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Citizen Kane Film Analysis Essay

758 Words4 Pages

The opening scene in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) sets the stage for probably the most critically acclaimed masterpiece in film history. Welles was truly a genius along with his cinematographer and partner in crime, Gregg Toland. Their filmography styles were elegant and sharply coordinated. Phenomenal techniques were used, such as cutting holes through the stage ground and to get new and interesting angles of perspective on important scenes. Also expertly done were Citizen Kane’s camera angles. They gave new and exciting perspectives on certain scenes, sometimes giving three or four differing angles on a solidary scene. The production team also used numerous editing techniques, such as the use of close ups, slow motion and the aforementioned different camera angles. In the following analytical piece, all of these elements of film style will be examined in the scene depicting Kane’s death showing how they all act either alone or tied within each other to give …show more content…

A close up is a type of camera shot. This refers to the amount of space that is exhibited in a single shot or frame. Even within this sub-category of a camera shot, there are two different types of close ups. A regular close up only consists of a person’s entire face, whilst an extreme close up shows only a specific part of an individual’s face. The extreme close up was used in the opening scene depicting Kane’s death to add an aura of mystique to his character, since we have not seen his face prior to his death and it is only within the newsreel in a following scene we see what Kane truly looks like. Also, the close up is also timed well with his utterance of “Rosebud”, a mystery within the entire film and the central argument within the film. Another good example of the close up used is the close up of the snow globe, which showed up many a time throughout the film and was a key detail within

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