...Among many movie critics, filmmakers, and fans, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane has come to be known as the greatest film ever made. Since its release in 1941 the film has received praise for its innovative mix of cinematography and music, among other theatrical elements. The movie centers on the mysterious legacy of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, and the meaning of his last words, “rosebud.” Welles’ groundbreaking cinematography and mix of lighting (or lack thereof), low-angle shots, and deep focus, contribute to the audience’s awareness of the important events occurring throughout the movie while simultaneously evoking feelings of curiosity towards the seemingly mysterious and solitary life of Charles Foster Kane. In certain scenes throughout the movie, the lack of lighting, ironically, catches the audience’s eye. The first scene where the lack of lighting really stands out takes place when the few journalists assigned to write about Kane’s death are discussing the possible meanings of his last word, “rosebud.” The first thing the audience is presented with is a room encompassed in darkness, with the exception of two streams of light pouring in from the windows, barely seeming to effectively light up the room. When the men pass by the light, all that is visible are their profiles, and a few puffs of smoke. Although Welles uses a long shot and deep focus for the majority of this scene, the audience really doesn’t get a look into where the characters are spatially located...
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...Understanding Movies Citizen Kane By the time Citizen Kane came out in 1941, many technological advances had been made in terms of filmmaking. Different photographic techniques became important as they were chosen and implemented for specific reasons and at specific times of the film. Citizen Kane is considered by many critics to be one of the best films of all time mainly because it was so innovative at the time. The film is often praised for its cinematography, sound, and narrative structure. I personally did not love the film because I found it to be a bit boring at times. It felt more like a biography of Kane’s life and not much more. I kept waiting for “it” to happen but no monumental or memorable event really ever occurred. The film begins with Charles Foster Kane on his deathbed as he whispers his last word “rosebud”, before dropping his globe and it shattering everywhere. The rest of the film is essentially a chase by a reporter named Jerry Thompson as he tries to find out what Kane meant by “rosebud”. Through a series of interviews that Thompson conducts, we get an in-depth look at Thompson’s life through flashbacks in the perspective of many people who knew him and were close to him. The setup of the movie was something I did enjoy. The film began at the end of Kane’s life and then progresses through flashbacks. I always find it interesting when movies are set up that way because traditionally a film has a conclusion at the end of a film while Citizen Kane showed us Kane’s...
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...When I first saw this clip of Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) my first instinct was that it was comic relief. The extremely frustrated director, Jedediah trying so hard not to fall asleep and of course Bernstein reclining back in his seat more interested in playing with the playbill then watching Susan on stage. While this scene may be rather humorous a lot about both Susan and Kane is revealed through emotions and actions of the two. As the clip progresses it begins to become less and less humorous and then more and more painful. The singing soon becomes irritating and us the viewer becomes as sick of it as the patrons do. Then when it’s all over and we see the expression on Kane’s face, and hear Susan’s heavy breathing that we finally realize exactly what this scene represents. We enter this part of the movie not really knowing what to expect. We know that Kane’s life is beginning to fall apart, having left his first wife for Susan and loosing some of his political pull in the process. The scene begins with a close up of Susan; she is singing but is quickly interrupted by the director who is trying to correct her mistakes. The camera then tracks to him, slowly zooming out to show the hectic movements of actors and stage hands frantically running around setting up, just before the camera tilts up to focus on a stage light just overhead to further. We are then treated to a nice backstage shot right as the curtains go up, then the lights flicker on and all eyes are on Susan...
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...Between Dreams and Reality: The Citizen Kane Effect “If I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.” Charles Kane has said to audiences since 1941. Citizen Kane has been a staple in the classrooms of film studies as well as on lists of classic movies. Although meant to have been premiered on February 14, 1941 at Radio City Music Hall, the intense threats of William Randolph Hearst, who it is believed Orson Welles modeled the fictional character of Kane from, caused most theatres unwilling to risk backlash and thus striking the film from their show lineups. Financial success at the box office was assured to be nonexistent and eventually caused Welles departure from RKO Studios and restricted direction freedom on his future projects. The controversy surrounding the film didn’t stop there. True authorship will forever be debated with credit being distributed between co-writers Mankiewicz and Welles. Although either side you take gain perspective on the core audience they developed their groundbreaking story for and undoubtably had the greatest impact on: the middle class liberal males of the 1940’s and 1950’s. “The people are going to see Citizen Kane, and not one of them will be quite the same person after seeing it as he was before. It is profoundly moving an experience as only this extraordinary and hitherto unexplored medium of sound-cinema can afford in two hours. You leave it with regret, wishing you could see it all through again, feeling...
