Theme, Subject and Meaning in Breathless and Citizen Kane
Many devices such as theme, subject and meaning reflect different aspects of a film. The time and place that the movie is made are usually affected but this.
A great example of this would be the film Breathless, directed by Godard. This is a story of the love between a small-time crook who is wanted for killing a cop, and an American woman who works for a French newspaper. Their relationship develops as the man hides out from the police. Breathless uses the famous techniques of the French New Wave: location shooting, improvised dialogue, and a loose narrative form. Godard also uses cuts that seem, to jump from one scene to another, with what seem to be deliberate \"mismatches\" between shots. This is what makes this movie so special. It could never have been made before it had been. It was made in the post worlds War II era in the year 1959. The plot and subjects reflect this, because there really is no major plot except for the one that I have already described. This was a revolutionary movie in that aspect. This movie was made in France, partly because that was where it was set, but mainly because that is where the new director could afford to make such a makeshift movie.
Another example of a movie that shares such aspects is Citizen Kane. There are many references in this fictional movie to a non-fictional man. This man would be William Randolph Hearst. He was a self made millionaire quite like the main character of the movie. Hearst was also was in the business of journalism. He lived a very eccentric life like that of Kane’s. He was politically involved in the 1930’s as a pro-Nazi and in the 40’s as an anti-communist. This was similar to Kane’s character that ran for office in New York. While Kane enjoyed the luxuries of Xanadu, Hearst had his own castle at San Simeon. These are the similarities on screen between the two, but behind the scenes there was a heated debate over the making of this movie.
Hearst did not want this movie made even though it was not exactly a portrayal of his life.
After evaluating the 2081 movie, it is apparent the film elements and techniques are important when defining the mood. The four main techniques used throughout the film were lighting, music, sound, and dialogue.
Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ cinematic classic, is a film that centers on a group of reporter’s investigation into the meaning of Charles Foster Kane’s last uttered word, “Rosebud.” Citizen Kane ' brings into light many social problems between countries, relationships, and also between competing newspaper companies. It brings into light how a newspaper should react and also brings the corruption of politics. War was breaking out in Europe and throughout the entire film Kane states there will be no war. He ignores the fact people are being killed, tortured, and rounded up like livestock.
Citizen Kane has earned the prestigious honor of being regarded as the number one movie of all time because of Welles’ groundbreaking narrative and plot structures that paved a path for the future of the film industry. Though critics have viewed the film with such prestige over the years, a present day viewer might encounter a great amount of confusion or difficulty as to why Citizen Kane is the number one movie on the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies of all time. Especially considering the modern day film industry, Welles’ production does not measure up to the amount of thrill and entertainment audiences experience today. Not even considering the possibilities with special effects and technology, Citizen Kane seems to lack an exciting plot that might involve some action or twists instead of the gossip of a man’s life that we no longer appreciate. In 1941, the general public could greatly appreciate the connections between Kane and William Randolph Hearst unlike young adults watching the film now.
In your view, how does Welles’ portrayal of the complex nature of happiness contribute to the enduring value of Citizen Kane?
The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.
The story of Charles Foster Kane was truly one that could go on as timeless. Born in poverty Kane was given away with the promise of having a better life. In a material point of view Kane lived a very fulfilling life filled with anything he ever wanted. Although throughout the movie, Kane despised the situation in which he was brought up in. Being placed under the care of his mother’s banker really influenced the way he viewed the world. He considered himself a people’s person a sort of hero for those in worse situations than his own. The mass appeal for this character along with the truly original storyline and plenty other factors led many people everywhere to gain a huge appreciation of this movie. Despise its early failure following its
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
One of the fundamental aspects that determine the genre of a film is the iconography and the
In Italy, post-World War II, a new film movement emerged amidst the collapse of the Mussolini regime, the desecration of a city and its historical landmarks, changes to social order and significant loss of life. Italian Neorealism embraced the harsh, impoverished and oppressive conditions being experienced by ordinary people trying to return to some normality (Film Reference 2015). Seizing an opportunity to discard popular Hollywood formula movies directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittoria de Sica and Luchinio Visconti shifted focus to ‘lower-class characters and their concerns, using nonprofessional actors, outdoor shooting, (necessarily) very small budgets, and a realist aesthetic’ (Criterion, 2015). While the Italian Neorealism movement
According to historians like Neil Burch, the primitive period of the film industry, at the turn of the 20th century was making films that appealed to their audiences due to the simple story. A non-fiction narrative, single shots a burgeoning sense
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
Since the beginning of the American Dream, Americans have idealized the journey towards happiness. One thing people do not realize, however, is that the journey requires hard work and honesty. Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the main character of Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles, was unable to learn this through the humble happiness of childhood in relative poverty. As he grows up in a very privileged atmosphere, he views everyone as forces that are easily controllable, and the journey towards happiness as easy. This view irretrievably cost him his opportunity for lifelong contentment. Both the storyline and the film techniques used by Welles show the futility of striving for complete control. Welles also uses this movie as an allegory to the careless luxury of the 1920s and consequential fall into the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
...verything around us is made by our actions. Positive or negative they cause an effect that will ultimately lead to a different story base on how we interpret life. Narrative elements are used as a bridge by the directors in their film to create any master plot that is currently known. Any modification at any narrative element used by the director at important moments inside the story can help you portray a different master plot. This used of narrative elements can be best described as an ever changing process that takes place inside an individual’s head. Depending on the individual that may be exposed to those narrative elements can create different meanings. This new interpretation can be different for everyone. We have to be aware that one change in the surface scenery can lead to many ideal outcomes in our minds and that is the main power the audience has.
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