Premium Essay

Film Analysis Citizen Kane

In:

Submitted By 1oasis1
Words 933
Pages 4
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 matte drawing and passing light through strategically placed holes in the drawing. The film combines real film and matte drawings throughout. Light is a one of the simplest, yet most compelling ways filmmakers can direct the viewer. Light sets moods, defines characters, and transitions scenes. All of these techniques are showcased masterfully throughout the film. The techniques they used

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Film Analysis, Citizen Kane

...1: Landscape shows a mountain with a city on its side. There is a large mansion built upon it. The dim lighting gives off a creepy, unapproachable vibe. There is a long shot with a dark tone. The music is eerie and is like a warning to stay away from the mansion. 2: A close shot of the mansion shows that the building is not completed. There is still dark lighting except the glow from the windows. Dark tone, long shot. The foreboding music continues. 3: Zooms into a close up of a lady completing a puzzle, she turns to look at the voice calling out to her. Her clothing suggests she is wealthy. Low lighting, medium tone, with a glossy quality. 4: A man walks into the room to converse with the woman. Low lighting makes it hard to make out the set, besides the various statues. Long shot with a dark tone and high contrast. 5: Medium long shot not a very high tone, glossy. You can make out the woman’s details better. 6: The camera returns to the man who walks towards the woman. You can see more of the mansion as he moves. The man and woman talk about a trip to New York. He walks from low lighting to the medium lighting of the woman can see him better. There are many statues in the house, giving off a vibe of wealth. Long shot dark tone with high contrast. 7: The woman is still doing her puzzle. There is low lighting and you can see the expensive jewelry she is wearing. Close up shot, even contrast glossy. As the time slowly passes you can only hear the rhythmic ticking of...

Words: 858 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Citizen Kane Sequence Analysis

...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...

Words: 1597 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Sleight of Hand, Sleight of Mind: Orson Welles' F for Fake and the Art of the Cinematic Con

...of the Cinematic Con Orson Welles' 1974 "film essay" F for Fake opens with a scene of Welles, in the role of a magician, performing a sleight of hand trick with a young child, "transforming" the key the young boy has presented him into a coin and then showing how the young boy had the key all the time in his pocket. The magic was the perfect illustration of Welles' purpose in the film. F for Fake was a film about fraud and deceit, about how the makers of art (and, in particular, film) use "trickery" to fool their intended audience into believing something that is not true. The film focuses on three known "charlatans" (Elmyr de Hory, Clifford Irving, and Welles himself) who used their talents to produce such magnificent forgeries that they were able to fool everyone (even so-called "experts") into believing in the truth of their claims. Despite the status of this film as one of Welles' "minor" films from late in his life (it was one of the last films he completed prior to his death in 1985), it has had a tremendous impact on filmmaking, both in a technical sense (the film's complex editing of various film stocks and styles) and in a textual sense. Welles' identification of the ways in which an audience can be manipulated into believing anything as long as it has the "air" of authenticity has had a tremendous impact on current filmmaking, especially in the realm of horror filmmaking with the current crop of "found-footage" films that have appeared in the last thirteen years...

Words: 4052 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

Seven Samurai Magnificent Seven Themes

...Hollywood blacklisting and the prevailing culture of conformity, pitting a noble hero against the timid, morally bankrupt society (Whitfield 1996: 147–48).*5* Gary Cooper’s Oscar-winning role cast him as a stoic and solitary small-town marshal Will Kane who fails to secure the support of his fellow citizens against the band of returning criminals that he himself has previously saved the town from. When walking from door to door, trying to enlist people to stand up to bandits together with him, Kane is turned down by everybody and finally reaches the church where the sermon is being held. He then turns to townspeople collectively, asking for help. The mayor who is present at sermon asks people to speak their minds and finally concludes himself by stating the dilemma – supporting Kane in a fight against bandits would be bad for business, it would tarnish Hadleyville’s image as a suitable place for investments from the North. Kane has no choice but to face the bandits on his own. He guns down three out of the four of his opponents, to be ultimately saved by his Quaker wife. When the townsfolk comes to greet their newfound hero, Kane declines them by throwing his marshal’s star in the dirt at their feet, to leave the town with his wife. Cooper’s Kane is a morally upright hero with a torn conscience, trying to do his duty to society that has rejected and betrayed him. He is disinterested in the authority that is vested in him (in fact the story begins with Kane’s resignation from the office...

