Citizen Kane Final

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

Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) contained so many groundbreaking techniques that it instantly became one of the most influential films of all time. The entire premise of the movie is to solve the mystery of billionaire Charles Foster Kane’s dying words, “rosebud”. This mystery provides acts as wonderful bait in order to hook the audience’s interest as Welles takes them through an elaborate investigation of Kane’s past.

There are many technical aspects to Welles’ directing, such as the use of photography and lighting to help dominate each scene with his own unique style. Welles’ even used the contrast between lights and darks to help give his film and story a much more dramatic feel: as the movie progresses Well’s incorporates more darks and shadows into each scene, a way to have the environment reflect the downward spiral being experienced by his character. Welles would even adjust all the light settings himself, despite this not being the usual job of a director. He also used a variety of camera techniques such as: steep angles, close ups, extremely low shots, deep focus shots and crane shots

Another groundbreaking aspect of Citizen Kane was Welles use of untried Hollywood actors when composing his cast, 15 of whom he brought with him from New York and had only acting experience in live theatre productions. And the film its’ self is difficult to place into a specific genre, as it contains film noir aspects, as well as drama and mystery, and could even be seen as a newspaper film. Citizen Kane also provided a unique take on the act of storytelling. The use of multiple flashbacks from several characters points of view, breaks up the film into sections and creates a nonlinear plot structure. Welles was also the first to pair together montages with dialogue/sound, creating a distinct fluidity to the story that had never been experienced in films before. This is also enhanced by Welles’ use of complex structure and off-point narrative.

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

In his early 20s Orson Welles had established his own theater company called The Mercury Theater. He immersed himself in all aspects of the theatre, he was not only a star and a director but he also was in charge with designing the sets, costumes, and lighting.

However it is easily said that Welles’ is most famous for his adaptation of  “War of the Worlds” as a radio broadcast. His performance was so realistic, that listeners tuning in actually thought Mars had invaded New Jersey, resulting in public wide panic. Yet once it became clear that the report was in deed fiction, Orson Welles popularity exploded exponentially. Soon Welles was contacted by RKO requesting that he come to Hollywood. They signed him up to make two movies for $225,000 and allowed him complete creative reign over his films. One of those films being, Citizen Kane.

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

One scene I found to be particularly clever as well as important was the progression of Kane’s first marriage done as a breakfast montage. At first the two seem so happily in love, with a pleasant politeness and contentment just to be around one another, but as time goes on we see that the relationship between the two of them becomes more of chore then a pleasure, and soon we see that their marriage is in shambles. In the beginning the lighting is bright and happy, with an upbeat soundtrack playing softly in the background, the husband and wife are depicted as young and almost glowing. The as we continue through their life together shadows come into play, snappy and aggressive dialogue is emphasized by a tone of announce, with its final stage being silence. The soundtrack has evolved over this period of time to have a more somber quality, and as time passes we see age creep into their faces with for the time is an incredible make-up job. By the end of the scene the two have not only mentally distanced themselves but physically as well, at the conclusion of the scene the camera shot pulls back and we see that they are actually sitting at two separate ends of a very long table.