attacks on
Thatcher from his New York Inquirer. Riggan
Thomson does something very similar when a supporting character in his play, Ralph,
is not getting a full grasp of Riggan’s vision.
From his imagined telepathy, Riggan drops a light fixture on Ralph,
making him unable to participate in the play.
This shows early on in both films how the ambition of Kane and Thomson
really destroy those around them. When
this happens, Riggan is forced to hire Mike Shiner, a famed actor with an
incredibly difficult working personality.
Though Shiner is ready to rehearse, he causes many problems in with the
other stars, and even Riggan’s own daughter.
Mike Shiner in a lot of ways is very similar to Citizen Kane’s Jedediah Leland.
Leland, like Shiner, is someone that the main male protagonist has a
strong relationships with, who at times can betray him. Leland rises all the way to the top with
Kane, feeding his ambition. When he sees
how truly egotistical Kane is, he begins to move away from Kane, even going as
far as to writing a negative review of Kane’s 2nd wife’s Susan’s
singing performance. Mike Shiner is very
similar in the sense of how he boards Riggan’s project. However, Shiner begins to do whatever he
wants to do to distance himself from Thomson, especially when it comes to
maintaining his own acting reputation.
So even with the giant egos of the main characters, there are supporting
characters who help feed the ego of each film’s protagonist, but also tear them
down as well.
Another interesting point of
comparison is the infidelity of Kane and of Thomson to their first spouse. It is shown on screen the lengthy affair that
Charles Foster Kane carries out with Susan Alexander. This affair nearly destroys Kane as he is
trying to run for New York Governor.
Once it is found out that he is cheating, Kane is never quite the same,
and even quietly marries Susan. A very
similar tale is told by Riggan Thomson to his own ex-wife, Sylvia. In his dressing room, he recounts that after
Sylvia found him cheating on her that he tried to end his own life. The very brief scene gives us a background
into the way that Thomson’s ego could have been defeated in his own home life, and
how that could have affected his career. He feels he has something to prove to
not only his ex-wife, but his daughter Sam.
As Sam was growing up, Riggan was apparently not a good father to her,
and she eventually fell into drug abuse as a coping mechanism to a selfish and
absentee father. Charles Foster Kane and
Riggan Thomson both have struggles in their home lives, and lack a sense of
felling loved or wanted. Not only to
both of these characters struggle with their family’s views of them, but they
struggle with the public’s view of them.
As Kane is destroyed by his extra-marital affairs, Thomson’s antics of
running through New York in only his underwear going viral on the internet show
how much they want to be seen as someone serious, not just a laughable
joke. Both of these characters egos want
everyone surrounding them to love them, whether it be critics, the masses, or
even their own families. Two quotes from
each film absolutely embody this idea. In
Citizen Kane, it is when Jedediah
Leland states, “"Charlie was never brutal,
he just did brutal things." "He married for love -- that's why he did
everything. That's why he went into politics. It seems we weren't enough. He
wanted all the voters to love him, too. All he really wanted out of life was
love.” Very similar to this, Riggan’s daughter
Sam states, “You're doing this because
you're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you
know what? You're right. You don't. It's not important. You're not important.
Get used to it.” Even the character
surrounding the protagonists can see how badly they want to be loved and
appreciated, but their egos will not let them be. In the end, both characters ego are what ends
up killing them, whether it is Kane driving out everyone and dying alone in his
massive home of Xanadu, or it is Thomson Possibly killing himself as he believes
he can truly fly. Ambition and ego are
both seen as themes that can destroy not only the main characters of each of
these films, but everyone around them as well.
To get
into the worlds of Charles Foster Kane and Riggan Thomson, some interesting camerawork
is done in both movies. Even though Citizen Kane is in black and white, and Birdman is in color, I would make the
argument the capturing of light in both movies really shows the characters
psyche. The use of shadows vs. light in
Kane shows the dreariness of not only Kane’s existence, but the people in the
lives that he’s touched. This is an early predecessor the shadows that were so
commonly used in film-noir. Birdman,
color is used to show the mystique surrounding Thomson’s damaged psyche, as in
the scene where he buys liquor and falls asleep on a stoop. The intensity of the color signifies a sense
of confusion that is currently within Riggan that is projected to his outside
world. In Kane, there were shots where
the camera seemingly follows the characters from outside a building
inside. An example of this would be when
the camera moves past the billboard advertising Susan Foster Kane. The camera moves through the middle of the
sign, into the skylight of the building, and into the room where the characters
begin to discuss Kane. This was an early
technique that was used heavily in Birdman. The film uses the use of editing to make
several long shots strung together appear to be a film that is done in one
continuous take. There are almost no
cuts, the camera continually follows the characters of Birdman through the weaving halls of the St. James Theater, and the
city streets of New York. In a way that
Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland invented a lot of these techniques with
Welles, Birdman cinematographer Emmanuel
Lubezki perfected them.
Though
made more than 70 years apart, there are an incredible amount of similarities
between Birdman and Citizen Kane. The films are not only similar in plot and
themes, but in many of the technological aspects of filmmaking. As Welles film was ahead of its times, so was
Inarritu’s film. If Kane were made in
the days of Birdman, maybe it would
have gotten a similar critical appeal that Birdman
got, and maybe would have won more than the one Oscar it won.
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