Cinematography and the Film Citizen Kane (1941)

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The absolutely stunning film, Citizen Kane (1941), is one of the world’s most famous and highly renowned films. The film contains many remarkable scenes and cinematic techniques as well as innovations. Within this well-known film, Orson Welles (director) portrays many stylistic features and fundamentals of cinematography. The scene of Charles Foster Kane and his wife, Susan, at Xanadu shows the dominance that Kane bears over people in general as well as Susan specifically. Throughout the film, Orson Welles continues to convey the message of Susan’s inferiority to Mr. Kane. 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 to 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. Throughout the scene, Kane is shadowed with darkness upon his face, emphasizing how ‘dark’ he is. Conversely, oftentimes light is directly on Susan, portraying her innocence and how ‘light’ of a character she is. Within this scene, Welles shows Susan wearing white and Mr. Kane wearing a dark colored suit, an overt portrayal of light versus darkness. Susan wearing a white, light colored ensemble portrays her as the submissive one with a lighter, happy-hearted spirit. Wearing a dark suit, Charles Kane is depicted as an overbearing and controlling person....

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...ne as a young innocent child. Throughout the story he changes physically, mentally, and emotionally from a young child to an old man, which makes him a dynamic character. He became a very dynamic character because he found a need for materialistic things such as statues and homes such as Xanadu, his large home on a vast plot of secluded land. Through materialism, Kane became a self invested individual.

The highly acclaimed Citizen Kane creates drama and suspense to the viewer. Orson Welles designed this film to enhance the viewer’s opinion about light and darkness, staging, proxemics, personal theme development, and materialism. Creating one of the most astounding films to the cinematography world, Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography. It is an amazing film and will have an everlasting impact on the world of film.

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