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Orson Welles Influence On The Film Industry

1492 Words6 Pages

From the brilliant work of the Citizen Kane (1941) with all the spotlights to his last work of classic film noir the Touch of Evil (1958). The contributions of Orson Welles (Orson Welles) on transiting the traditional Hollywood film style and developing the film noir in the 1940s is irreplaceable.
The genre Film noir was well known for showing a degenerate and dark underground world. The masterpieces of Orson Welles for example the Citizen Kane(1941), The Lady from Shanghai (1948) and The Strangers (1946) all made significant contributions to the styles of American film noir during1940s. His attempts at the innovation of film technique and creative artistic style greatly influenced the American black film industry. Following the Citizen Kane, …show more content…

Under the corporation of Welles and his brilliant cinematography technician Greg Tolan, the initial film noir style image was first created. It is unbelievable that this incredible work is only a testing sample directed by a 25-year-old. The editor Robert Wise has claimed that people usually see Welles as a brilliant film maker, but they don't realize that he also did amazing works behind the camera. Until now, the Citizen Kane is still regarded as forever top 5 in the history of American film industry.
People usually began to wonder on his talent when the movie starts with the stiff dark background and silent faction. There was no music or prologue but a huge white headline in a black screen. With the rising of Bernard Herrmann's music work, a horrible castle shows in thick mist and brings audiences into a black desolate world full of darkness and …show more content…

In the deep and dark underground hall of Golden Gate Park Aquarium, ferocious sharks, stingrays, squid and all kinds of marine life were swimming behind the huge windows. Welles use them to provide strange and ominous background light behind the secret couple to create mystery.
The other example, when Michael O'Hara stood by the edge of Acapulco cliff edge, Welles used extreme high camera angles in order to display a sense of fragility inside this anti hero character.
Also in the scene he was fainted and taken to a playground, the poisons hallucinogenic truly become his nightmare: he headed down and stumble, falling along the curve into a bizarre and highly expressionistic world. The setting of this world reminds us with sceneries of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Welles took a week to design this amusement park setting, however, there still a lot of pictures (including a decaying skull) have been cut off.
Welles made the hall of Mirrors became one flash in the pan throughout the history of cinema. Under the uses of montage, they confront each other with gun fighting in the maze made by mirrors. The Well design of crack-like mirrors successful reflects this femme fatale character Rita and his twisted lawyer husband Everett

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Charles Foster Kane, who was he really? By Thompson ... (1941) Charles Kane was a man that some of us hated or some us loved. He was a mysterious man, we know nothing of him, however we have heard of him. From friends, family, or especially in the newspaper, but who was he really?

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717 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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Classic western films dominated the screen in the 1960s, with major productions such as The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) directed by Sergio Leone, The Magnificent Seven (1960) directed by John Sturges, and what is considered a well-known western produced in this area, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart as the main characters. While The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance meets all the criteria to classify it as a classic western, that being set in a culture structured around codes of honor and personal justice and gunslingers in every scene of the movie, the film lacks many characteristics to classify it as a well-rounded film. Set in the late 1800s, a senator by the name of Ransom Stoddard visits this town in the middle of nowhere with his wife to attend the funeral of one of his old friends Tom Doniphan. Many question the reasoning for the appearance of Ransom because not many know who Tom Doniphan was. With the local newspaper harassing him for answers as to who Tom Doniphan was, Ransom gives in and tells the tale through the use of flashbacks.

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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

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585 Words | 3 Pages

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”.

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“The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences. Now, through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time” (“Steven Spielberg Quotes”). As the inspiration for how many films are produced, Steven Spielberg is a director, producer, and writer. Having won 3 Academy Awards, several of his movies have set box office records, including Jaws and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. Steven Spielberg revolutionized the film industry through unique camera work and new subject matters in movies.

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I believe what Orson Welles is trying to portray through the movie Citizen Kane is the difficulty that goes into describing a person’s life after they have passed on. The reporter Thompson investigates Kane’s story and witnesses it unfold as it is told by those closest to him. Although this makes you wonder how different it would have been if Kane got to tell his own story rather than rely on the reminiscences of his colleagues because not a single one of these people knew or could figure out what drove Charles Foster Kane. The only person who could have fully understood Kane was Thatcher, but his concerns focused more on making money rather than the loneliness of a child. With each perspective we get on Kane’s life as well as the lack of his own point of view, it forces us to question what truly mattered in Kane’s life.

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1366 Words | 6 Pages

(Citizen Kane, 1941) Kane’s parents used the power of money as an accessory for giving him away to a billionaire. Since that day, the protagonist went through a traumatizing experience, insecurity and redisposition due to his parents’ actions, which marked the beginning of his tortuous need, to be loved. This unreturned love created a sense of fear and mistrust to love something or someone, only to experience abandonment again was something Kane never got a chance to learn. Citizen Kane broke all the rules because of Welles, there were no

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510 Words | 3 Pages

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.”

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1038 Words | 5 Pages

In the final transition there is a short sound of music that is very humorous. Throughout the film, Welle’s includes these pieces of sound that relate with the dialogue, it is a continuous pattern throughout the film. Welles uses these unusual techniques to create different emotions among the audience. The transition between this shot and the next is characterized by a small dim of the light that darkens and transitions into the next

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568 Words | 3 Pages

When analyzing the spatial relations of The War on Drugs’ “Holding On” and Sherlock Jr., the audience can explore the continuity and discontinuity within each film that will later suggest different messages and ideas. In “Holding On”, there is a clear line between continuity and discontinuity. There are many instances that the film offers continuity between shots by utilizing the 180-degree line and eyeline match. The 180-degree line can be seen by the audience when the man in the film walks from the left to the right side of the frame when in the pasture headed toward the woods. Then later in the film, the camera makes the 180-degree turn, making the man go from the right to the left side of the frame.

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1571 Words | 7 Pages

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.”

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934 Words | 4 Pages

She argues that the act of moviegoing satisfies these voyeuristic desires in people. She writes, “The mass of mainstream film portray a hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically, indifferent to the presence of the audience, producing for them a sense of separation and playing on their voyeuristic fantasy,” (pg. 186). In this essay, I will further discuss her viewpoints on cinema and voyeurism, and how it connects to the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. Rear Window is a film that follows the

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2098 Words | 9 Pages

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

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774 Words | 4 Pages

These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale

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