Hello Everyone,
Today I am discussing a classic of films greatest,
and that would be Citizen Kane, which starred Orson Welles, as well as directed
and produced at the young age of 25. This movie was cutting edge of its time, controversial
and the technique, were not new, but certainly innovative of the time. I am
going to discuss three topics of this film, lighting, the famous marriage
montage and the contradictory of the character, played by Orson Welles; Charles
Foster Kane.
Lighting, this movie though black and white, used
lighting so beautifully, showing darkness and lightness almost in some scenes simultaneously
and contrasting the good and the bad of a person by the refection of light on
their face. After the open montage of scenes of the viewers learning about the
public life of Charles Foster Kane, there was a group of people talking in a
room discussing this man and his last words, not a lot can be seen, but the
light of their matches and the tips of their cigarettes, this makes all the
actors in the scene look like silhouettes. Masking who they are, the only light
laminating them is from the windows and the desk lamps; this is just visually stunning,
beautiful to look at and powerful in the scene.
When first watching this movie, my favorite scene
was the marriage montage, I thought that it was well put together and there was
a good sense of time, and the point of view of the friend was that of a typical
marriage and how over time it can turn into something unrecognizable. I thought
that it was brilliantly done and thought that it was really simple and easy to
follow, starting out everything was good and as it continued and went into the
next cut each time turning from one character to the next the time and age
advanced for both, almost with one conversation. It was the one scene out of
the movie that I truly loved and thought that the way it was done was beautiful
and told the story of the two characters well, allowing the audience to see
with them as it turned from good to bad in a single moment. I feel like that is
true in a lot of things, people think that things will last and be the same,
but time changes all things and I think that scene demonstrates that well.
Finally I want to discuss the character of Charles
Foster Kane, he as character changed so much throughout the film, but that was
to be expected considering it began with him as an eight year old boy and to a man
on his death bed. Kane was taking away from his simple life and given the
wealth and choice of whatever he wanted to be. He talked a lot of about
fighting for the underprivileged and about truth, but by the end of the film he
contradicted himself on more than one occasion. There is a scene were Kane and
his fellow publishers of his new newspaper, they are putting together a
statement of promise to his viewers and he promises to report the truth and
fight for the underprivileged, as he is talking about this he is all in light and
as he goes to sign, his face is engulfed in darkness, almost foreshadowing what’s
to come. His face throughout the film, gradually becomes engulfed in darkness, the more he himself falls into the darkness. As characters on the screen we
to see want change and we want to see them contradict themselves, it’s what
makes the story worth telling. This man talks of truth, and always telling it,
then he has a mistress and ends up dying alone thinking of his past and all
that he has lost.
This movie was a great story with a complex
character that was interesting to watch evolve and transform from beginning to
end, the marriage montage is still one of the best scenes in a movie that I have
ever seen and the lighting is amazing, it is no wonder as to why Orson Welles
was entitled a genius.
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