Until
this day, Citizen Kane is considered
the best movie ever made. Director and
actor Orson Welles made a leap when he tried to do everything at once in this
film. This motion picture became a
classical masterpiece due its use of sound, light, flash, panning, editing, and
angles. This film does a marvelous job at creating the theme of how Charles
Foster Kane’s life is truly a jigsaw-puzzle.
The best part is that nobody knows the missing piece, except the
audience. “Many critics marveled at the intricate, jigsaw-puzzle structure of
the movie, with the interlocking pieces that don’t click together until the
final scene” (Giannetti 559). The beauty
of this film is that the story isn’t given straightforward, and something is
ultimately gained from this.
The
very first scene of this movie is explicit.
It is obviously very important to the story line of the movie. There is a fade into the first scene at the
very beginning. The audience goes past
the “No Trespassing” sign, breaking the rules as the camera cranes over ahead. The camera keeps on getting closer and closer
to the window and the mystified palace.
Notice that the camera had an extreme long shot of the palace at the
beginning, yet the viewer becomes closer due to the camera. There are multiple
dissolves from one scene to another. The
fence and tight frame show how trapped this man really was behind all of his
material goods (animals, boats, statues). There is a fade in and fade out of the window,
automatically a change of light. The audience
is literally face up against the window.
The dissolve of the shot leads the audience to the snow of the snow
globe, obviously showing the significance of this object. The next view is an extreme close up of
Charles Foster Kane’s mouth as he pronounces the word “Rosebud.” Then there is
some great classical cutting of Citizen Kane’s death, showing the emotional
emphasis of different view of death. This
is portrayed by dropped snow globe from Kane’s hand. Then the nurse enters the room and this is seen
from a fisheye view through the snow globe.
There is then a fade out of the scene; at that moment the film sets up
the audience with this great view of editing and use of the camera.
As the film progresses, the audience
views a flashback from Walter Parks Thatcher, as Thompson, the reporter reads
his manuscript of Charles Foster Kane. In
this flashback there is an extravagant scene of Mary Kane signing paperwork to
send Charles with Thatcher, which truly expresses great mise en scene and deep
focus. However, one important aspect of
Thatcher’s flashbacks was on Christmas day when he gives Charlie the sled,
“Crusader.” Thatcher wishes him a Merry
Christmas and Charlie does the same but more ignorantly. There is then a parallel cut and a flash forward
of Thatcher saying “…and a happy New Year,” just before Charles turns
twenty-five years old (Dirks). As the
scenes continue from Thatcher’s point of view, he makes several full frontal
positions with direct eye contact at the camera. This is provoking the camera and audience
with Thatcher’s frustration and raw emotion with Charles. Tensions grow with the direct eye contact
Thatcher uses. This displays his irritation with Charles as he supposedly
throws the fortune away by running a newspaper.
The
next important scene that I felt expressed some interesting mise in scene was
when Thompson had an interview with Bernstein in his office with medium high
key lighting. The camera zooms into a
medium shot of Bernstein, and then moves to a high angle of him. Bernstein is seated in a black leather chair
with his arms folded on his shiny polished desktop, reflecting his image. (Dirks).
At this point there are no cuts between Thompson and Bernstein so far,
signifying Orson Welles classic lengthy scenes.
As the camera moves and tracks Bernstein through his office, the
audience notices Bernstein’s possessions with great depth of focus. As the camera movies the audience can see the
few pictures and small certificates of Bernstein’s prized possessions. Yet, the camera displays a huge picture of Charles
Foster Kane on the wall across his mantle.
This shows Bernstein’s complete dedication and devotion to this
man. Even after Kane’s death, Bernstein
was incapable of seeing all of Kane’s flaws.
All in all, there are plenty of over the shoulder shots and long shots
in this scene that allow the audience to truly interpret what is going on.
Some other great
scenes in this film were the flashbacks from Susan Alexander’s interview. A noteworthy scene was after Susan’s terrible
performance at the opera house and a horrifying review from Jedediah Leland. Both her and Kane are in a hotel room as the
camera shoots at a high angle of Susan screaming and telling Kane, “ My
singin’…I’m through. I never wanted to
do it in the first place” (Dirks). The
180-degree rule is excellent, as the camera focuses and cuts each of their
different reactions to Susan’s statement.
Kane then stoops over her in a shadow of darkness, very low key, and
tells her, “You will continue with your singing career.” Susan is then forced to perform in an opera
career that she never wanted. This is
shown through a montage of show tours in different cities as different newspapers
flash across the scene. Later, Susan can
no longer stand the failure, so she attempts suicide. The mise en scene and deep focus in this
scene is evident. The lighting is dark
and sinister, with a close up of an empty glass bottle. Then in a medium shot lies Susan, but the
audience can hear Kane banging on door in the upper portion of the screen. According to our textbook, “the lethal dose
was taken by Susan Alexander Kane because of Kane’s inhumanity” (Giannetti
540).
All in all, Citizen Kane stands up to the title of
being the best movie ever made. Some may
argue that the plot and theme of this movie is sinister, but it truly does have
amazing editing, cuts, lighting, and angles.
If the audience looks closely enough, they will be astonished by the
great uses of the camera. If nothing
else, this movie teaches the extreme uses of photography, mise en scene,
motion, and editing.
Sources:
Dirks, Tim.
"Citizen Kane (1941)." Citizen Kane (1941). American Movies
Classics Company's LLC., 2013. Web. 13
June 2013. http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html.
Giannetti,
Louis. Understanding Movies. Upper
Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2008. Print.
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