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...Foster Kane (Orson Welles) and what where the defining moments of his life? These are the questions that lead Thompson (William Alland) and the viewer on a captivating goose chase through the memories of Kane’s closest associates. Like the many possible meanings contained within the word kane, such as the Irish interpretation “little battler”, the Japanese translation of “money” and “gold”, the Welsh’s interpretation of “beautiful”, and the Hawaiian’s definition as “man”, friends and family each had there own interpretations of Charles Foster Kane. Collectively, these views show Kane as a character that was thrown into a position of power and money, and that underneath the façade of glamour and monetary possessions, he was a lonely and complex individual deprived of a normal childhood experience. The down hill relationship between Kane and his best friend Jedediah (Joseph Cotton) parallels the deterioration in the principles and growing self-delusion of Kane. Both men enter the newspaper business as friends and equals and both have the grand idea that they are going to infuse their idealistic principles of equality to become the voice for the American working class. Kane writes down these ideas on a sheet of paper and calls it the “Declaration of Principles”, and he hands the paper to Jedediah for safe keeping. This act symbolizes the climax of their relationship, and also a period where each character’s ideals are both aligned. As the movie progresses, Kane transforms...
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...Film History & Research Citizen Kane Film Essay Orson Welles' Citizen Kane Success the first time around is very uncommon. Orson Welles's first feature film richly realizes the full potential of excellent craftsmanship. Citizen Kane is almost indisputably the greatest achievement in the history of filming. In 1941, this film was considered by many as the best film ever made. This film is about the enormous conflict between two twentieth-century icons, publisher William Randolph Hearst and the prodigy of his time, Orson Welles. The rather overwhelming beginning of an opening sequence is still as electrifying as any in the history of movies. That tarnished sign on a forbidding black wire fence is the first thing we see in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane is a movie about perception and projection. Indeed, with the complex theme the whole movie seems to be placed in a kind of psychological trauma for the viewers. Citizen Kane is a portrait of a public and private figure that remains tantalizingly unfinished. Excellent acting was revealed for the first time as these new roles played out. Orson Welles was a director ahead of his time and his portrayal of Kane shows his acting ability. This film is one of the first films to rely heavily on style and visuals; Citizen Kane uses camera, lighting, and set techniques to show Kane's rise and fall from power. The movie as a whole, though as artistically satisfying as a picture can get...
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...In his renowned film Citizen Kane, director, writer, actor, and producer Orson Welles employs an innovative use of shadows, darkness, and angles to portray hidden emotions and thought provoking social commentary; setting a precedent for all films to come. This movie, called the “father” of film noir, employs an ingenious use of lighting and focus to create new depths that add to the characters, drawing our attention to details that shape the story. This film presented to the world a fresh take on the boundaries of story telling, and ground breaking innovations that influence film making to this day. Take, for example, the short film obituary for Charles Kane, “News on the March”; it would seem from afar that Charles Kane was simply a rich, influential man who had lived a full and happy life. But as soon as we are pulled out the documentary and back into the real world, we are immediately met with the darkness and seclusion that dominates the film. An obvious aspect we notice in that first lapse back to present time is within the room of reporters we are never able to completely see any faces- the light from behind creating an eerie shadow over all of the actors. This overshadowing of the reporters continues through the time we spend following the reporter, Jerry Thompson, in his quest. This was done to draw the viewer’s attention away from the obvious, and push us to delve deeper into the story. Obviously, this was...
