Citizen Kane's Significance For The Simple Act Of Viewing In Film

Citizen Kane is not necessarily significant for the simple act of viewing in and of itself, but for what it is when you take it apart. This is perhaps why it is abundantly “clear that the average movie fan doesn’t cherish Citizen Kane quite as much as critics, directors and students – that is, people who are obsessed by the nuts and bolts of how films are assembled” and it holds its place in cinema greatness (“What’s so good about Citizen Kane?”, 2015). In many ways, it showed people how to take filmmaking a step further. Its shots, angles, lighting, and deep focus might not seem like anything extraordinary to the average person, but in the name of cinematography, it holds its significance. The impact of citizen Kane’s cinematography goes beyond

In Citizen Kane viewers are able to understand how “lighting [allows you to] convey more implicit messages about the action on screen and reveal an almost opposite meaning in that action…[so] what might seem straightforward and clear is instead mysterious…[and What might seem like a moral, upstanding moment without Welles’ lighting instead appears suspicious (“The Lighting of Citizen Kane”, 2016). When it comes to black and white pictures the lighting becomes all the more complicated and important. There are no colors or shades to convey a mood, besides the obvious two, instead it is the contrast, the emphasis, and the subtleties. On their own, black and white have the ability to be nothing more than mysterious or maybe even dull. It is easy to connect colors to aspects of life. Citizen Kane, however, only has the range of lighting to get this message across. For example, there is a scene where Mr.Bernstein is speaking to Thompson about his time on a ferry in 1896. In it, it focuses on the desk, fireplace, and Mr.Bernstein himself. The fire burns in the background and Mr.Bernstein’s reflection appears on the desk. The lighting could have made this scene appear a lot more ominous and mysterious had it wanted to, but instead it feels reflective to me. It directly connects to the scene at hand, a nostalgic memory and a languid conversation between the two