Citizen Kane is a personal story about a news tycoon from the early 1900’s ‘Charles Foster Kane’s’ last word “Rosebud”. This word sparks an investigation by reporters who interview people from Kane’s past putting the pieces together to uncover the mystery of the word and its importance.
Bordwell goes in detail about the difference of subjective vision and objective realism and the part they play in Citizen Kane. Orson Welles borrows elements from both forms and balances them which Bordwell calls “the films great achievement” (Bordwell, 1971). Cutting from elements of realism such as the ‘News on the March’ scene (Lumieres realism). To the dreamy shots of the Kane’s castle and his lips as he says Rosebud (Melies subjective vision).
Bordwells
…show more content…
The scene begins right after Susan has left, we see a low angled medium shot of Kane walking towards the bed, the sound being minimalistic with very low sounds of Kane clipping the brief case. From what starts as Kane closing a suit case results in it being thrown across the room with a loud bang of it hitting the floor. As soon as he is about to throw the case the camera cuts and is placed further back still in a low angled. Reflecting the audiences shock, cowering, maintaining distance from Kane’s destructive path. The camera only moves as Kane moves away from the camera to the far side of the room where the camera cuts and is zoomed in on Kane as he tears apart that side of the …show more content…
The audience can feel rage just in the audio as the sounds of the glass shattering and woods being snapped is loud, harsh, random and chaotic, reflecting Kane’s nature in this scene. Looking at the mise en scene the audiences sees how cluttered the room is and how nothing is safe from Kane baring the snow globe which reminds him of ‘Rosebud’. This globe is never in frame during the scene until Kane spots it.. The camera follows Kane as he breaks all of this expensive and priceless antiques but he won’t break this small snow globe. It’s a personal artefact of Kane’s and it is here the audience realises the importance of it. Instead of it being a man last words which could have been meaningless, the audience now realises that his last words did mean
Mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing are used in all forms of cinema. Within the “Declaration of Principles” scene of Citizen Kane, lighting, blocking and panning are three of the main sub aspects that work in unison to consistently demonstrate important aspects of the film. Welles uses these attributes to portray to the audience how this younger Kane is an important newspaper owner, with an even more important document. He creates a scene that has a heavy emphasis on panning to continuously preserve a frame that centers Kane while also lighting the document so viewers can constantly see the important plot and characters of the movie.
Citizen Kane, is a 1941 American film, written, produced, and starred by Orson Welles. This film is often proclaimed by critics,filmmakers, and fans as one of the best if not the best film ever made. Citizen Kane is an unbelievable film becuase of how advanced it is compared to other films of its time. In the film, the producer used many different narrative elements to capture the audiences imagination. It truly is astounding how the filmmakers used certain editing techniques, sounds, and different narrative elements to illustrate the story and the plot. Although the plot isnt exactly captivating to the present day audience, this film is still amazing due to how much work and effort went into making it.
In your view, how does Welles’ portrayal of the complex nature of happiness contribute to the enduring value of Citizen Kane?
object as she slowly takes a sip. In a later scene, Mrs. Sebastian pours the
In the sequence, Wells uses low angles to showcase his characters and their status in the film, especially the shots with Mr.Carter and Kane. These shots are filmed at a low angle to depict how powerful Kane really is, with these shots they portray him towering over Carter, making it appear that he is capable of taking out whoever stands in his way. The low angles in this film are meant to isolate Kane and those who are around him to express that he is the king. Low angles shot are also seen when Leland confronts Kane about his egocentric personality after losing the election. This shot creates dramatic tension, but it still does not fail to make the shot about Kane because of the streamers and posters that surround them, which are a reminder of Kane and his loss. Though conflict arises from this scene, it is easy to see that even if Kane is being criticized, he still holds dominance.
