Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is a cinematic classic, released in 1941. Citizen Kane challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema. Kane was narrated by several people that include their take on Kane’s life. The story unfolds by many flashbacks and is told by different perspectives over the years through different narrations. Charles Foster Kane was a millionaire, head of newspapers and died saying “rosebud”. The story focuses on telling about Kane but is about a reporter trying to seek what and why his last words meant. A reporter, Thompson was trying to seek why Kane’s last words were rosebud and what it was. The reporter interviewed people such as Mr. Jedediah Leland who was his friend until he was fired from the newspaper after transferring to Chicago to take care of that newspaper. Jedediah was fired after he was found to be face down on his typewriter writing a review of Susan and her horrific performance. Kane’s …show more content…
The background and everything in frame was focused in the screen shot. This technique is combined with lighting and camera lenses to produce this effect on scene. The scene starts out the movie by showing Charlie playing in the snow outside while Thatcher meets with Charles’s mom to sign guardianship to him inside the house. The mise -en- scene is able to utilize the whole focus of scene and explain the story. An innovation that cinematic technique was developed was the wipe which allows the one image to be moved off screen to another. The movie overlaps the interviews to tell the life story of Kane while the flashbacks are doing the storytelling. The story is not told in chronologic manor, uses several techniques to tell the story of Kane. The angles used to portray certain scenes, getting all of views in, having lighting changes, shadows are all creative to the movie and introducing these techniques into Hollywood
Citizen Kane is the life story of a powerful newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane. It is a fictionalized biography of the ruthless publishing baron, William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). In actuality, the characters in the movie are composites, drawn from the lives of several famous American tycoons, but Hearst was the most obvious. Photography Gregg Toland, the cinematographer for Citizen Kane, considered the film the high point in his career & thought he might ‘learn something’ from the boy genius (Welles).
In both stories the main character are both fighting alone. [Kanes signs his name to what he has written, folds it, then writes on it: "To be opened in the event of my death" (Foreman 326). This tells the watchers/ reader that Kane has no one to help him and fears that he will die. "Your brain against mine. Your woodcraft
In 1941, Orson Welles directed a movie that many now consider to be the best movie ever made. With eight wins and twelve other nominations, Citizen Kane stars Welles himself, playing newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, who was based on the real-life William Randolph Hearst. The story immediately begins with Kane’s death, and his last word sparks a wave of curiosity among journalists, leaving them to investigate the meaning of the mysterious “Rosebud.” During the film, the audience learns that Kane, although wealthy, was not necessarily happy; he had lost love and respect numerous times throughout his life, and each of those events forced him into a deeper state of isolation. On the other hand, 2010 movie The Social Network, directed by David
To help create his debut film Citizen Kane, Orson Welles assembled a talented group of artists and technicians who together produced a film that redefined cinema forever. During the film’s production process, Welles himself stated that making a film “is the biggest electric train set any boy ever had.” By this he meant that the production studio was his playground and he intended to use every tool at his disposal. Starting from the film’s very first shot; he proves this to be true. As the film begins, the camera silently cranes up over the fences that surround Charles Foster Kane’s mansion and then slowly transitions to a montage of palatial estate.
The Film Citizen Kane was a groundbreaking film in the 1940’s, the way Orson Wells depicts his film with different lighting, cinematography, choice of camera shots and mise-en-scene throughout this movie truly showed the masterpiece that this film is. In the Film Citizen Kane, it was the first movie that went against true Hollywood cinema by introducing flashbacks throughout the movie to show us how Charles Foster Kane changes throughout the movie. Throughout this movie the audience can see how Charles Foster Kane undergoes a variety of physical and emotional changes from when he was just a young boy all the way until his unfortunate death. Power, that’s all that Kane wanted in the start of the film. In the beginning of the film Kane gets ownership of the struggling New York Daily Inquirer, Kane suggests that he wanted to use journalism to apply to the public and protect the interest of ordinary people.
Narrative is generally accepted as possessing two components: the story presented and the process of its telling. A story can be presented in two basic ways, as a linear narrative and as a non-linear narrative. Linear narratives follow a straight line and non-linear narratives usually start at in the middle or in the height of conflict. Casablanca and Memento are two films which contrast in narrative approaches.
