Cinematic Techniques In Orson Welles Citizen Kane

Why was Citizen Kane so different from the traditional Hollywood Films? Citizen Kane defies the traditional narrative and classic elements of Hollywood cinema by uniquely setting up the story in a different fashion from what the typical storyline would usually follow. It took on an approach of arranging the events of the story as it unfolds in a nonlinear pattern, while using multiple narrators while leaving the suspense of what did the meaning of a dying man’s last word open to the audiences’ interpretation.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that that journey is not the same for every individual. For Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the main character of Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, the path towards riches and a fulfilled life is being well liked. He serves to please others. He strives for that attention. This view cost him his happiness in the end. In this man’s rise and fall through prosperity, Welles shows the futility of striving solely for likeability.

In the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, one of the main characters is Abigail Williams. Many people point the finger at her, blaming her for everything that went wrong in Salem. However, there is plenty of evidence that indicates Abigail didn't deserve the responsibility of the outcome of the play. Abigail was simply the victim of circumstance.

large it dwarfs her, and behind to her left is a massive statue of a

The scene we’re analyzing starts off with a shot of the New York Daily Inquirer. It’s a close shot, taking up the entire screen. I feel this close up is to show the viewer that the newspaper company is going to be the primary focal point for Kane, and his two partners at this point in the film. After the close up, the camera pans down to show Kane and Leland sitting in a car looking up at the building. Kane says “Take a good look at it Jedidiah, it’s going to look a lot different one of these days.” Despite the look on Kane’s face being one of optimism and promise, this statement gives leeway to all of the bad things to follow. Kane specifically says, “look a lot different” as opposed to anything else (i.e.

Citizen Kane uses mise-en-scene is multiple scenes to help tell the narrative. A perfect example is when the parents

The publicity and popularity of this issue has consistently been high due to the lack of changes being made or acted upon. It is no mystery or lie that paying rising athletes in college has been brought up and addressed countless times, but why has no change still occurred? In the article, “It’s Time to Pay the Tab for America’s College Athletes,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes based on personal experiences and strongly feels he is not being heard as he continues to speak out on the same topic. If an individual is on a scholarship - same rule stands from twenty-five years ago - that person is not permitted to have or work any type of paying job. This can be difficult for student athletes who do not come from families whose parents work higher paying

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.

The film Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, is a great example of how a man can be corrupted by wealth. Through the characters in the film we can observe how Charles Foster Kane, an idealistic man with principles, can be changed and misguided by wealth and what accompanies wealth. The film takes places during the late 19th century and early 20th century, a time in American history when the world is changing and wealth is a great power to change it with. Through the story telling of Kane’s life we are able to see how wealth changes, not only Kane’s ideals, but his actions and how he perceives the world.

The structure in the film Citizen Kane is non-linear in that it does not follow any planned order. The story is well formulated and presented using flashbacks that pertain different times in the life of Kane (Welles). These flashbacks are unplanned search that they offer the viewer an incomplete glimpse of Kane’s life and essentially adding more suspense. It takes the form of the memory when a person tries to remember an event that took place a long time ago. The use of the non-linear structure helps to portray how complicated the life of Kane was. It is vital to note the film uses several narrators. The mystery of Kane’s life is also being put together like a puzzle (Welles). The audience is with the journalist in the quench to find what the mystery word meant to Kane. The layout of the story is also planned with

The statues that Charles Kane collects also indicate the loneliness of his life. He fills in the void of the lack of people in his life by surrounding himself by these statues. These figures are the only ones that are with him when he dies because he is able to control them since they are not living things. Kane has always been trying to control people but when his power to control people fades, the only feeling of power he has left is over these statues. He can place them wherever he wants to, and he can choose to look at them or ignore them. Either way they are his to own and control as opposed to the things he could not control such as his failure to his political career, Susan’s opera career, his mother’s

Another aspect of this film is that it is in black and white. This gives it a serious tone. The lighting they used also gave a dramatic effect. There is a scene where two gentlemen are talking but you can see Kane dancing in the reflection of the window. This reminds the audience that he is still important to the scene even though he isn't directly involved. This

The camera angles varied greatly throughout the film. Multiple times the camera was close to the floor looking up at the characters and other times it was very high up looking down. There are also multiple times within the film that the actors look straight into the camera. This happens when Leland and Kane are talking about the newspaper declaration as well as when Walter Thatcher reading Kane’s newspapers headlines. Most narratives do not have the actors acknowledge that the camera is there, however, some TV shows now have actors look into the camera for an added dramatic effect just as Citizen Kane did.

Editor Robert Wise was said to have “blended 127 different clips of film into the newsreel, some of which were actual news footage while the others were staged shots of the actors.” Later Welles was said to have “aged” these by dragging the negatives across a concrete floor.

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