A comparison of framing, lighting and set design in Citizen Kane and The Scarlett Empress

(1941) dircted by Orson Welles and Josef Von Sternberg's The Scarlet

Empress. (1934) Specifically it will concentrate on how the two directors

use set design, framing and lighting to comment upon the psychology of their principle characters.

Welles' Citizen Kane tells the story of an aging press tycoon and

would-be politician Charles Foster Kane. A man whose arrogance alienates

him from everyone who loves him, leaving him to die alone inside the vast Gothic castle of a home that he builds for himself in Florida. The film is highly regarded for its filming techniques, including aspects of set design, framing and lighting. Von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress tells thestory of the rise to power of Catherine the Great of Russia who overthrows her imbecile husband Peter to lead the nation. This film is also renowned for its cinemetography, lighting and set design (rather than its historical accuracy). What follows shall be a comparison of two specific sequences, one from each film. I shall describe each then explain how the elements mentioned earlier are similar in each and how they relate to their characters symbollically and their respective films as a whole. Th

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1685
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)