Sarah Street said, “in Citizen Kane Welles is criticizing fundamental contradictions within monopolistic journalism and political rhetoric.” He wasn’t only showcasing his talents in film he was conveying a real message to the public. He was criticizing the way people’s agenda can truly affect the world as seen through Hearst these individuals have great power, but often lack honesty in the way of doing things. Another critic Armstrong says the script “asks you to ponder the meaning of someone's life. What makes living worthwhile? What makes a person happy: money, love, power? How do we make sense of that life--by what was said, what was done, or by what is left?” This great description entails many of the other elements Welles wanted to face. Although Kane had all he ever wanted what did he accomplish and what was he missing and searching for all his life. This draws back to the main search in the story for Rosebud. Welles while creating a wonderful visual piece also had the thrilling unique story to go along with
Throughout the course of a lifetime, a common phrase heard is “don’t judge a book by its cover”. This phrase indicates the fact that it is nearly impossible to truly evaluate the life and feelings of a person just by what can be seen about them. This is the case in the film Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles. Charles Foster Kane is a man who would appear to the general public as having it all. A very popular man, Kane owns a successful newspaper company for which he is known worldwide. He builds a gigantic mansion for his second wife and himself, surrounded by intricate and expensive statues. Kane seems to be perfect in every single way, and one may think that he is the happiest man alive. However, Charles never had the things that
...the narrator and all people a way of finding meaning in their pains and joys. The two brothers again can live in brotherhood and harmony.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
1. The scene begins by fading in on the back of the silent man’s head (Cary Grant) in Alicia’s bungalow. Then the camera zooms out while sweeping right to give the first full shot and view of both of the main characters. They are shown seated at a table, with many empty bottles of liquor and glasses.
This was Welles’s first feature film, in which was considered by many to be the greatest film of all time. In this film, the story takes place surrounding the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, in which is played by Welles. This character reflects on aspects of Welles's own life in the way that, Kane's career started off as an idealistic social service, but overtime evolved into a ruthless pursuit of power. The story is told through the research of a newsreel reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the last word ever spoken by Charles Foster Kane, which was "Rosebud.” Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its aspects of cinematography, music, and narrative structure.
Sarah’s Kane play Blasted was first published in 1995. Kane together with her generation grew up in a time of constant troubles: not only did they saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also felt the violence of the numerous wars, like the Crimean War, through images. In her play, Kane breaks with the traditional dramatic methods by using the form as a device to convey meaning. This union of form and structure is present not only in the structure of the play but also in the way language is used by Ian. First of all, the structure of the play consists of five scenes, which are divided into two parts by the blasting of a bomb at the end of the second scene.
Also, Welles furthers the image of how demanding Kane is of Susan and many others. Mr. Welles conveys the message that Kane has suffered a hard life, and will continue until death. Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography through use of light and darkness, staging and proxemics, personal theme development and materialism within the film, Citizen Kane. Welles prominently portrays his figures with a specific amount of light or darkness, stunningly affecting whole scenes stylistically. The scene at Xanadu establishes Mr. Kane as an overbearing, controlling character.
An undeniably common theme shared between There Will Be Blood and Citizen Kane is the pursuit of the American Dream. Both Daniel Plainview and Charles Kane share an immense strive for ambition, achieving their success, and failures, in much different ways, with ultimately the same outcome, isolation due to negligence. The drive both protagonists share leads to their wealth, as well as their many losses, personal, physical, emotional, and psychological. The American Dream consists of the achievement of wealth, status, success, and love, which both Plainview and Kane struggle to achieve throughout the two films. The films illustrate how pursing this American Dream eventually leads to downfall, corruption and complete isolation. Ironically, the
The film The Green Mile was originally written by Stephen King and later directed by Frank Darabont. It is based on the guards and inmates of a penitentiary’s Death Row during the great depression. There is a certain monotony that comes with working on Death Row and Paul Edgecomb, played by Tom Hanks, has become numb to the fact that he is paid to take lives; that is until John Coffey gets sentenced to death and is sent to Paul’s “green mile”. John Coffey is a very large black man that was accused of rape and murder of two little girls, and in the 1930’s having charges like that brought upon you was grounds for the death penalty, especially for a black man in the south.