The Academy Award winning film Citizen Kane was directed, co-written and produced by Orson Welles in 1941. The film is an American drama with multiple themes. The two most significant themes are; the loss of childhood innocence and the rags to riches story line both of which are echoed throughout the film. The rags to riches/American Dream theme is a shared idea that everyone who is willing to work hard has the ability and opportunity to become successful and wealthy. The film features Orson Welles as the protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, who started from humble begins and would end up one of the richest men of his time. The theme, loss of innocence is symbolized by the sled from Kane’s childhood and represents the last time Charles was an innocent child. The majority of both past and present film critics agree that Citizen Kane is a classical masterpiece best known for the innovative camera techniques and filming elements. A cinematic review of the filming elements from the sled/boyhood scene that will be discussed are blocking, deep focus and symbols.
Blocking can be described as the placement and movement of the actors and is often used to explain to the viewer the hierarchy that exists within a scene. Positioning is also helpful in identifying a
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characters importance. In the sled/boyhood scene the blocking technique is effective in identifying the main character of the scene and in this case it is the mother, Mrs. Kane. The scenes focus is entirely on her. She is at the center and forefront of nearly every frame and her characters position, nearest the camera, reinforces the importance of her role. The scene portrays just how great her influence is. Depicting her power and control over the situation. The young boy, Charles Kane, who is the furthest away from the main scene can be observed through a window in the background. He is innocently playing in the snow, seemly carefree and oblivious to the conversation or events taking place inside the home between his parents and the banker, Mr. Thatcher. The use of blocking in this scene is effective in portraying Kane’s innocence, his lack of power and therefore the lack of control he had as a young boy. There were many advances made by Orson Welles during the making of Citizen Kane. The most significant and influential contribution to film making came from the use of a technique known as deep focus. Deep focus is achieved through lighting, composition and depth of field. This method allows everything within the frame from foreground to background to remain in focus. The effectiveness of deep focus can be viewed in scenes that portray Kane’s loss of power, loss of control and the individual seclusion he felt. All of these can be observed during the sled/boyhood scene that was mentioned before. Deep focus gives the viewers a perfect view of the space Kane controls as well as the space over which he has no power. In the scene Kane is positioned in the background for the majority of the scene. This position makes him very vulnerable, exposes a sense of helplessness and a lack of power or control over the events that are about to transpire. Symbols play an important role in the film and are used throughout to speak to and reinforce the main themes.
Referring back to the sled/boyhood scene the most significant symbol in this scene and it is referenced often is Kane’s childhood sled. The sled represents a time of childhood innocence that once existed but is now forever lost. A time before money, successes and the expectations that came along with it were imposed upon him. Near the end of the film, there is a shot of his old childhood sled being tossed away – written across the top of the sled was the name "Rosebud". The image of the sled represented the one thing that Charles Kane yearned for his entire life but could never regain - his
innocence. In conclusion, Orson Welles film Citizen Kane introduced audiences to a variety of ground-breaking techniques never seen before. Techniques like that used to create deep focus and depth of field was innovative work for its time and is what help make Citizen Kane a great American classic.
Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.
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.
Alfred Hitchcock’s unique sense of filmmaking and directing has allowed him to become a very famous and well known film maker of his time. He uses similar recurring themes, elements, and techniques in many of his films to engage the viewers in more than just the film, but the meaning and focus behind the story.
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?
The Bolshevik Revolution was a defining turning point in Russian history. This overall revolution consisted of two individual revolutions in 1917 which resulted in the overthrow of the Tsarist government and the formation of a socialist society led by Vladimir Lenin’s radical Bolsheviks. For a moment with such enormous weight like the Bolshevik Revolution, there will be various interpretations on the true results of that moment and the meaning and value of these results. The film Man with a Movie Camera deals with the results of the Bolshevik Revolution and the early Soviet Society it birthed as it utilizes footage of one day in this early Soviet Union, thus making it worthy of examination. In the film Man With a Movie Camera, Vertov impressively
She steps into what she thought would just be another innocent shower. But would it be so innocent after all? It seems that the shower was washing off more sins than dirt. Alfred Hitchcock had the ability to make such minute details like this deeply symbolic in the film Psycho. He was mostly able to do this due to his artistic and award-winning use of camera angles. Through the use of such articulate camera angles, Hitchcock was able to make the viewer feel extra comfortable or extra uncomfortable, depending on the scene. However, I have learned that composing such a beautiful film is not so easy. The process can be very time consuming and meticulous. Nonetheless, the result is well worth it and may even be award winning in Hitchcock’s case.
In the film ‘Into the Wild’ directed by Sean Penn, there are some scenes in the movie and enable us to understand how it was developed. I found one important scene in the movie, this is the scene in which Chris’ feels that his journey was almost end, the director uses some camera shots, dialogues and some soundtracks for us to see and understand the scene in this movie.
