After viewing the film Citizen Kane, it is clear the director, Orson Welles, created a picture unlike any other during this era on its release in 1941. The film is about the dying last words of Charles Foster Kane, a man who rose to fame from nothing. A journalist is on a mission to find what these words mean, and through stories from main characters, the audience is taken on Kane’s journey. Whether it’s the use of shadows and lighting, camera angles, or sound, Welles creates a picture comparable to noir films from this era. One of the noticeable similarities when comparing Citizen Kane to other films during this era is the use of shadows and lighting. Often in film noir, the use of light and shadow reflects on the good and evil side of humanity. The film noir Rebecca, utilizes this to reveal to the audience about the characters. The evil Mrs. Danvers is shown in the dark as the good Mrs. De Winter is shot in the light letting the audience see how the characters personalities are. Citizen Kane adapted this shadow use and explored even further. Not only would the characters be shot in light and dark to foreshadow a downfall or reveal information, but their shadow would cover another person. By doing this, the audience …show more content…
Many of the camera angles from the noirs are comparable to the angles from Citizen Kane. Larger than life characters and femme fatales are shot from a low angle in noirs. The directors do this as these characters are almost “too good to be true” in a sense. Double Indemnity is a prime example of this shot as Mrs. Dedrickson’s overall plan is too good to be true. She is shot from a low angle showing the power she has over Walter as he is lured into her trap from this effect of dominance. Citizen Kane’s larger than life character is Charlie Kane, and he is shot from a low angle many times. This is showing the power and effect he has on others and how his fame is “too good to be
Billy Wilder’s film Double Indemnity uses a considerable amount of German Expressionism techniques. A crystal clear example of this is at the end of the film when Walter goes to meet Phyllis at her house, when he opens the door a long and sharp shadow appears across the wall. This is a technique used in one of the most famous german expressionism films Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In order to get this effect, Wilder is using low-key lighting so the shadow is obvious to the audience. In this film, long and sharp shadows as well as inky blackness often appear on the screen, this is a major characteristic of german expressionist films. The mise en scene reinforces the darkness in the style and tone. These films emphasize
First and foremost, film noir refers to the visual style of a picture. The imagery of film noir was influenced by early 20th century German expressionism, featuring distorted, sinister shapes and shadows. These precursors to film noir used abstract figures and looming shadows for bizarre, emotionally stirring results. Techniques such as chiaroscuro were used to give a dark and minimalistic feeling. In many cases lighting is limited to a single harsh light source, which obscures the image, and even throws shadows across actors’ faces. These elements ensure that an audience regards the actors and the setting with equal importance. Oblique angled shots permeate many film noirs, naturally provoking anxiousness and apprehension in the viewer. In Sun...
Roman Polanski's 1974 film, 'Chinatown', revolutionized the film noir genre. Aside from the absense of voice-over, the film shares all the same characteristics with earlier noirs. That is, of course, except for the fact that ?Chinatown? is filmed in color. Because of this, it is more difficult upon the first viewing to immediately classify the movie to this genre. In movies such as ?Double Indemnity? even scenes that take place during the daytime are dark, and since it is a black and white film, this is easy to do. However, in a film with color it is much harder to create this dark effect, especially in scenes that are filmed outdoors. Polanski makes references to symbols that remind the audience that although ?Chinatown? is in color, it still belongs in the genre. For example, one of the first lines in the movie is, ?I just had [the venetian blinds] installed on Wednesday.? Venetian blinds are often seen in the genre, and the reference immediately makes the connection between this...
In cinema, lighting, blocking and panning drastically influence what an audience will notice and take away from a scene. Orson Welles’s 1941 Citizen Kane has numerous examples of effectively using these aspects within mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing to portray the importance of specific events and items in the film. The scene where Kane writes and then publishes his “Declaration of Principles” (37:42-39:42) in the New York Daily Inquirer after buying them focuses on important elements of the film, aiding the audience by combining lighting, blocking and panning to define significant roles and objects that further the movie as a whole.
Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt is a true masterpiece. Hitchcock brings the perfect mix of horror, suspense, and drama to a small American town. One of the scenes that exemplifies his masterful style takes place in a bar between the two main characters, Charlie Newton and her uncle Charlie. Hitchcock was quoted as saying that Shadow of a Doubt, “brought murder and violence back in the home, where it rightly belongs.” This quote, although humorous, reaffirms the main theme of the film: we find evil in the places we least expect it. Through careful analysis of the bar scene, we see how Hitchcock underlies and reinforces this theme through the setting, camera angles, and lighting.
For most aspects in life, we take lighting and general vision for granted. When we flick a switch we
Citizen Kane is often recognized as one of the greatest films ever created because of how advanced it was compared to other films of its time. The producer, cinematrogropher, actros, and editors should all be equally credited for how well constructed this film was. Orson Welles used many different aspects of editing,sound, and Mise-en-Scene to create the world of the film. After watching this film and the scene "Breakfast Montage" its pretty obvious as to why the film was nominated for nine Acadamy Awards.
Film noir (literally 'black film,' from French critics who noticed how dark and black the looks and themes were of these films) is a style of American films which evolved in the 1940s. " The Internet Movie Database LTD. Film noir typically contains melancholy, and not so moral themes. Another characteristic of film noir is just because the main character has the title hero, that does not mean that he will always be alive at the end of the book, or that the hero is always "good." Marlowe in The Big Sleep is a prime example of this concept.
Often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane written and directed by Orson Welles is a classic film that defied the conventional styles of the Hollywood Cinema. Welles was committed to the Mise-En-Scene of his movies by using his characters, props, settings, and even the camera to tell the story of his characters. The Lighting, the camera shots, and the character 's actions to depict the life of Charles Foster Kane. The Mise-En-Scene of this narrative creates a film that is ahead of it’s time and a genius innovation to the cinema.
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 who would like to set up lights himself placed a grave importance on the lighting of the film. The lighting helped to compliment many of the films scenes by adding an effect of emotion. In scenes where the shadows would be more apparent there was normally something dark occurring, such as the scene where Kane is seen standing on his own after his second wife leaves him. As said by Roger Ebert “Welles created a gloomy dark visual the film world had yet to see.” The use of these techniques is seen by some as the pioneer or predecessor to the genre of noir that soon followed the film’s release. In addition, Kane had brought a great influence for French critics and filmmakers. Many began to use Welles techniques to create cinematic works of their own. This was known as the French New Wave a movement that combined philosophical and artistic themes in film. Along with the lighting Welles made sure to place musical soundtracks throughout the film a technique that hadn’t been used too often. These soundtracks helped add to the scenes and give them their own atmosphere. The musical soundtrack played a vital role in conveying the emotion of the film. In many of the scenes that contained their own sound a greater message was being conveyed than what the film was showing. Welles was very clever in his way of piecing the scenes
This camera angle was used because it emphasized how sad, defeated and upset Kane because none of the townspeople would help him fight the four antagonists. Long
Noir (french film noir) is a cinematic term applied to the Hollywood crime dramas of the 1940s and 1950s, which capture the atmosphere of pessimism, mistrust, frustration and cynicism typical of American society during World War II war and the first years of the Cold War. The term "black film", or "film-noir," was first used in 1946 by the French critic Nino Frank to designate a style that gained popularity in American cinema in the mid-1940s . It is characterized by a criminal plot, a dark atmosphere of cynical fatalism and pessimism, blurring the line between hero and antihero, relative realism of action and dark lighting of scenes, usually night scenes. Women usually act as false characters that can not be trusted; on the other hand, they motivate the main male characters ,or they are represented as a ‘’perfect wife’’ which is silent and submissive. Femme fatal
In focusing in on the most popular themes of Orson Welles’s work, pertaining to society & life, as well as mystery, I’ve come to find numerous aspects essential to those themes when looking at the many films of Orson Welles. For instance, the aspects in which plays a major part in Orson Welles’s films when focusing on the themes pertaining to society & life, and mystery, is mainly that of the cinematic and literary aspect. These aspects of film allows Welles to play with camera angles, lighting, music/sound, editing, characters, plot, conflict, and so forth. In doing this, Welles being much of an expressionist, creates what we call, Wellesian films, like that of Citizen Kane, and The third man. These films thoroughly displays the way in which Welles exercises his methods, and in doing this he influenced two great films.
The backgrounds are lit uniformly, thus shadows are almost absent from his film. By doing so, the characters are always illumined and presented for