Mise-en-scene in Citizen Kane and Persona

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Mise-en-scene in Citizen Kane and Persona

Mise-en-scene is the principle by which a piece of film will derive its meaning wholly from what happens in the single shot and not from the relationship between two shots. For example the director might include shots with various composition, angle, depth, movement, and lighting.

Citizen Kane has many good examples to show Mise-on-scene usage. The scene that I believe is the most significant and powerful mise-en-scene that I have this seen this semester exists in this movie. This occurs when the parents of the young boy are speaking with a gentleman in the house. As the people are speaking we see the boy playing in the snow as we look into the background through the window. This scene represents the innocence that is stolen from him in this exact moment. Here he is pure and innocent and naïve, but we never see him in this state after the pivotal change that is taking place without his knowledge. The boy ultimately stays in the middle of the frame the whole movie this making this part the most dramatic of the movie. A decision is being made on the boy’s life and the boy is unknowing of it and doesn't have a care in the world as he plays in the snow. The entire movie is affected by this one scene that continues with the boy in the middle the entire time. His dying word is “rosebud”. This is the sled that he was playing with during this important scene. Without this scene we would not know the importance of the sled at the end....

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