Motifs Isolation The protagonist is continuously isolated from the rest of the world around him, whether it was in his childhood or adulthood. The cinematography in Citizen Kane furthermore demonstrates the isolation he was going through. In one scene, we see Kane his childhood playing alone in the outside; the camera creates a divided shot on him and his mother with Mr. Thatcher, as they plan to send him away from home. Another scene is where; Kane is sitting by himself in the center of a room surrounded by men suited up, watching him as he opens a gift from Thatcher at his office.
Directed by Orson Welles, the 1941 motion picture “Citizen Kane” is the story of the rise and fall of a great, influential man. The opening scenes of “Citizen Kane” are quite different from what follows during the rest of the film. Fading in and out of different landscapes instilled mystery. This mysterious vibe was carried on during Charles Foster Kane’s death through the use of shadows, quiet music, and close up shots. Isolated in his vast empire of a home, Kane uttered only one word before he passed: “rosebud.” The whole country knows about this news publisher’s life, but for some, his life story is not enough. For the duration of the film, a reporter called Thompson (William Alland) tries to debunk what this last word, “rosebud,” could have meant. Could it be a person? A place? Maybe an item he held close? The mood of the movie at this point shifts from dark and solemn to alive and talkative. The active dialogue and intonation used by the actors made the storyline interesting. For example, the news reporters exemplified the very image of a news reporter back in the day: curious, chatty, and amusing. Their somewhat boisterous nature is countered by unconventional lighting, as the audience hears their conversation but sees mostly shadows or just glimpses of their faces.
Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema through techniques in cinematography, mise-en-scene and lighting. The mise-en-scene build of Citizen Kane is the pivoting point of the narrative forthcoming and Welles uses every technical element encompassed in this build to span his narrative across 60 years of Charles Foster Kane, the main character 's life.
Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is a cinematic classic, released in 1941. Citizen Kane challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema. Kane was narrated by several people that include their take on Kane’s life. The story unfolds by many flashbacks and is told by different perspectives over the years through different narrations. Charles Foster Kane was a millionaire, head of newspapers and died saying “rosebud”. The story focuses on telling about Kane but is about a reporter trying to seek what and why his last words meant. A reporter, Thompson was trying to seek why Kane’s last words were rosebud and what it was. The reporter interviewed people such as Mr. Jedediah Leland who was his friend until he was fired from the newspaper after transferring to Chicago to take care of that newspaper. Jedediah was fired after he was found to be face down on his typewriter writing a review of Susan and her horrific performance. Kane’s
Orson Welles 1941 film, Citizen Kane, depicts the American dream through the protagonist Charles Foster Kane. In the film, Orson Welles relies heavily on his understanding of the audience by using pathos and ethos in order to convince them of his purpose for writing the film. The appeal to pathos convinces the viewer as to how depressing Charles Foster Kane's life is even with all his fame and fortune. The use of pathos is apparent in the scene where Jedediah Leland says, "That's all he ever wanted out of life...was love. That's the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane.
(Citizen Kane, 1941) Kane’s parents used the power of money as an accessory for giving him away to a billionaire. Since that day, the protagonist went through a traumatizing experience, insecurity and redisposition due to his parents’ actions, which marked the beginning of his tortuous need, to be loved. This unreturned love created a sense of fear and mistrust to love something or someone, only to experience abandonment again was something Kane never got a chance to learn. Citizen Kane broke all the rules because of Welles, there were no
There are many things that make “Citizen Kane” considered as possibly one of the greatest films every made; to the eyes of the passive audience this film may not seem the most amazing, most people being accustomed to the classical Hollywood style, but to the audience with an eye for the complex, “Citizen Kane” breaks the traditional Hollywood mold and forges its own path for the better. Exposition is one of the most key features of a film, it’s meant introduce important characters and give the audience relevant details and and dutifully suppress knowledge in turn. “Citizen Kane” does not follow this Classic Hollywood style exposition, instead going above and beyond to open the film with revealing as little information as possible and confuse/intrigue
The Film Citizen Kane was a groundbreaking film in the 1940’s, the way Orson Wells depicts his film with different lighting, cinematography, choice of camera shots and mise-en-scene throughout this movie truly showed the masterpiece that this film is. In the Film Citizen Kane, it was the first movie that went against true Hollywood cinema by introducing flashbacks throughout the movie to show us how Charles Foster Kane changes throughout the movie. Throughout this movie the audience can see how Charles Foster Kane undergoes a variety of physical and emotional changes from when he was just a young boy all the way until his unfortunate death. Power, that’s all that Kane wanted in the start of the film. In the beginning of the film Kane gets ownership of the struggling New York Daily Inquirer, Kane suggests that he wanted to use journalism to apply to the public and protect the interest of ordinary people.
Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane, a millionaire newspaper tycoon, who had recently passed away. The story unfolds in a sequence of overlapping narratives told by different narrators, all with different views of Kane. Their opinions of Kane give the audience different perspectives of the man thought to be one of the most powerful figures in America. The events recalled are told by the narrators to reporters trying to decipher Kane’s famous last words “rosebud”, but because of their advance older age they seem to be contradictory and unreliable. Their accounts are out sequence and often coincide with themselves.
Kylie Mawn Professor Rodais CINE 121 Midterm 4 March 2018 Question 1: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is a film that is well known for pushing cinematic boundaries in many ways. One commonly recognized technique in Welles’ film is deep focus photography. Deep focus photography is used in films to allow everything in a shot to be in focus at once. Typical, only specific characters or objects are in focus in any given frame in order to guide the audience’s attention in a scene, but deep focus can bring a new level of sophistication to a shot.
Shot Analysis: Citizen Kane Orson Welles, director of “Citizen Kane”, is well known for his unusual directing methods that defied conventional cinematic techniques. Welles provided his audience with original forms of cinematography, narrative structures, and music. The scene I chose to analyze is extremely important to the plot of the film because Kane begins to realize that he is going through some serious financial problems. During the scene, Kane maintains a sarcastic mood, until he finally decides to surrender and signs the papers that transfer the ownership of his media empire to Mr. Thatcher.
The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare and 1941 film Citizen Kane possess many similarities in themes and characters, despite the completely different settings and plots. Both main characters are ambitious and determined to achieve a goal, even to a certain point where they lose everything truly meaningful to them. While Macbeth strives to become king of Scotland, Charles Foster Kane attempts to become popular and influential. Both Macbeth and Citizen Kane desire to be powerful members of their respective societies and receive respect and recognition from their acquaintances. In both works, they acquired everything they thought they wanted, yet realised they could not have what they truly desired, essentially ending up with “nothing of value”.
In this essay I will be comparing the themes and the narrative techniques used in both films. Starting off with the film “Citizen Kane” as mentioned it is a story of a millionaire, Charles Foster Kane. It begins with Kane’s death and speaks a single word: “Rosebud”. The reporters in the hunt to know
Every now and then the art world is struck by a wave of change that leaves a strong impression, which can last for a long time. Visual arts saw the rise of impressionism and cubism, surrealism and realism took literature to an opposite direction, and film has evolved over the years through cultural and artistic development such as expressionism, auteurism and film noir (House, p.61). The 1940s and post World War II gave rise to a new style of American film, these films appeared pessimistic and dark in mood, theme, and subject. The world created within these films were portrayed as corrupt, hopeless, lacked human sympathy, and “a world where women with a past and men with no future spent eternal nights in one-room walk-ups surrounded by the
The Godfather (1972) is said to be one of the greatest films ever made. When this movie was released in 1972, it was nominated for Ten Academy Awards and it won three: Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was adapted from the book with the same name written by award winning author of mafia fiction, Mario Puzo. This film takes place in a span of ten years following the life of Don Corleone, the head of the Corleone Crime Family. It was a film that changed the history of cinema, introducing a very talented filmmaker and several acting legends in the telling of a story of a Sicilian Crime Family. The most memorable scene in the film is the opening scene of the movie which is also my choice of scene to elaborate on mise-en-scene.