MOVIE REVIEW: CITIZEN KANE

Producer: Orson Welles

Director: Orson Welles

Writer: Herman J. Mankiewicz  & Orson Welles

Main cast:

Charles Foster Kane . . . . .  Orson Welles

Jedediah Leland . . . . .       Joseph Cotten

Susan Alexander . . . . .       Dorothy Comingore

Mr. Bernstein . . . . .               Everett Sloane

Walter Parks Thatcher . . . . George Coulouris

Emily Norton . . . . .               Ruth Warrick

Synopsis:

        

In 1941, the media industry set another big agenda all over the world, when Xanadu’s potent figure of the century, Charles Foster Kane, died inside his immense fortress loaded with his vast collection of treasures.

          

Unknown to the public the meaning of “Rosebud,” the final word that he managed to murmur, while the snow globe in his hand, which was owned by his second wife, Susan Alexander, slipped from his hand and broke into pieces.

          

Curious about Kane's dying word, the newsreel editor assigns Jerry Thompson, a reporter, to find out what it meant. He questions Kane's second wife, Susan, his ailing old friend, Jedediah Leland, the private diary of his boyhood guardian, Walter Parks Thatcher, his rich associate, Mr. Bernstein and his butler at Xanadu, Raymond, and Kane's story was shown by flashing back through the eyes of many witnesses.

          

Through these sources, Thompsons learned about Kane’s actual life, his plain childhood life spent in Colorado until they discovered his mother’s inherited property was the world’s third to the largest gold mine. And at the age of 25, he took control of the newspaper, ‘The New York Inquirer’ and hired all the best journalists in town.

         

  Thompsons was told of Kane’s exploitation of public opinion for the dSpanish American War using his dominating newspaper; his first wife Emily Monroe Norton, a President's  niece and his failure to his attempt of entry to the world of politics by running as governor of New York State because of his seemingly affair to a singer, Susan Alexander.

         

  Kane had his divorce with her first wife and married Susan, who eventually got bored spending her days inside the huge castle all on her own and decided to leave him.

          

Without finding out what really is the meaning of “Rosebud,” Kane’s last word, he explained what he has learned with the late man’s life, that Kane was a man who got everything he wanted, and then lost it. And that Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost.

         

  Kane’s belongings which are considered worthless were burned in a furnace including a sled, which he owned since he was a child back in Colorado, the time when he truly felt happiness in his heart and on the sled was carved its name ‘Rosebud.’ This sled explained what rosebud is, but not what rosebud means.

Critic:

A.         Narrative

This controversial film gained a mixture of appreciation and dismay from the viewers on its initial screenings.

Basing on these primary reactions, I theorized that it is related to an individual’s expectation on the film, because of the controversies that arose even before the film was released in theaters. These controversies pursued the viewers to expect highly on what they are going to see and what they will soon discover, but unfortunately, that is the blamable circumstance there is in the narration of “Citizen Kane.”

They pointed out that it fails to provide a clear picture of the character and motives behind the man, Charles Foster Kane, about whom the whole thing revolves.

In the contrary, I commend Welles style of writing the script, including the fact that the character of Kane wasn’t fully understood, it remained unknown to the viewers whether he is really a villain and what made him to be like one.

Welles didn’t overfed the viewers with abundance of imagery which other writers commonly do, and personally I really get bored with such. Though he clearly gave us an idea on who really is Kane, and how would he react on different matters. He was even described by the narrators of the film or the characters who provide us their memories to give us a view of Kane’s life. And they all implied the same trait of Kane based on their narrations. That he was once selfish, hard-headed, influential which he took for granted and a dictator, but at the same time, he craves for trust, love, happiness and a simple life that he once had back when he was a child.

I took it positively as part of the narration of the story, because it gave me the chance to participate in the film, in the sense that I have to make my own conclusion about his character which I think is really good because it creates connectivity to the audiences, the way it made me reflect whether to sympathize or not to Kane’s longing for his ‘Rosebud,’ or that little happiness that he had lost from his childhood.

Another creative storytelling technique that is used in the film is the foreshadowing. First is the snow globe, owned by Susan, which first appeared in Kane’s dying hand, it was also seen on Susan’s dressing table the night she and Kane met, then we saw it next when Susan left Kane and he destroyed her room. Kane is left only with the snow globe which foreshadowed his lonely death.

There’s also a scene in which Leland was asking Bernstein about the journalists’ loyalty to Kane because he just stole them from the rival paper by offering them more money. Leland wondered if that was enough to make them loyal to Kane. Leland’s doubts foreshadowed his departure and Susan’s, who both can’t be bought by money, from Kane's life.

