Citizen Kane starts off with two silent clips. The first clip tells us who the movie was directed by, followed by the title of the picture. After these two clips take place, the mood starts to set. Cue the dark, gloomy and mysterious tone from the music that is played when the black and white images of the surroundings and many areas of Kane’s castle appear. All images are shady; there is almost no light. These images create a mysterious mood for the audience because there are no signs of happiness or light. It makes the audience feel uneasy. Next, you see Kane on his deathbed, holding a snow globe. This scene is still dark, with only minimal light coming in from the distance through the window. Then you see a close up shot of Charles Kane,
The United States of America is a big, powerful and wealthy country in the world. The division of class, individuality, religion, and race are but a few of the embellishments within the society. The blend of these numerous diversities is the crucial ingredient to the modern nation. America has been formed upon them, with that said the “average American”- have a single means in common; a single concept; a single goal; the American Dream. The Dream consists of a seemingly simple theory; success.
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. Kane’s isolation follows him through into his adulthood, where he is found sitting on his own in his newspaper office amongst a celebration in his honor. The camera
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.
The American Dream is that anyone can gain success through hard work, no matter your status, or if you're poor, or your gender, or anything of your background. Citizen Kane shows the dark side by emphasizing the reality of who can achieve the American Dream. Charles Foster Kane was a rich white male who was able to achieve greatness in power and wealth. There is no denying that he did put work in, but you cannot ignore that his background contributed a lot towards his success. For instance, in one scene, Thatcher is telling Kane that he is losing $1 million dollars a year. Kane responds by saying at that rate, he would need to close down is 60 years. By putting this scene in, it shows the amount of privilege Charles possesses. To the general
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. Throughout the film, Welles uses unusual arrangements of music that creates suspense for the audience. The main thesis of this scene is the myth
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.
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.
Two films, although created years apart yet have a lot in common, including their content of it’s narrative techniques. Both films, even though black and white with strokes of genius of cinema offer a vast stretch for study. I will be looking at Sir Orson Welles “Citizen Kane” (1941) and Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” (1950). We see in Citizen Kane he values for the American life. The three abstract themes that constantly follow through Citizen Kane are Wealth, Power and Love. However, in the movie “Rashomon” it displays the pursuit of the truth. The use of narratives allows them to take both the films to interesting directions. In Citizen Kane the narratives tell the viewers the insignificant part of life of an American Newspaperman Mr. Charles Foster Kane. In Rashomon the viewer gets a totally different perspective. We also notice that in Citizen Kane Well’s has used a lot of black techniques and its techniques and in Rashomon on the other hand is more a day lit film. In this essay I will be comparing the themes and the narrative techniques used in both films.
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 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
Born to Austrian nobility, Marie Antoinette who is only 14 years old , is said to marry Louis XVI, the king of France, in an alliance that has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with love. Sent to France and literally stripped of her former life, including all clothes she wore that were from Austria, Marie weds Louis, but to the consternation of the royal court, he seems either unwilling to accept the marriage while their advisors clamor for an heir to the throne. Young and more than a bit out of step with the new life that she is living, Marie gives herself
Over the past century, film has served as a powerful means of communication to a global audience and has become a vital part of the contemporary culture in a world that is increasingly saturated by visual content. Due to the immediacy and the all-encompassing nature of film, the process of watching a film, is widely perceived to be a passive activity by the general masses. However, quoting Smith in his article about the study of film, “nothing could be further from the truth.” The study and understanding of film as an art form enhances the way we watch and appreciate films. It requires the audience's active participation and interaction with the film in order to fully comprehend the directors' intention behind every creative decision. With
Citizen Kane (1941) is a drama movie directed by Orson Welles, who also has the main role in the movie; his character: Charles Foster Kane.
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. While using deep focus photography, a cinematographer may have to rely on framing, lighting, or composition to guide an audience in a way that typically would be done by focusing on objects or characters in the foreground of a shot. Many of these techniques are found in the scene which shows young Charles playing in the snow while his mother completes the transaction to have him taken from his home. Throughout the scene, Charles can still clearly be seen through the brightly-lit window, even while the adults are talking in the foreground of the shot. The ability to see Charles at all times emphasizes that although he is not directly involved in the conversation, he is still the topic of interest. This deep-focus aids in the mise-en-scéne of this scene by allowing the cinematographer to strategically include Charles as a focus of the scene without directly involving him in the dialogue. This is the first of many times where Charles