Final Exam

1. “Citizen Kane” is one of the most influential films ever made.  Discuss this statement

Citizen Kane is influential because it gave its viewers something to do. It was artistic, while taking a stab at current publishing powerhouses. It was a piece of art and a gossip column, which proved to be a potent mixture. The plot itself is relatively simple, which forces people to use their minds when they watch it and not rely on fulfillment through entertainment. It has the gothic feel of a Poe story with the added mystery. Citizen Kane is what happens when Hollywood gets the wool pulled over its eyes. The complex structure is actually wrapped up neatly with the same fade-in and fade-out facing the “no trespassing” signs and the word “rosebud”. Orson Wells used his camera genius to show us movies in a way we’d never seen them before. He took Hollywood, flipped it on upside down, satirized its tycoons and let out all of their secret corruption tactics, while being funded by them. Wells’ use of complex structure and off-point narrative make Citizen Kane a truly modernist work. His use of lighting, camera angles and tediously unwavering demands paired with the close proximity in which he preferred to work every aspect of the film made him put himself into and in front of the film, infecting the viewer with some of his own cogitation.

2.  What had Orson Welles done in his first 23 years of life to warrant the Hollywood Film Industry offering complete creative control to a first time filmmaker?

Wells was good at getting something for nothing. When he was traveling in Ireland as a sixteen-year-old, he was hired at the Gate Theater after proclaiming to be a Broadway star. His raw gumption made everything he touched not just turn to gold, but come alive. When he read H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds over the radio, his reading was so convincing that he caused a large-scale panic because people believed that there was an actual alien invasion happening. Each performance he gave became a sensation. He also spent time traveling to North Africa while working on thousands of illustrations for the Everybody's Shakespeare series of educational books. He staged a drama festival of his own when he grew impatient with the opening of Broadway’s Romeo and Juliet, which he was scheduled to act in. He did everything and did it perfectly, sometimes too perfect, which made him as many enemies as it did fans.

3). Pick an extended scene or sequence from “Citizen Kane” and discuss the storytelling technique by analyzing any combination of its component parts (direction, writing, performance, cinematography, production design, art direction, editing, sound, score, etc.).

Once scene that seemed really powerful was the scene where he trashes everything in his room but the snow globe. He goes to pack, but throws his suitcases across the room and then continues to rip apart everything he’s acquired throughout his life, like none of it mattered, except for a slow globe, the same one he’s holding in the beginning scene, right before he dies. In the wrecking scene, Kane is much older and worn down. The catalyst for his initial anger is that he can’t fasten his suitcase closed. There’s no music, which leaves Kane raw and exposed. This is perpetuated by the lighting, which is shown as bright and almost cheerful but is also used to further expose the older Kane as he tears down everything he’s built. The silence is disrupted by ripping and crashing noises as this seemingly weak man tears through his room like an animal and destroys everything, falling. The light also helps to cast his shadow on the wall, making it seem like there’s more than just one of him or that we have only seen a shadow of what he really is, like Plato and the proverbial dancing shadows in his cave allegory, which speaks to the separation between perception and reality. The camera and Kane both stop and look at a snow globe. The camera level is that of a child, only seeing Wells’ knees as he bends down to pick it up.

My absolute favorite part is when he is walking away from the carnage he has caused. Everyone is watching him in awe as he very carefully sticks the snow globe in his pocket. Music starts playing again, but it sounds somber and almost lonely. Everyone has their back to the camera. Kane is walking into the darker corridor and passes mirrors that run parallel, causing an infinity effect, countless Kanes in a line walking through a tunnel that only leads into black.