Then, ‘Rosebud,’ the sled which name wasn’t shown when we first saw it  at the scene of young Kane’s abandonment by his mother, but it foreshadows the film's final scene, when we finally learn the meaning of Kane's last word, that he’s yearning for the happiness that ‘Rosebud’ brought to him as a child.

B. Stylistics

Citizen Kane, considering the technological disadvantage of their time, made its own cinematic progress. It introduced Hollywood to the creative potential of film techniques. It has also made a unique sequencing of events supported by Flashbacks where Kane’s story unfolds in overlapping segments whenever each narrator adds their memories of him.

They also used continuity editing for a more effective story- telling technique, like in a scene where Leland narrated Kane’s married life with her first wife, Emily Norton. The scenes where a montage sequence, which collapsed time while the characters changed costume and make-up between cuts so that the scene following each cut would look as if it took place in the same location, but at a time long after the previous cut.

Another continuity technique used is when Kane's guardian hands him his sled, Kane wishes him a "Merry Christmas". Suddenly the shot shifted to his guardian fifteen years later, and completed the phrase by saying: "and a Happy New Year". In this case, the continuity of the soundtrack was used. This technique is called the ‘lightning mix.’ Other audio techniques is like what I’ve observed that was very much used throughout the film, the overlapping dialogue, which was considered to be more realistic than the stage and film tradition of characters not stepping on each other's sentences.

The movie is also filled with visual effects like in its establishing scenes, the towers of Xanadu and the doorway of Susan dissolving into a front-page photo in a rival newspaper where they used fade in and out for optical effect; the many audiences of candidate Kane addressing a political rally, the many Kanes reflected through parallel mirrors and the great shot as the camera rises straight up from Susan's opera debut to the two men who are unattached with her voice are done using special effects.

For its most significant contribution to cinematography, Citizen Kane was known for its use of a technique known as deep focus. Deep focus refers to having everything in the frame, even the background, in focus at the same time, as opposed to having only the people and things in the foreground in focus.

An example of scene where they used deep focus is when Kane’s parents and Mr. Thatcher were discussing about their plans to Kane’s schooling, while he can be clearly seen outside through an open window of their house.

One of the effects used is the in- camera effect which resulted to a scene that looked like it was shot using the deep focus, when it actually wasn’t. An example is a scene where Kane breaks into Susan’s room after her suicide attempt. In the background, Kane and another man break into the room, while simultaneously the medicine bottle and a glass with a spoon in it are in close up in the foreground. The foreground was shot first, with the background dark. Another shot was taken where the background was lit, the foreground darkened, the film rewound, and the scene re-shot with the background action.

The introduction of pan-focus, the combination of pan, a camera movement where the camera rotates side-to-side and again the camera shot, deep- focus, which is when combined, the viewers are enabled to see an entire panorama at once, with everything clear in the scene.

I also noticed the blocking of Kane and Susan in a particular scene where the camera was in a high angle while Susan was on the lower level begging for Kane’s permission to let her stop from her singing career and Kane back view firmly stood as he rejects her idea. The blocking and the camera angle were effectively used to express the psychological relationships between the characters where it clearly showed who is dominating and the significant trait of Kane of being a dictator.

And last but absolutely not the least, the make- ups and prosthetics used to each character that had to look old to make the film appear rather realistic, is one of the most outstanding elements that was well- kept in the duration of the film. For example, Mr. Kane, from a very fine- looking gentleman in his early twenties, within the course of time in the film, achieved the believably looks of a middle aged guy and eventually a balding aged man.

C.         Film Reel

Given the fact that it was written and produced decades ago, and it is the first black and white film that I managed to watch up to the last bit of second not because this is a school requirement but because I was eventually into it, I am giving “Citizen Kane” the highest score of 1.

Aside from its innovative styles in the aspect of cinematography, the very story is also ambitious in trying to get a positive feedback from the viewers with its realistic approach. Basically, films especially before are meant to entertain like the short silent films of Charlie Chaplin, that sort of thing, but Welles took the risk in his debut movie which revolved on an influential man who happened to be the owner of a widely distributed broadsheet in New York.

Welles used those facts to establish a conflict on how Kane, whose only intention at first is to be trusted and be loved by the people, became selfish and gave bias information to manipulate the mindset of the people through his orchestrated news articles.

Within the duration of this engaging film, I grow different feelings for the villain and at the same time the hero of the story, Mr. Kane. Every character did very well in their penetrating performances and of, course, the unique approach of the sequencing of events and the story flow coupled with its noteworthy advancement on cinematography are all more than just classic.