1. 1. Citizen Kane is one of the most influential
movies ever made. Discuss this
statement. Citizen Kane is 1941
American Drama film, directed by and starting Orson Welles. It has been voted the greatest film of
all time in each of the five Sight and Sound’s polls of critics, and it is
particularly praised for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative
structure. It also best
exemplifies modernism to the best by breaking the rules of classical narration
in several ways. This movie also
belongs to several film genres. On
one level it is a newspaper film; on another, a mystery, another it is a
fictional biography. This was
Welles first feature film, and was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories;
winning on for Best Writing (original screenplay) by Herman Mankiewicz. Welles also gives a powerful
performance as the fictional Charle Foster Kane, showing his life as seen
through the eyes of his friends and acquaintances. The story unfolds in a unique manner, we see the major
points in Kane’s life, so we know upfront where the story is going, but then we
are shown many flashbacks to explore the intricate details that were
overlooked, the pieces that made up his life. One of the most impressive aspects of the movie is the
perfect use of deep focus.
Throughout the film everything in the cinematic frame can be seen,
whether in the foreground or the background. Citizen Kane is a rich, multi-faceted character portrait and
a visual gem, a pioneer for future films to come. Orson Welles exceptionally created a movie that shows us
that a person’s life is too great to be simplified. It reached great heights and set a very high bar for movies
to come, and people still say that movies still fail to reach the depth that
Citizen Kane achieved.
2. 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 filmmaker? Welles made his stage debut in 1931 at the Gate,
appearing in Jew Suss as the Duke.
His acting was such a hit that it reached the United States. On returning to the United States he
found his fame but turned to a writing project at Todd Schools tat would become
the immensely successful Everybody’s Shakespeare and eventually The Mercury
Shakespeare. An introduction by
Thorton Wilder led him to be on stage in New York. He toured in three off Broadway shows only helping him become
more more into the film and acting industry. By 1935 Welles was supplementing his earnings in the theater
as a radio actor in Manhattan, working with many of the actors who would later
form the core of his Mercury Theater.
RKO Radio pictures president eventually offered Welles what generally is
considered the greatest contract ever offered to and untried director: complete
artistic control. He had now made
it pretty far on top, and done things that was unheard of in this
industry. This is essentially what
brought his attention and having many people trying to pull him further and
further into the business. It was
from his accomplishments that not many people had done so quickly, that he was
offered the position of having full creative control of his first movie. This lead to some controversy but then
by creating one of the most influential movies of all time it was well
deserved.
3. 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). The scene that I chose to analyze was a scene describing
Kane’s first marriage during an interview of one of his old friends and
coworkers. It began with his
saying Kane and Emily had “a marriage just like any other marriage.” It began with flashbacks and the first
one you see an in love happy couple enjoying dinner together. They are looking back on old times
together and how much fun they had and both seem to be enjoying themselves
thoroughly. The flashbacks
jump several times, as Kane liked to do during this film, and showed different
stages in their marriage and how they slowly fell out of love with each
other. At first they are happily
married eating next to one another which quickly changes to them sitting across
the table from each other. Not
only does this change but so does the place setting with things growing between
them here and there. They become
to start bashing on one another where as before they were playful and
loving. Kane’s job seems to
interfere more and more with his marriage to where they are no longer seeing
each other much anymore. This
scene really stood out to me in the way that you were able to see their whole
marriage over they course of 3 minutes.
The editing was amazing and did not make it seem like there was a longer
amount of time that their marriage declined. Orson Welles acting was phenomenal throughout this scene and
wouldn’t have been the same without him.
The costumes and makeup also stood out in the sense that it showed the
couple aging very well by each flashback.
He did this part so well in the way that this is how life actually works
in the sense that you remember piece by piece and he does a very good job of
showing that in this scene. He
very successfully acted and directed this scene and that’s another reason he
was able to flawlessly portray the aging of a man whose work and success
directly affected his personality.
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