Achievement or Enjoyment: The Debate Between Casablanca and Citizen Kane

One such flashback begins at Thatcher’s building where the reporter Thompson enters an exaggeratedly large room and begins to read about Kane. This is one of the scenes in which cinematographer Greg Toland’s deep focus technique of filming and use of unique lighting, in which the only light source hits

Citizen Kane Research Paper When discussing the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, usually comes up. It’s influence in American cinema can still be felt today, but at the time the film was not released without controversy. The main character in the movie, Charles Foster Kane, is undeniably based of the real life figure of William Randolph Hearst, a famous American newspaper publisher. Hearst was very aware of this fact and tried to hinder the success of Welles’ picture by denying it any sort of press in his newspapers. Despite the smear campaign Kane’s influence lives on through Welles’ revolutionary filmic techniques and its presence in pop culture.

In Citizen Kane, Welles is attempting to expose the great influential political and social power that someone has as the head of many newspaper chains. This narrative drama explains the life of Kane and how different people viewed it. From the way the way the characters were telling the story to the way shadows, lighting and the laco of color was used, this film fits into the drama genre. Being the “greatest film of all time”, Citizen Kane brings the the world of newspaper tycoons to

Citizen Kane is filled with symbolic imagery. In most of the movie you can pick out scenery, character actions, lighting, camera movement, and the composition within the frame of key shots that help tell the story without the character orally telling the full story. However, because of its new and experimental use of mise-en-scene, the movie did not do well in the box office. In time Orson Welles movie would become one of the best movies of all time and would even come to change filmmaking in

The movie starts out in Kane’s childhood home, before his life changed forever. His family is visited by a rich bank owner named Jerry Thompson (William

One of the most famous scenes in film is the beginning where Charles Foster Kane dies after saying rosebud. What makes this scene so great was the camera angle. The snow globe that Kane drops after his death created an angle never before seen. This angle allowed for the intensity of the scene to increase as it emphasizes the nurse running in the room and the broken globe to show Kane’s world as comes crashing down on him. Another interesting camera angle is when Kane is being taken away from his mother where both her and Kane are visible and in full focus. Along with this angle it also has a smooth transition from the angle of the mother and sliding through the window to allow for the new scene. These

An example of deep focus appears in this sequence. A young Mr. Kane is visible in the background by the window in the middle ground while Mrs. Kane signs over custody of him to Mr. Thatcher in the foreground of the shot. There is a great significance to Kane appearing at the background of the frame. The narrative perspective captures Kane being present, but almost pushed to the literal and symbolic background as decisions are made to determine his future in the foreground. The use of deep focus turns what would’ve been a flat cinema screen into a three-dimensional world with a strong sense of realism. Although our attention is not immediately forced to any specific aspect of the mise-en-scene, a certain important moment is noted just as Mrs. Kane signs the paperwork. Young Kane while playing a childish game of “civil war” screams “Union forever;”

Citizen Kane begins the movie with an interesting opening of a man dying while saying his last words. This began the mystery of who was this man and what did he mean by his last words “rosebud”. In the next scene it jumps to a news article

For citizen Kane, the most important assets of his life are not the political ambitions, successful newspaper business, nor his relationships with the significant others. Judging by his last word, “Rosebud,” the most important piece of his life is memory from his childhood. Although his life is changed for what appears to be better, from a materialistic viewpoint, it actually leaves him vulnerable and alone. Kane’s life is ultimately destructed by his lust to fulfill the American dream of fame, power and wealth. The inevitable struggle of Kane is reflective of the struggle of many must confront in this materialistic world, as one on his or her quest to find the true meaning of

Lighting Techniques: The Black and White World of Citizen Kane Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is revered for its inventive and sophisticated use of lighting schemes to bring a certain tone to the film that sound or mise-en-scene could not achieve. However, the frequent low-key lighting goes further than merely creating a mysterious, film noir-esque mood. Intense shadows coupled with bold highlights shape Welles’ black and white film into a black and white world, which in turn emphasizes Kane’s descent into a moral grey area by the end of his life. While the world around Kane remains clear-cut between “good” and “bad,” our perception of him lies in ambiguity, caught between our sympathy for his difficult childhood and our aversion to his older character.

After his death they are going through all of Kane’s things and remembering his last words “Rosebud”. Not knowing what that meant, it left them puzzled. The way they the camera panned over all of his belongings and visualizing all that he had you would think he was the happiest person around. I men he became the richest man. But his last words “Rosebud”, what did that mean. As they continue to pan the camera over his entire belongings, you see the sled that he had as a child. A Worker picks it up and throws it into the fire along with everything else. As the camera pans in you see the word Rosebud and a picture of it. Your heart just sinks to think that this man had everything in the world that you could have and in the end all he wanted was to go back to that little boy who was playing in the snow living with his mom and dad. That scene made you feel the anguish he must have felt being taken or rather given away. The anguish his father felt wasn’t even comparable to what Charles Foster Kane felt throughout his

But it is precisely the way Citizen Kane's technique serves its story which makes the film so powerful. All right then, let's talk about technique. You can go to any number of textbooks and read about the various aspects of style which have made the movie influential - the deep focus photography, low angle shots and wide angle lenses, the use of ceilings, overlapping dialogue, sudden cuts, and so forth and so on. I don't need to go over all that. What I want to express is the effect of all these techniques on a viewer - and especially in the context of the kind of film a viewer in America was accustomed to in 1941 - the Hollywood

There are many reasons as to why Citizen Kane has been lauded as one of the best, if not the best, film of all time. Orson Welles's Citizen Kane has had a lasting impact on cinema and continues to influence directors to this day. Visually striking, Citizen Kane helped to

Charles Kane, a newspaper mogul, died at his home in Xanadu. His last dying words were ‘Rosebud’ which no one had any idea what they meant. A newspaper reporter is given the task to investigate what the word meant. He had to interview many people including Kane’s friends like Jedediah Leland and his concubine Susan Alexander who only shed some light on the mystery of Kane’s life but no information about the Rosebud word. Citizen Kane is the movie that has received lot applause for centuries despite flopping at the box office in 1941. The narrative structure line non-linear form, the mise-en-scene composition, and the cinematography put the film in high regard.

When Citizen Kane was first released in 1941 it was cinematically groundbreaking because first time director Orson Welles had taken various types of filmmaking, much of which had been used in Expressionistic German films in the 1920’s and incorporated them all into