Words: 3926 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Superman Film Techniques

...Music: Play Superman main theme audio, from live orchestra. (0:00-1:26) {Fade music out} Narrator Trevor Withers: Music has always been an important part of film. Soundtracks in Film allow the mood to be set for a particular scene, or In the beginning stages of film before the invention of “talking film” music was used in silent films to demonstrate mood, event or element. Music: {Fade in Music from Birth of the nation} Narrator TW: The first film to have a specific score written for it was Birth of a Nation. The majority of silent films were accompanied by anything from full orchestras to organists and pianists Music: {Cross layer Charlie Chaplin in The Dictator music from the globe scene} Narrator TW: The 1920’s saw the establishment...

Words: 1801 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Rashomon

...My analysis paper is based on mise-en-scene in Rashomon. The mise-en-scene, which means putting on the stage and it covers the setting, props, costumes, performance, lighting, and color. The way these elements are modified and are arranged within the film to appear on screen is the composition (Abrams et.al 96). In the scene of the fight between the samurai and the bandit, the setting and the light are indispensable; the shadow of the forest is used to contrast with the light that come from the sun and when the bandit is ready to finish off the samurai, the light is reflected in his face and immediately this light is contrasted with shadow that comes among the branches where rest the dead body of the samurai. I consider the setting, the use...

Words: 1712 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Film Form Analysis

...Film Form and Analysis Cinematography Cinematography describes the process by which a film strip is exposed to light to create an image. It encompasses many factors: the camera’s distance from the action, camera angle and direction, type of lens, camera movement, and lighting, among others. The art of cinematography also includes mise-en-scène—the arrangement of objects and movements in the frame. Shot Types The amount of visual information included in the image depends on the distance of the camera from the action and on the focal length of the camera lens. Throughout the history of cinema, filmmakers have favored certain combinations of camera distance and focal length, or shot types. * Extreme long shot: Captures a scene in its entirety; used for establishing location in exterior shots. Used frequently in epic genres such as westerns and war films, it reduces human beings to mere dots on the screen. * Long shot: Accommodates at least the entire bodies of figures (if that is all the shot includes, it is called a full shot). Captures movement, background, and broad gestures and expressions. * Medium shot: Contains a figure from the waist or knees up. It is a functional shot, favored in classical Hollywood editing, often used for scenes with dialogue. * Close-up: Includes very little if any background, concentrating on an object or, if an extreme close-up, a fragment of an object, such as the human face. Close-ups often accord great significance and symbolic...

Words: 5540 - Pages: 23

Premium Essay

Film Essay

...dogs): the #1 The Rules of the Game September-October 2006 FILM COMMENT 33 Sunrise PREFACE THE BOOK I DIDN’T WRITE I n march 2003 i was having dinner in london with Faber and Faber’s editor of film books, Walter Donohue, and several others when the conversation turned to the current state of film criticism and lack of knowledge of film history in general. I remarked on a former assistant who, when told to look up Montgomery Clift, returned some minutes later asking, “Where is that?” I replied that I thought it was in the Hollywood Hills, and he returned to his search engine. Yes, we agreed, there are too many films, too much history, for today’s student to master. “Someone should write a film version of Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon,” a writer from The Independent suggested, and “the person who should write it,” he said, looking at me, “is you.” I looked to Walter, who replied, “If you write it, I’ll publish it.” And the die was cast. Faber offered a contract, and I set to work. Following the Bloom model I decided it should be an elitist canon, not populist, raising the bar so high that only a handful of films would pass over. I proceeded to compile a list of essential films, attempting, as best I could, to separate personal favorites from those movies that artistically defined film history. Compiling was the easy part—then came the first dilemma: why was I selecting these films? What were my criteria? What is a canon? It is, by definition, based...