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....
The Classical Hollywood style, according to David Bordwell remains “bound by rules that set stringent limits on individual innovation; that telling a story is the basic formal concern.” Every element of the film works in the service of the narrative, which should be ideally comprehensible and unambiguous to the audience. The typical Hollywood film revolves around a protagonist, whose struggle to achieve a specific goal or resolve a conflict becomes the foundation for the story. André Bazin, in his “On the politique des auteurs,” argues that this particular system of filmmaking, despite all its limitations and constrictions, represented a productive force creating commercial art. From the Hollywood film derived transnational and transcultural works of art that evoked spectatorial identification with its characters and emotional investment into its narrative. The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor in 1940, is one of the many works of mass-produced art evolving out of the studio system. The film revolves around Tracy Lord who, on the eve of her second wedding, must confront the return of her ex-husband, two newspaper reporters entering into her home, and her own hubris. The opening sequence of The Philadelphia Story represents a microcosm of the dynamic between the two protagonists Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Through the use of costume and music, the opening sequence operates as a means to aesthetically reveal narrative themes and character traits, while simultaneously setting up the disturbance that must be resolved.
The film “Citizen Kane” used many different types of media aesthetics to portray the scenes and characters in certain ways. The movie used varying music choices to help show what emotion the viewer should be getting from each individual scene. “Citizen Kane” had the characters dress and modify their outfits in certain ways to show the differences in how their lives were being portrayed. These visual elements in the film help the audience contextualize how the characters are supposed to be viewed. The film also used different auditory devices to describe the different scenes, such as emphasize the size of certain rooms where the movie is taking place. Each of these details is a certain type of aesthetic that is used to help us perceive the scenes in a unique way, and to also make the audience feel certain emotions as they watch the film. These three details: music, sound effects, and wardrobe are all unique details that give the audience a better context in which to understand the film.
In order to understand more about movies we need to learn more about the tools that filmmakers use during production. We need to identify theatrical elements and techniques used in a cinema and also learn what effect they have on the audience. Camera movement, angle, editing, sound and framing can be some examples of cinematic techniques. Theatrical elements can include props, costumes, sets, and acting choice. Each theatrical element and cinematic technique plays an important role during film making. The question that we should ask is how does the director incorporate all this in a film?
Citizen Kane, directed and produced by Orson Welles, defies the conventional style of classic Hollywood films. The film introduced a variety of radical techniques and cinematography way ahead of its time such as shadowing and deep focus. Told through the memories of his associates in a flashback form, Citizen Kane follows an idealistic man with principles Charles Foster Kane, played by Orson Welles, who becomes changed and misguided by wealth and what accompanies wealth. Through the story telling of Kane 's life, we are able to see how wealth changes, not only Kane 's ideals, but his actions and how he perceives the world. Through his choice of shadowing, deep focus, and wardrobe, Orson Wells portrays the transformation of Charles Foster Kane
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
Citizen Kane was a film released in 1941 and it it was voted #1 in history of American film. It was written by, directed by and acted by Orson Welles. The story was set in Xanada in Florida and started with an introduction about that place. Citizen Kane has a strange opening as it opened with the camera panning a spooky haunted mansion and then the camera lingered and zoomed in closely to the sign saying "No Trepassing, " then the camera took us to the room in the house, we saw a person was lying on the bed and that was the main character of the story "Charles Foster Kane" (Orson Welles) We could see that he was dying and his last word was "Rosebud", and then he dropped the ball, and it shattered. Because of the word "Rosebud", people wanted to find out what it was, so it was a rising action which the story will began. After Charles' death, the next scence was a newsreel "News on the March," which announces the death of Charles and giving a summary of Charles¡¦s colorful life and career and surely will introduced some of the important people and events in Charles¡¦ life. As this a summary of Charles¡¦s life, this was just an introduction of him, so that we got a sences of how he was like. Later on in the film, we will deeply understand his relationships between him and his wife and about his career. The newsrell was played in a small projection room filled with reporters. He noted Charles¡¦s last word ¡§rosebud¡¨ would make people suspicious. He decided to send a reporter, ¡§Jerry Thompson,¡¨ to search the meaning behind the word ¡§rose bud.¡¨ Jerry¡¦s first interview was Charles¡¦s 2nd wife ¡§Susan Alexander Kane, who worked as a dancer and singer in a bar, thinking she would know something about rosebud. For the reason, she was drunk, she was not willing to tell anything about him, so the waiter told Jerry that she spoke of him often when he was alive, but she said she had never heard of rosebud before. After that, Jerry went to Hall and he read a diary of Charles. As Jerry began to read this memoir, the image of the page dissolves into a flashback to Kane¡¦s childhood. The flashback showed how Thatcher, Charles¡¦s guardian until 25 years old, meet Charles.