Citizen Kane Review Citizen Kane (1941) is a drama movie directed by Orson Welles, who also has the main role in the movie; his character: Charles Foster Kane. The story starts at the end of the life of the tycoon Charles Foster Kane, at his very last breath, which he uses to pronounce the word “Rosebud”, while a snow globe falls from his hands. This beginning is what catches the spectator’s attention within the first thirty seconds into the movie: The mystery about the meaning of that scene, that word and the sudden change of the background and how the story begins to be unveiled through flashbacks and raccontos. From the memories, we discover a different man; instead of the story being the life of the millionaire Charles Foster Kane, we realize
Directed by Orson Welles, the 1941 motion picture “Citizen Kane” is the story of the rise and fall of a great, influential man. The opening scenes of “Citizen Kane” are quite different from what follows during the rest of the film. Fading in and out of different landscapes instilled mystery. This mysterious vibe was carried on during Charles Foster Kane’s death through the use of shadows, quiet music, and close up shots. Isolated in his vast empire of a home, Kane uttered only one word before he passed: “rosebud.”
Citizen Kane challenged the traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema mainly in the area of sound. Orson Welles was ahead of his time when he created his works of manipulating sound to transfer meaning in the film Citizen Kane. Welles used concealed hanging microphones to obtain different levels of sound throughout the film. The manner, in which the story was told, from Kane’s death flashbacked to his life of success and ultimate failure, was also a new style of storytelling for films. Welles also used symbolism with his last mumbling word “Rosebud.”
There are many things that make “Citizen Kane” considered as possibly one of the greatest films every made; to the eyes of the passive audience this film may not seem the most amazing, most people being accustomed to the classical Hollywood style, but to the audience with an eye for the complex, “Citizen Kane” breaks the traditional Hollywood mold and forges its own path for the better. Exposition is one of the most key features of a film, it’s meant introduce important characters and give the audience relevant details and and dutifully suppress knowledge in turn. “Citizen Kane” does not follow this Classic Hollywood style exposition, instead going above and beyond to open the film with revealing as little information as possible and confuse/intrigue
Shot Analysis: Citizen Kane Orson Welles, director of “Citizen Kane”, is well known for his unusual directing methods that defied conventional cinematic techniques. Welles provided his audience with original forms of cinematography, narrative structures, and music. The scene I chose to analyze is extremely important to the plot of the film because Kane begins to realize that he is going through some serious financial problems. During the scene, Kane maintains a sarcastic mood, until he finally decides to surrender and signs the papers that transfer the ownership of his media empire to Mr. Thatcher.
In this essay I will be comparing the themes and the narrative techniques used in both films. Starting off with the film “Citizen Kane” as mentioned it is a story of a millionaire, Charles Foster Kane. It begins with Kane’s death and speaks a single word: “Rosebud”. The reporters in the hunt to know
Wes Anderson usually has the same Robert Yeoman and their styles mashed together can be seen throughout this film. Yeoman likes use the same shots and camera movements repeated in Andersons films. The first is the symmetrical item and actor placement that I had already discussed in the previous paragraph. The pan movement is used thought the film. The camera will often be focused on one person then swiftly pan over to another area or character to show different perspectives of the room.
Federico Fellini’s 8½ is a formal/Avant-Garde style of films. The film opens with a spectacular scene of a dream sequence where we see a man who is trapped inside of a car, a close up shot was used to make us feel his melancholy, sympathize with his situation and clearly see what the character is trying to do. It was hard to see or recognize his face because the character was back to camera which made it hard to see what is he thinking of or feeling. The doors and windows are locked and there is no way to escape which gives us the feel of being trapped, moreover, the frame was tight in which he couldn’t move or do anything that would help him and that means that the director is clearly doing it in purpose so that we sympathize more with his
Another reason for The Godfather being a masterpiece of cinema is the film’s reception and cultural influence. Upon its release, The Godfather received acclaim from both critics and audiences as well. Critics and people alike praised the film for its capture of the time period and places it features, along with the performance of the cast and the score of the movie. Most critics of then and today cite the film as one of the most influential films of all time, which even shows with review websites that have been used today. The movie review website, Rotten Tomatoes has a critic rating of ninety-nine percent based on eighty-five reviews and an audience rating of ninety-nine percent.