Synthesis Citizen Kane To write about Citizen Kane

Synthesis: Citizen Kane To write about Citizen Kane is to write about cinema. —Peter Woolen, Critic French critic André Bazin described Welle’s Citizen Kane as “a discourse on method” due to its encyclopedic range of cinematic techniques.

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Story What, after all is said and done, is Rosebud? Citizen Kane’s story is told in a flashback structure, from multiple points of view and in a particular sequence 1. Prologue: Kane’s death and dying word: “Rosebud. ” 2. Newsreel: Condensed life of the man provides points of reference the viewer will need later 3. Premise: “Rosebud, dead or alive; ” Thompson, the viewer’s representative, begins his mission to define Kane by discovering the meaning of his dying word.

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Story The Flashback Structure of Citizen Kane: Different Points of View Citizen Kane’s story structure (cont. ) • (False step: Susan refuses to talk, nor should she yet in a structural sense). 4. Flashback: Thatcher’s point of view 5. Flashback: Bernstein’s point of view 6. Flashback: Jed Leland’s point of view 7. Flashback: Susan Alexander’s point of view 8. Flashback: Raymond’s point of view 9. Coda: Rosebud revealed to audience only, 10. (Return visually to Prologue) Cast and credits

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Story Why do you think the sections are ordered as they are?

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Writing: Themes in Citizen Kane A few of themes include • The fall of a tragic hero • A critique on Capitalism and the arrogance of power • What Welles called “the lost paradise” • The dark side of humanity • The impossibility of absolute definition as applied to any individual human being • The infinite possibilities of subjectivity

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Writing: Motifs Rosebud is one of the Motifs in the Film Citizen Kane contains many motifs • Technical motif: The low camera angles Content Motifs: • Series of fences, walls, fortresses between the audience and Kane • Stillness, decay, old age, and death

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Writing: Motifs Rosebud is the Hook, a Plot Device, a Revelation, a Symbol Fragmentation as a Motif in Citizen Kane • Fragmentation acts as a foil to the simple-minded idea that a single word can define a complex personality such as that of Kane’s • It suggests multiplicity, repetition, and parts of a larger whole

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Writing: Motifs Examples of Fragmentation as Motif in Citizen Kane • Jigsaw puzzles • Profusion of crates, art, sculpture, and “junk” • The structure of the film, with each narrator providing partial pieces or fragments of a larger picture

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Writing: Motifs Examples of Fragmentation as Motif in Citizen Kane • The hall of mirrors scene; Kane walks down a hall lined with mirrors on each side, his image fragmented, reflected, and multiplied into infinity. • Who is Kane? The mirrored images suggest that he is all of these fragmented images, a complex being, an enigma

Pre-Production: Citizen Kane Writing: Symbolism Rosebud is a convenient symbol of childhood innocence, but more importantly it is a generalized symbol of loss. It is far more than an object. • • To view the revelation of the missing piece of the puzzle, Rosebud, as only a symbol of Kane’s lost childhood is reductive As is the case with every language system in Welles’ Citizen Kane, Rosebud has many meanings and many layers

Production: Citizen Kane Photography Orson Welles • Used photographic techniques in ways that no one else ever had, creating layers to produce meaning • Employed • • • deep-focus shots Angles dramatic backlighting crane shots special effects

Production: Citizen Kane Mise en Scène Every filmmaker since 1941 is to some degree in debt to Orson Welles. –Peter Bogdonovitch, Filmmaker Citizen Kane is a film with • Relatively few close-ups • Most of its images composed in depth, with characters frequently shifting positions from foreground to midground to background within the frame to reflect shifting power dynamics • Many tightly framed and closed form images

Production: Citizen Kane Mise en Scène The point of the picture is not so much the solution of the problem as its presentation. —Orson Welles on Citizen Kane

Production: Citizen Kane Mise en Scène The point of the picture is not so much the solution of the problem as its presentation. —Orson Welles on Citizen Kane Consider the mise en scène analysis • Charlie, in his final moments of boyhood play, is in the background, the smallest character in frame • Yet, he is the dominant, the point of highest contrast and dynamic movement • Surrounded by snow and multiple frames within the frame, he ironically sings the “Union forever” as his mother signs documents, effectively ending the union of Charles’ original family unit forever

Production: Citizen Kane Movement Welles was a master of the mobile camera. • In Citizen Kane, the moving camera is generally equated with the vitality and energy of youth • As a young man, Kane himself is virtually always on the move • Kinetically, the camera movements equate with the character’s mobility and energy

Production: Citizen Kane Movement Welles was a master of the mobile camera. • By contrast, with age, Kane becomes less mobile, moves more slowly, sits more often—conveying a sense of defeat and exhaustion • Mirroring his lethargy, the camera becomes more stationary or static during these scenes

Production: Citizen Kane Movement Citizen Kane: A Lesson in Virtuosity Welles’ use of crane shots • Maneuvers the camera deftly descending into and ascending out of sets and different characters’ perspectives, which. . . • Provides an effective and refreshing formalist transition compared to the typical classical establishing shot

Post-Production: Citizen Kane Editing Welles combines multiple editing styles and techniques with ease Ways Welles condenses time Montage • The swish pan and crosscuts that show the passage of years and the deterioration of Charles and Emily’s marriage, all set at breakfast, cover years in about a minute of real time

Post-Production: Citizen Kane Editing Welles condenses time Montage • Susan Alexander’s nervous collapse is presented in a frenetic thematic montage of opera sets, Susan in various costumes and settings, crowds, applause, etc. . • All periodically intercut with the image of an electric light bulb flickering, dimming, and finally burning out—a fitting metaphor for Susan herself

Post-Production: Citizen Kane Sound Working with sound technician James G. Stewart, Welles learned that almost every visual technique has a sound equivalent. Innovative use of Sound in Citizen Kane • The visual editing of Susan Alexander’s nervous collapse is accompanied by an equally frenetic aural montage of Susan’s ü ü shrieking arias orchestral music popping flashbulbs and the percussive sounds of newspaper presses rolling, all seemingly battering away at Susan’s frayed psyche

Post-Production: Citizen Kane Sound The visual editing of Susan Alexander’s nervous collapse (cont. ) • As the light bulb dies out, a mechanical whirring sound winds down to silence • The next sound the audience hears is Susan’s labored breathing as a result of an overdose meant to extinguish her own life Welles is probably best known for perfecting sound montage in film

Ism: Citizen Kane Critique When [Welles] steps before a camera, it is as if the rest of the world ceases to exist. He is a citizen of the screen. —Jean Renoir, Filmmaker Citizen Kane is a masterpiece of formalism • That contains elements of realism (deep-focus photography, the newsreel sequence) • Which is the work of an undisputable auteur and innovative, cinematic genius • That has a rich commercial and critical history • That sparked controversy from its beginning

Ism: Citizen Kane Critique Citizen Kane is a masterpiece of formalism (cont. ) • That was not widely recognized for its genius until many years after its release due to the smear campaign against it led by William Randolph Hearst • That inspired many important filmmakers • That the world of cinema is richer for having and without which a noticeable gap in its history would surely be felt

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