Words: 11026 - Pages: 45

Premium Essay

Filmandnegotiation

...The use of full-length films to teach negotiation. Olivier Fournout This is the text of a lecture given at the conference “New Trends in Negotiation Teaching”, presented by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (PON) and the Institute for Research and Education on Negotiation in Europe at ESSEC Business School (IRENE), Nov. 14-15, 2005. Key words: negotiation, leadership, film, fiction, phenomenology, negotiation of meaning, teaching of negociation, pedagogy, imagination, interaction. ----------------------- It is a year since I started courses on negotiation and leadership in which I use full-length films as the main pedagogical tool. It is this experience that I would like to talk about here. I will organize my lecture around three points: first, I will describe the course itself and its background; then, I will try to clarify my pedagogical principles; and finally, I will give you a very quick sample of this pedagogy by showing you some extracts from Lost in La Mancha, and I will make a few comments. 1- The course and its background. This course is given at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (the National Graduate School of Telecommunications in Paris). The three sessions on negotiation are fairly modest in size : 12 hours. I built them around three films. The first one is Le souper (The Supper) where we get an idea of the negotiation between Talleyrand and Fouché a few weeks after Waterloo, when France’s whole future...

Words: 4041 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

Film Production Project

...Karen Conner Professor Pridgeon English 252H Spring 1993 Semester Film Production: Final Project After the astounding success of my last film endeavor [final project for ENG 251H], Townies, my production company, Gateway Productions, has con¬tracted me for a new endeavor, this time for an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. The company says that I may have full creative license in this one so, as Orson Welles did in his film Citizen Kane, I intend to oversee all aspects of the process. In selecting my staff, I have decided to keep some of the old faces from the previous film. My friend Julie Weaver will once more be at my side. As you recall, I chose her previously because she is not only a good art director but a talented illustrator as well. Her ability to do on-the-spot sketches of ideas saved me a great amount of time and money on the last project. I have also decided to keep Brightwood as cinematographer and Wise as sound director, again for the same reason for which I chose them last time, because they would make good contributions to the creative aspect of the process, and I felt that these two could best translate my ideas to film. Another old face will be Joyce Nevelson, my editor. I chose her last time because she was well-known in the industry and had won many rewards, proving her talent. Changes I have made will be in the writing, sound, and music departments. I have chosen Paul Gainritch to write my screen¬play. He is...

Words: 5985 - Pages: 24

Premium Essay

Individual: Influences of Visual Media Paper

...the Impact of Images 187 Early Technology and the Evolution of Movies 192 The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System 195 The Studio System’s Golden Age 205 The Transformation of the Studio System 209 The Economics of the Movie Business 215 Popular Movies and Democracy In every generation, a film is made that changes the movie industry. In 1941, that film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane. Welles produced, directed, wrote, and starred in the movie at age twenty-five, playing a newspaper magnate from a young man to old age. While the movie was not a commercial success initially (powerful newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose life was the inspiration for the movie, tried to suppress it), it was critically praised for its acting, story, and directing. Citizen Kane’s dramatic camera angles, striking film noir–style lighting, nonlinear storytelling, montages, and long deep-focus shots were considered technically innovative for the era. Over time, Citizen Kane became revered as a masterpiece, and in 1997 the American Film Institute named it the Greatest American Movie of All Time. “Citizen Kane is more than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound,” film critic Roger Ebert wrote.1 CHAPTER 6 ○ MOVIES 185 (c) Bedford/St. Martin's bedfordstmartins.com 1-457-62096-0 / 978-1-457-62096-6 MOVIES A generation later, the space epic Star Wars (1977) changed the culture of the movie industry. Star Wars, produced, written, and directed...

