Citizen Kane
The 1941 groundbreaking drama Citizen Kane, by Orson Welles, proved to extend far beyond the sum of its original worth. The audiences of the time never fully grasped the deeper meaning behind the story and as a result it suffered financially. However, today amidst all the visual effects and CGI thrown into almost every movie, Citizen Kane still holds the bar for its ability to tell a story within the story. The aspects of the movie that intrigue this avid moviegoer are the ways in which Welles is able to manipulate the film and the lighting in order to produce a cinematographic wonder. His ability to create new camera shots and tell us something about the characters just by their placement within the scene and the angles in which they were filmed gives you an insight to his character's development without having to say a word. And, in comparison to other movies of its time, Citizen Kane consciously moved in a different direction, pushing the boundaries of filming and the capturing of the audiences' perception. One of the finest examples in which Welles boasts his complete control over the medium of film is in the very beginning of the movie. At the time, many genre of film were being used to convey different cinematic ideas to
Movies of this era were fairly standard as far as the lighting techniques and camera lenses used. For movies such as the Maltese Falcon, cinematographers like Arthur Edeson used what is called a 'soft lens' along with over-head lighting so as to pick up all the distinct features of the characters. The use of soft filter is made quite present whenever the character of Mary Astor comes into the scene. It is as though an ethereal glow surrounds her face, giving her a very feminine, and soft presence, hence the term soft lens. And though Orsen Welles made use of this same lens when shooting characters such as Emily Norton, he tried a newer, more innovative technique involving not only lenses, but also shadows. Another medium used quite frequently throughout the movie is that of lighting. the audiences. Film types such as 'the musical', 'news reels', and 'dramas', were each created with certain attributes in their filming so that the audiences could distinguish one from the other. Now what is so truly unique about the beginning of the film is the way in which it culminates all these genre of film types in order to set the scene for the rest of the film. The very opening of the film, which consequently is the end of the story, portrays a very dramatic beginning with some horror movie elements built into the camera shots. Such shots as the flash zoom to the extreme close-up shot of the character Charles Foster Kane's lips whispering the ever-mysterious word "Rosebud," and the curved lens shot as though coming from the viewpoint of the dropped snow-city ball dropped on the floor after Kane's death created a very mysterious, almost uneasy beginning. A prime example of this occurs when the reporter enters the study of Mr. Thatcher to observe what occurred in the early years of Charles Kane. As he enters the enormous study, there is an almost heavenly light directed at an angle in the room. However, if you observe the light's direction more closely one notices that it is directing itself toward the book with the contents of Kane's childhood. Even more, when the reporter opens the book, the contrast between dark and light is so extreme that the book gives the appearance of glowing. This might be an inference towards the already standing theme of a want or return back to the childhood of Charles Kane as though that part of his life is something holy, almost spiritual. And finally, one of the more innovative techniques that Welles can actually claim as 'authentically his.' To capture an even greater essence of the power or weakness the character may have, Welles would place the camera at a lower or higher level. The unique aspect of this technique was the extremes to which he would create these angles. O
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Approximate Word count = 1836
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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