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...Citizen Kane Citizen Kane, a movie that was nominated for nine academy awards and won the Academy award for best writing is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made. In order to understand why Citizen Kane has been so beloved in the world of film because of how realistic it felt although being a work of fiction or as the French call it a film à clef (French for Film with a Key) one must pick apart the all the parts that make a movie successful from its actors, lighting, plot, etc. The movie Citizen Kane brings in the audience into the life of Charles Foster Kane who is the main focus of the story and gives information on his life via a parody of the old “March of the Times” newsreels that were commonly used in the 1930’s along with “public” version of Mr. Kane’s very complex private life such as his rise to power, politics and social life which focuses itself on being a exposition as it introduces the audience to Mr. Kane and the important events in his life although using a hint of “Pro Kane” editorials with a very pompous and upbeat narrator with the finishing touch being Thatcher’s testimony before the US Senate that has Thatcher denouncing Kane. At the end of this newsreel the audience is handed a mystery that is on the forefront of their minds which was Charles Kane’s last word before his death “Rosebud” which piques the interest of the audience and makes them curious as to what happens with the absence of a giant such as Mr. Kane and what was the one...
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...Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane has been consistently ranked as one of the best films ever made. A masterpiece of technique and storytelling, the film helped to change Hollywood film-making and still exerts considerable influence today. However, at the time of its premiere in 1941, it was a commercial failure that spelled disaster for Welles' Hollywood career. Within the maze of its own aesthetic, Citizen Kane develops two interesting themes. The first concerns the debasement of the private personality of the public figure, and the second deals with the crushing weight of materialism. Taken together, these two themes comprise the bitter irony of an American success story that ends in futile nostalgia, loneliness, and death. The fact that the personal theme is developed verbally through the characters while the materialistic theme is developed visually, creating a distinctive stylistic counterpoint. It is against the counterpoint that the themes unfold within the structure of a mystery story. Its theme is told from several perspectives by several different characters and is thought provoking. Techniques such as single source lighting, creative use of shadows, montage, obscure camera angles, and deep focus photography make the film more enthralling visually, but also contributed to the narrative and many of the themes. The most defining stylistic element of Citizen Kane is the lighting. Welles meant for it to be a dark picture, unlike anything that had been filmed up to that...
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...Philip Lee Joor Baruah Monday- 11:15-12:30 Film 20A 30 October 2014 Citizen Kane Sequence Analysis Essay Mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing are visual elements in film that create meaning in the shots/sequences of the film. Ultimately it is these factors that can establish narrative agents and their relations, drive the narrative and place the view in a certain point of view of the narrative. Orson Welle’s 1941 film, Citizen Kane, is considered significant for its technical innovations with its use of deep focus lenses, low angles, high contrast lighting, long takes and dissolves. In my essay I will be analyzing the sequence depicting Kane’s “Declaration of Principles.” I will show how the elements of mise-en-scene, the cinematography and editing choices help to visually depict Kane as a powerful subject, establish narrative conflict and create perspective within the sequence. Through sequence of Kane’s “Declaration of Principles” Kane is depicted as a powerful narrative agent through social blocking in the sequence’s mise-en- scene. Throughout the long third shot, Kane is placed centrally and stands the tallest compared to Leland and Bernstein. Through the cinematic use of deep focus lenses that manages to capture Leland, Kane and Bernstein positioned in the background, mid ground and foreground all in focus at the same time. This allows for Kane to dominate the mise-en-scene in spatial relations to his friends. His physical relations to his friends and the surrounding...
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...**** ******** Humanities 17 Mr. **** 10/20/12 Citizen Kane, Orson Wells (1941): employed new cinematographic advances for film. Wells, use of camera placement, movement and the entire editing process paved the way for a new era of filmmaking. His brilliant use of Iconic imagery, help to tell the story of Charles Foster Kane. The opening of this scene seems to be one of childhood innocence. A young Charles, sledding down a hill. The blind edit straight to the snowball hitting the sign of Mrs. Kane’s boarding house can be considered an iconic image for what’s to come. The over the shoulder shot of his mother talking to Charles still has the focus on Charles and his innocence. As the camera pulls backwards you get a better idea of what’s going on. In the negative space, while mother and father are talking to Mr. Thatcher you see Charles still childishly playing in the snow. Having no idea he is about to given away. The camera following Mrs. Kane back to the window then the close-up of her face shows the intensity of her emotion she has for selling her son. The close-up of Charles face makes you feel his pain and anger as it transitions to another iconic image of the empty sled gathering snow, letting you know Charles is gone. In the dining room with Emily the lighting is focused on Emily who is centered in the shot. The lighting and her appearing brighter shows that for now she is the main focus. As the camera moves in it accentuates the love between them. The straight...