Words: 19373 - Pages: 78

Free Essay

Batman Dark Knight: Philosophy

...BATMAN AND PHILOSOPHY THE DARK KNIGHT OF THE SOUL Edited by Mark D. White and Robert Arp @ WILEY John Wiley & Sons, Inc. To the memory of Heath Ledger (1979-2008) Copyright © 2008 by john Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved Published by john Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New jerney Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a reaieval system, or transmit­ ted in any fonn or by any means. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scan­ ning, or otherwise, except as pennitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written pennission of the Publisher, Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvern, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) sion should be addressed to the Pennissions Department,john Wiley & Sons,Inc., III or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for pennis­ River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.comlgo/pennissions. Limit ofLiabilirylDisclaimer ofWarranry:While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book., they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this hook and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty...

Words: 8400 - Pages: 34

Free Essay

French New Wave

...An artistic movement whose influence on film has been as profound and enduring as that of surrealism or cubism on painting, the French New Wave (or Le Nouvelle Vague) made its first splashes as a movement shot through with youthful exuberance and a brisk reinvigoration of the filmmaking process. Most agree that the French New Wave was at its peak between 1958 and 1964, but it continued to ripple on afterwards, with many of the tendencies and styles introduced by the movement still in practice today… French New Wave The New Wave (French: La Nouvelle Vague) was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful iconoclasm. "New Wave" is an example of European art cinema. Many also engaged in their work with the social and political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. Using portable equipment and requiring little or no set up time, the New Wave way of filmmaking presented a documentary type style. The films exhibited direct sounds on film stock that required less light. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of objective realism...

Words: 10418 - Pages: 42

Free Essay

Thesis- the Gift of the Magi

...The Gift of the Magi Themes Love "Gift of the Magi" is the story of a poor, young couple whose love for each other is the most important thing in their lives. Such is their love that they're led to sacrifice their most valuable possessions to find Christmas gifts for each other. The warm home they make together contrasts with the drabness of their poverty and the dreary world outside. Their love seems to know no bounds, though Della (the wife) worries about how her sacrifice will affect her husband because of how it affects her looks. If ever there were a story with the message that all you need to be happy is love, this is it. Sacrifice The two main characters in "Gift of the Magi" are a husband and wife who give up their most precious possessions to be able to afford gifts for each other on Christmas Eve. The story seems to be all about sacrifice. We watch Della go through the process of deciding to make the sacrifice and going through with it, only to discover that her husband has made the same sacrifice. The story's narrator assures us that in their willingness to give up all they have, they have proven themselves the wisest of all gift-givers. It might remain unclear, though, exactly what their sacrifice has accomplished, or how it has affected them. Wealth In many ways, "Gift of the Magi" is a story about what it means for something to be valuable. Does something's value lie in how much money it is worth? Or are other things more valuable than money? The main characters...

Words: 10606 - Pages: 43

Premium Essay

Prose Fiction

...within the English Language Education KLA and Cross KLA Links 3.4 Time Allocation 3.5 Progression of Studies 3.6 Managing the Curriculum – Role of Curriculum Leaders Chapter 4 1 2 2 3 3 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 21 Learning and Teaching 4.1 Approaches to Learning and Teaching 4.1.1 Introductory Comments 4.1.2 Prose Fiction 4.1.3 Poetry i 21 21 23 32 SECOND DRAFT 4.1.4 Drama 4.1.5 Films 4.1.6 Literary Appreciation 4.1.7 Schools of Literary Criticism 4.2 Catering for Learner Diversity 4.3 Meaningful Homework 4.4 Role of Learners Chapter 5 41 45 52 69 71 72 73 74 Assessment 5.1 Guiding Principles 5.2 Internal Assessment 5.2.1 Formative Assessment 5.2.2 Summative Assessment 5.3 Public Assessment 5.3.1 Standards-referenced Assessment 5.3.2 Modes of Public Assessment 74 74 74 75 77 77 77 Quality Learning and Teaching Resources 104 6.1 Use of Set Texts 6.2 Use of Other Learning and Teaching Resources 104 108 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 109 Supporting Measures 7.1 Learning and Teaching Resource Materials 7.2 Professional Development 109 109 Appendix 1 Examples of Poetry Analysis 110 Appendix 2 Examples of...

Words: 41988 - Pages: 168