There is little doubt that even if he had directed only Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Welles would have a major position in the history of the cinema. It is not to diminish the importance of his later films if I assert that, at least on a formal level, the essence of what Welles brought to the cinema is already present in his first two films.

Analysis and reflection reveal, above all, a stylistic unity. Within the context of Welles' filmography, these two works constitute a vast aesthetic land mass whose geology and relief justify simultaneous study.

Let us take up their orientation first. Kane and Ambersons together form what might be called the social realist cycle, to distinguish it both from the Shakespearean cycle composed by Macbeth and Othello and from the "ethical entertainments" comprising The Lady from Shanghai and Mr. Arkadin. "Entertainment" should not be...