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...Citizen Kane has been referenced in so many different mediums in my life. I had never seen the film, but the scene where Kane is giving a political speech with his massive image towering in the background has been mimicked in countless TV shows, even cartoons. I knew Rosebud has a sleigh, but never knew anything about the plot. More importantly, I never knew what the big commotion was over this film. I went and rented the Criterion Collection edition of Citizen Kane from the local video store for 50 cents, and with it came a simple commentary from the clerk. “This laid down the basics for all films today.” After listening to Roger Ebert’s commentary, I know understand why this is considered a masterpiece, and why it still stands as one of, if not thee, greatest films of all time. The film is simply full of special effects. A casual viewer would almost think there are no special effects in it, compared to what we are used to in this era of film. The film was visually deceiving you almost the whole time. . The film actually did not have a massive budget, and instead of building massive sets, they had to improvise wherever they could. Matte drawings are continuously used throughout the film. They are used from the onset, simply depicting Xanadu as an ominous, decrepit castle in the distance. The editors took this device and used it in ways never seen before in film. They created the effect of a hall full of spectators watching a speech, using only few actors, a...
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...props, actors, and even the camera to use mise-en-scene to tell the story of Charles Foster Kane to its fullest. Character positions, camera angles and music, and framing used to tell the story in Citizen Kane. It’s use of mise-en-scene made it not only ahead of its time, but it made it a masterpiece. Citizen Kane uses mise-en-scene is multiple scenes to help tell the narrative. A perfect example is when the parents of the Charles Kane are speaking with Walter Thatcher in the house. As Kane’s parents are discussing giving Kane over to Thatcher, we see Kane as a boy playing in the snow through the window. This scene represents the innocence that is stolen from him in this exact moment. When he was a child he was pure and innocent and naïve, but we never see him like this again after he is taken and brought up by Thatcher. The boy stays in the middle of the frame the whole scene making this part one of the most import scenes in the movie. As the live changing scene goes on we just watch as Kane plays in innocence, completely oblivious to what is going on in his home. The entire movie is affected by this one scene and links to his dying word, rosebud. This is the sled that he was playing with during that important scene. Without this scene we would not know the importance of the sled at the end of the film. In another scene, we see Kane and his first wife, Emily Monroe Norton Kane, sitting at a dining room table. At first they are speak to each other in a loving manner. We...
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...Narrative structure in Citizen Kane The narrative structure of Citizen Kane is largely nonlinear, which was revolutionary at the time the film was released. The narrative defies Classical Hollywood Cinema, in that it is not told as a chronological story with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, the narrative begins with the end of the story – the death of the main character, Charles Foster Kane. The life story of Kane is then summarized in a newsreel, which actually gives away the whole movie. The entire plot is summarized in those few minutes, doing away with the suspense that would build up throughout a movie. Through this, the audience is asked to analyze and explore the character of Kane rather than being immersed in the plot and wondering...
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...have chosen is Citizen Kane, 1941, directed by Orson Welles. I have chosen a scene that is towards the end of the movie and shows Charles Foster Kane’s reaction to his wife breaking up with him. The film aspect I will be focusing on is the Mis en scene. The scene begins with Charles foster Kane’s wife walking out of the room then the camera shows us where she has come from, we see Kane in the distance standing at a doorway, he is at least 20 metres away from the camera. Welles uses a lot of deep space to emphasise how much Kane has distanced himself away from his wife which was the result of their break up. Bordwell and Thompson state that ‘a director creates a deep-space composition by making the foreground quite large and the background plane quite distant’ (Bordwell and Thompson 2013: 148) which is exactly what Welles did. Once it cuts to Kane, he turns around and walks towards the bed, there is a low angle shot depicting that the character has Authority which we can also tell from the costume, he is wearing a suit which shows he may be working,...
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