Wirth Citizen Kane Review

Citizen Kane was a great film to watch.  The cuts were used to add to the film and the drama that was associated with the film.  One of my favorite parts of the film was the transition of opera house that Mr. Kane opened in Chicago.  I loved how the camera pulled back on a dolly while you began to see more and more individuals coming into the screen to change the stage into the Egyptian time that the opera was based on. 

The use of the cuts to show Mr. Kane’s first marriage fall apart were phenomenal.  They showed to the viewer that time was passing by and that it seemed as if the time was not just passing by, but the marriage was falling apart faster  and faster with each transition cut to the next conversation at the table.  While the cuts were occurring, the attitudes of the actors, Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead, were meshing perfectly with how the couple seemed to really feel about each other.

Another one of my favorite’s scenes in the film was Kane’s speech for the running of governor of the State of New York.  I loved how well the speech was delivered and with such integrity from Welles.  The camera angles made me feel as if he was already in power, like he was giving a speech about what he has done in his term of office and running for reelection.  The next scene after Mr. and Mrs. Kane had met with the current governor Gettys was even better to me.  Gettys had just blackmailed Kane out of his election with a threat of publishing that Kane was having an affair…well not a threat, a promise.  When Kane was talking with Mr. Leland, the camera had still stayed in the low angle.  As a viewer, I still felt that Kane was in power.  Kane was truthfully in power still and even Mr. Leland had brought it up within the conversation in the printing room with “Kane for Governor” posted all around the office.

Throughout the movie, the camera movement had made me notice much more than you would.  For instance, if in the part where Kane’s second wife was arguing with Kane in the tent, I would have been completely confused if the camera would not have done an establishing shot, I would have thought that Kane and his wife were at their home and I would have been wonder as to why he made the comment about her yelling in the room. 

The choice of lighting when Kane visited Leland’s office in Chicago after the opera was awesome for the setting.  Kane had walked into the room in the shadows and was not noticed by the individuals in the room until he stepped into the light.  I loved how Welles had waited until he had heard a few words about the conversation before he interjected and made his presence stern fully noticed.  I also enjoyed how his assistant, Mr. Bernstein was held in shadows when he was attempting to read the letter that Mr. Leland had written and placed in the type writer when he was passed out drunk.

I had thoroughly enjoyed Citizen Kane and am planning on viewing the film again to look for different aspects that I may have missed out on such as different lighting throughout the movie and even how the camera moves along the crowds during speeches and other important aspects of the film.