Examples Of Mise En Scene In Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) was a movie ahead of its time. There were many techniques used to film the movie that had not been done as effectively before. One of the techniques used was deep-focus cinematography. Deep-focus is a technique where everything on camera is in focus; background, middle ground and fore ground. With the use of deep-focus, the mise-en-scène becomes more important. Mise-en-scène is everything the audience sees, hears, and experiences in the movie. It is the overall feel of the movie. Mise-en-scène is more important during deep-focus because everything can be seen, in focus, in the movie. Everything plays a role during the scene. For example, every time we see Thompson in the movie he is in the shadows. I believe this

As time passes during the movie, make-up artist are able to show the aging process the characters are going through. In today’s cinema, aging actors and actresses with make-up is not as difficult as it was in the 1940s so to be able to accomplish that feat, so brilliantly, was amazing. The differences between the scene at the Inquirer and at Xanadu are another example of mise-en-scène. At the Inquirer there are things everywhere. It is so full it seems the building cannot contain it all. This is a metaphor of Mr. Kane’s personality. In contrast, Xanadu is empty compared to the Inquirer. This is a metaphor for the emptiness that Mr. Kane felt inside. There is a line in the movie from Leland “all he really wanted out of life was love.” This would further aid the metaphor that Mr. Kane felt emptiness inside. The term rosebud is another example of mise-en-scène used during the film. It is the dying words of Mr. Kane. Thompson, while interviewing people that knew Mr. Kane, tries to figure out who or what “rosebud” is. It seems simple enough, but no one knows exactly what it means. Everyone has their opinion on what it means, but that’s all it is, an opinion. We are led to, at the end of the film, by use of zooming in on the object, that “rosebud” is Mr. Kane’s sled from his