The Rise And Fall Of Charles Foster Kane Through Cinematographic Effects

The Rise and Fall of Charles Foster Kane through Cinematographic Effects

Citizen Kane has been considered as one of the best films ever created. Since its release in 1941, the magnificent film is still influencing the movie world today and its infamous “Rosebud” quote is still one of the top film quotes of all time. Orson Welles was the director, producer, star, and co-writer of the film. He based a big portion of his protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, on the big time Newspaper Publisher William Randolph Hearst. When realizing what the film was based on, Hearst threaten movie theaters into not featuring the film and he greatly limited the advertisement of it. Thus, when the movie first appeared, it was not very popular. Also, due to this event

Towards the beginning of the film, Charles is seen playing in the snow with his sled. The lighting is deliberately put as bright, white, and radiant to show how happy Charles was in that. Also, that was the only moment he was truly happy in his whole life. A second example that then foreshadows and leads to the decline of Charles Foster Kane is when he was signing the Declaration of Principles. As he was signing it, Charles’ face was shrouded in a darkness, foretelling that he would later step all over his principles and go back on his word. A third examples that demonstrates Charles in his downfall, was when the lighting in Xanadu was intentionally put in a dark and eerie lighting. In the vastness of his mansion filled with all kinds of things, Charles never found the same true happiness he found when he was a little boy and everyone that truly loved him and cared for him had all left due his unintentional suffocating and controlitive behavior. All in all, the lighting used in Citizen Kane helped greatly depict the rise and fall of Charles Foster

A first example of the use of this technique was used when was Thacher, Bernstein, and Charles were discussing a letter that said that Mr. Kane had to “relinquish all of his control” of the newspapers that he owned (it was during the Great Depression and Bernstein said they were “out of cash”). At this point the camera angle was in a position that made Mr. Kane, whom was in the back of the room, look very small. But as Mr. Thatcher signed a paper and put the situation under control, Mr. Kane came towards them and got bigger on the screen. Thus, showing how Mr. Kane started to become even more powerful in his early years with some help of Mr. Thatcher. A second example that starts to show the decline of Mr. Kane was when he and Jedediah were talking in the one of Charles’s newspaper buildings. While the camera was on a low camera angle, Mr. Kane was towards the front of the screen while Jedediah was towards the back, making Mr. Kane seem bigger than Jedediah. But as they spoke on the Declaration of Principles and on how Charles was going back on them, Jedediah switched place with Mr. Kane, making Jedediah seem bigger and Charles smaller. Thus showing that Jedediah stayed the righteous one and Charles in decline. A third example that demonstrates Mr. Kane in his decline was when he was talking to Susan in his mansion in Xanadu. The camera angle was is such a way that