Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film by Orson Welles, its producer, co-author, director and star. The picture was Welles's first feature film. Nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, it won an Academy Award for Best Writing by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane was voted the greatest film of all time in five consecutive Sight & Sound polls of critics, until it was displaced by Vertigo in the 2012 poll. It topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as AFI's 2007 update. Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its cinematography, music, and narrative structure, which were innovative for its…
Citizen Kane (1941), which is considered as the groundbreaking movie in the history of filmmaking is no doubt the most brilliant movie. This movie is the masterpiece of Mr. Orson Welles. Welles did not only written, directed and produced Citizen Kane but also played lead role in the movie.…
Cinematography is the process of capturing moving images on film or a digital storage device. Mis-en-Scene is used to represent the director’s role of what appears in the shot. This can include lighting, setting, costumes, props and actions of who or what is in the shot. Citizen Kane was a revolutionary film and advanced many film techniques that are still used today. Citizen Kane was released in 1941; Directed by Orson Wells who also stars in the film at the age of 25. It was him film debut. Citizen Kane used Mis-en-Scene and deep focus to show themes in the film. Some major themes in Citizen Kane include loss, materialism, and the American dream.…
Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane has been consistently ranked as one of the best films ever made. A masterpiece of technique and storytelling, the film helped to change Hollywood film-making and still exerts considerable influence today. However, at the time of its premiere in 1941, it was a commercial failure that spelled disaster for Welles' Hollywood career.…
The classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly rated film, with its many remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative techniques and innovations. The director, star, and producer were all the same individual - Orson Welles (in his film debut at age 25), who collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz on the script and with Gregg Toland as cinematographer. Within the maze of its own aesthetic, Citizen Kane develops two interesting themes. The first concerns the debasement of the private personality of the public figure, and the second deals with the crushing weight of materialism. Taken together, these two themes comprise the…
Burns lost bear. In Rosebud, Mr. Burns left his home to live with a very rich man. By doing so he left his bear, Bobo. This symbolizes his lost childhood because at old age, he was only thinking about his bear. To him, his wealth had no real value compared to his “lost childhood”. In Citizen Kane, Kane also left his childhood to live with a rich person, however, the difference between Kane and Mr. Burns is that Kane didn’t want to leave his parents. Kane realized towards the end of his life that he missed something important in his childhood, Rosebud, his sled. The manner of which these symbols are portrayed and the time it takes the viewer to figure out the symbols in both Rosebud and Citizen Kane contrast greatly. For an example, in Rosebud, the producers explicitly spells the symbol out. In the beginning, Mr. Burns dreamed about his bear, however, the viewers don’t find out about Bobo until the part that shows Mr. Burns’ childhood. In Citizen Kane, Orson Wells, the director, doesn’t show the viewer what Rosebud is until the last minute of the movie. Using similar symbols, the producers of The Simpsons moved past…
Citizen Kane's longevity is attributed to its ability to cast a light on contemporary values and criticize (or satire) their influence in operating a society. Many critics such as Robert Ebert claimed this film to be “the greatest movie of all time” 50 years after it was released. Orson Welles 1941 film incorporates a series of cinematic techniques to keep the viewer captivated by the plot whilst engaging with Welles depiction of; the emptiness and corruptive nature of wealth and the necessity of love.…
Citizen Kane is a brilliant piece that changed the film industry, illustrated the American dream, and accurately lampoons the life of William Randolph Hearst. Citizen Kane was produced, directed, co-written, and acted out by Orson Welles in 1941, by Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios . The movie appears to be unanimously popular both in the day it was produced and even more so today. The film techniques used were due to the fact that Welles was an amateur, and his camera man was adventurous.…
Never has the fine art of cinematography been so perfectly executed than by Orson Welles in his perennial film, Citizen Kane. Whether a fan of the story or not, every true admirer of movies can appreciate the cinematic techniques utilized by Welles to capture the life of his enigmatic main character. Many aspects of the movie have been analyzed thoroughly, but what I would like to examine is an idea that is often overlooked. As the movie fades in, an eerie chain link fence and a sign reading NO TRESPASSING greet us. Although seemingly unimportant when watching, these two words hold just as much value to the content of the film as does Charles Kane himself. For, if we realize, the characters are attempting to trespass into Kane's life. In fact, the mansion can be seen as a metaphor for Kane, while the fence is the demeanor he puts up to block others from his true thoughts. The importance of this idea is reiterated in the final scene; our last shot is of the sign and a view from outside Kane's manor. The story has come full circle.…
