Citizen Kane - D. Moore

Citizen Kane – D. Moore

Citizen Kane directed and written by Orson Welles is one of the greatest films of all time. It has been so embedded into the film and pop culture history that some may say it seems that everyone knows the film or has seen it.  And even if you haven’t seen the film you know what “RoseBud” means to Charles Kane.  That simple word set the plot and mood of the entire film because it was the last breath of Charles Kane, he says “rosebud”, which leaves society guessing to as what it means.  According to Tim Dirks, “the film engendered controversy when it premiered”.  And more importantly, the innovative, blob film was a milestone in the development of cinematic techniques, using unconventional lighting, low-key lighting along with being the future of film noirs. (Dirks)

                As you can see from the picture above the lighting looks a little abstract from normal lighting. This particular type of lighting I believe is low-key lighting, which puts emphasis on shadows and leaves you thinking as Kane as a dark power looking down on an employee.  This scene in particular leaves you to put what kind of facial expressions he is giving the other man, while you can see the employees face as he looks a little afraid. But to the audience you are left wondering how mad his face might be.  Because all you see is the dark shadowed figure standing over another pointing at him.  

  As for the next frame you see Charles Kane tall and the camera angle is shooting up at him to make him look larger than life.  This particular film technique which is called long angle shots, are used for multiple scenes to show off Kane’s power and control over others.  It also shows the importance of the character when directors shot angles like this, so as an audience you don’t have to be told as whether or not these characters are of importance. And if you haven’t seen the film yet just by reading reviews about it you can use your imagination to who Charles Kane was.  

  When you see the Charles Kane looking at the man in front of him it gives to the feeling as if Kane is looking directly at you, talking to you. And it makes you feel as if you are in the room and that you can actually feel how this conversation would be in person the tension in the room. This particular technique is point of view, which gives you all of those feelings above it helps interact the audience in the film. How would you feel with a powerful man like Charles Kane looking at you with facial expressions like that? It makes the mood of this scene tenser with camera angles like a characters point of view.

Finally this last picture I believe is one of the most important to the entire film because it shows a young Charles Kane talking to his mother and Mr. Thatcher telling Charles that he is go with Mr. Thatcher and that he will no longer be staying with them. This scene is important to the film because it is the reason why Charles turns out the way that he is. And when you look at Charles father standing away from the other three with a slight nervousness look on his face gives you the assumption of some foreshadowing.  That what may become of young Charles. This particular scene tells you that this is where Charles Kane loses his love, and because all business.

 In conclusion to “Citizen Kane” was a film that didn’t follow the norm, it was a film that decided to use film as an art form to energetically communicate and display a non-static view of life. By using unconventional filming techniques that weren’t used before.