A Legacy Written into Film History: Welles’s Influence on Later Filmmakers

A Decisive Influence on the French New Wave

Orson Welles’s innovative filmmaking had a decisive influence on the French New Wave movement that began in the late 1950s. Jean-Luc Godard deeply admired Welles and, when asked about his influence, put it succinctly: “Everyone owes him everything.” Godard and other New Wave filmmakers learned much from Welles’s freedom in structuring stories and his bold editing techniques. In particular, the nonlinear narration of Citizen Kane and its portrayal of a single person from multiple perspectives demonstrated possibilities for expression beyond conventional film grammar. François Truffaut was another enthusiastic admirer of Welles’s Touch of Evil. Its opening long take of approximately three and a half minutes showed young filmmakers how to combine realism and inventiveness by skillfully bringing together camera movement and the passage of time. This influence is clearly visible in Truffaut’s fluid camera work and Godard’s experimental editing. The New Wave filmmakers also learned from Welles’s attitude as an auteur. His determination to exercise complete control over a film by writing, directing, and sometimes starring in it offered them an ideal model of the filmmaker. His pursuit of artistic accomplishment over commercial success was another important legacy they inherited.

Passing the Legacy to New Hollywood

The New Hollywood directors who flourished from the late 1960s through the 1970s were also profoundly influenced by Welles. Martin Scorsese was impressed by Welles’s films from a young age and said, “No one since D. W. Griffith has inspired as many future filmmakers as Welles.” Scorsese was particularly influenced by the camera techniques and editing in Citizen Kane, commenting that “Welles opened the Pandora’s box of the camera’s possibilities in cinema.” Indeed, the fluid camera work and effective use of light and shadow in Scorsese’s films strongly reflect Welles’s influence. He is also known to have instructed his crew to watch Welles’s The Trial before shooting Shutter Island. Francis Ford Coppola is another director influenced by Welles. The Godfather series shares elements with Welles’s work in its themes of power and corruption, imagery using deep shadows, and complex temporal structures. In The Untouchables and Casualties of War, Brian De Palma paid clear homage to Welles’s long takes. These directors inherited not only his technical influence but also his commitment to pursuing cinema as artistic expression rather than entertainment alone.

An Enduring Influence on Contemporary Hollywood

Steven Spielberg is a leading example of a contemporary master who admires Welles. He has explicitly described Citizen Kane as “a film that means everything to me, a symbol of courage and boldness in filmmaking.” Spielberg actively incorporated deep-focus cinematography into his own work, expressing his respect for the technique he learned from Welles by saying, “It doesn’t matter if the actors sweat through layers of heavy makeup. We’re going to keep everything in focus from one inch away to infinity.” The long shot of a government warehouse filled with vast numbers of wooden crates at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark is a clear homage to the warehouse scene near the end of Citizen Kane. Spielberg has also demonstrated his deep personal admiration by buying the “Rosebud” sled from Citizen Kane at auction. Contemporary filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson have likewise acknowledged Welles’s influence. Techniques he established, including complex temporal structures, imagery with depth, and creative use of sound, continue to live on in contemporary cinema in changing forms. Even as digital technology makes it easier to achieve effects that Welles once struggled to realize, his creativity and experimental spirit have lost none of their force.

An Eternal Innovator Who Expanded the Possibilities of Film Art

Orson Welles’s greatest legacy to film history was his dramatic expansion of the medium’s expressive possibilities. He viewed cinema not merely as a means of telling stories but as a comprehensive art form capable of freely manipulating time and space and portraying the human interior in multiple layers. Technical innovations such as deep focus, low-angle shots, long takes, montage, and sound design were all means of realizing his artistic vision. Although commercial success often eluded him, Welles continued pursuing his ideals without compromise. Through this commitment, he demonstrated in his own life that cinema could be art. The use of Citizen Kane as teaching material in film schools around the world and Welles’s influence on directors of every generation testify to the scale of his achievement. Technology has advanced and filmmaking conditions have changed greatly, yet the fundamental question he posed—“What is cinema?”—remains relevant. He believed in film’s limitless possibilities and demonstrated their realization. Depicting universal themes such as power and loneliness, glory and downfall, truth and fiction through an innovative visual language, Welles’s films continue to move audiences across eras. The mark this one genius left on film history will endure as long as cinema exists. His innovative spirit will undoubtedly continue to inspire new filmmakers and further the development of film art.