Stanley Cortez worked as a cinematographer for both Laughton and Welles and stated that, “in his experience only two directors understood the uses and meaning of light: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton (Barsam 186).” Both directors’ careers began in the 1930s when theatrical lighting had transformed into this major element of expression. Much like Laughton and Cortez’s use of lighting and shadows in The Night of the Hunter, Welles’ use of lighting and shadows in Citizen Kane helped to create a certain ambiance or mood within a scene and also to help further develop the characters. In Citizen Kane lighting and shadows are used with great effect during the confrontation scene between Boss Gettys and Kane at Susan Alexander’s apartment. In this particular scene Susan is standing outside the door of the apartment with Gettys and Kane in the doorframe. Both men are cast completely in shadow, whereas Susan is cast completely in light. Much like the use of backlighting in association with the danger and evil of Reverend Powell in The Night of the Hunter, the significance of this type of lighting in this scene from Citizen Kane is to reveal that both men seem to be shady, maybe even evil characters, with wrong motives, while Susan is the innocent party of the quarrel (see image…
Orson Welles used light and shadow not as a necessity but to give scenes a certain meaning and atmosphere. He used lighting expressively to inject viewers with desired emotions. Prior to that moment movies and their messages were transmitted from the screen to the audience through the content of the film rather than the way it was shot. (Alton, 87) In other words, ‘Citizen Kane’ can be seen as the first time ever for a filmmaker to use the technicality of filmmaking in conjunction with the content to deliver to the audience what the filmmaker what trying to communicate. A perfect example of a scene where the use of lighting to convey meaning can be seen is at the beginning of ‘Citizen Kane’. After witnessing a news reel about the death of the…
Movies have long been known to create a portal through which its viewers can transcend through their own realities and experience the unimaginable. The visual, sounds, and narrative of great movies immediately attract the focus of its audience as they move into a trance for those 1-2 hours of screen time. While many great movies introduce their audiences to varying experiences that heighten their senses and grasp their focus, some measure of relatability is necessary to connect with audiences. Such concepts of implementing elements of realism into the various facets of a film help establish a relevant connection, through which audiences can relate. However during the Hollywood Classical era, introducing such techniques of intensifying realism in movies was often unconventional and not an achievable goal for directors and cinematographers. The techniques required to implement such elements were either not well known or plausible. There were some movies during this era that did defy such tendencies and broke barriers in terms of delivering a movie that differentiated through such concepts like realism. Two famous films that have utilized certain techniques in creating an intensified form of realism in their own ways are Citizen Kane, by Orson Welles, and Double Indemnity, by Billy Wilder.…
While not as talked about as the Italian mafia, the Irish Mob is just as violent and proficient in their ways. Taking place in South Boston, the departed depicts a fictitious, but only just, account of the struggle between the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish Mob. Leonardo Dicaprio’s character Billy Costigan is a new member of the MSP and is chosen to become an undercover officer because of his background. Costigan’s father was from South Boston, and Costigan spent time there as a child. He infiltrates the Irish Mob, headed by Jack Nicholson’s character Frank Costello. Frank is the violent head of the Irish Mob that seems to never really be convicted of his crimes. We later come to find out that is in part because of his status as an FBI informant. Costello has an informant in the MSP by way of Matt Damon’s character Colin Sullivan. Sullivan grew up in Costello’s neighborhood and Costello was almost a father figure to him. With his loyalty to Costello, Sullivan was convinced to join the MSP and feed information to Costello. As the movie progresses, both Sullivan and Costigan find out about each other as “rats”, but not necessarily each other’s identities until towards the end. Sullivan upon finding out who Costigan is, erases his file after the death of Captain Queenan at the hands of the Irish Mob and the dismissal of Sargent Dignam. In the end Barrigan, another one if Costello’s men on the inside, shoots Costigan and Sullivan’s partner, Trooper Brown. Sullivan then shoots Barrigan and is later shot in his apartment by Dignam. The camera pans up and shows a rat crawling across the balcony in view of the capital building in Boston.…
In 1941, the sophisticated and classical screenplay, Citizen Kane was released to the public in America. The motion picture is known to be as probably one of the world’s most famous and highly-rated films, with its remarkable scenes, and use of literary devices. Director, star, and producer of the film were all the duty of one man by the name of Orsen Welles. He stars as Charles Foster Kane, who was ripped away from his parents during childhood, then went on to live a very lavish lifestyle, but never knew what real happiness was. Throughout Citizen Kane, Welles presents the idea of the American Dream as living a rich and prosperous lifestyle, but illustrates at how unsatisfactory that this “dream” really is through the use of lighting, sound,…
Citizen Kane is investigative and melodramatic film. The quest for Rosebud and the journey of Charles Foster Kane’s life made the film interesting. It made the audience curious and able to hang until the end of the film. It was done in a flashback sequencing that gave Citizen Kane an exciting and interesting mood for its audience.…