Orson Welles’ films portray the dark side of human nature. The motif of darkness is conveyed through still images, mood music, short, foreboding phrases, the conjuring of sinister ideas, and objects that represent darkness. A common theme that engulfs his movies is murder by gunshot. Many of the characters in his movies appear borderline psychopathic because of their inconsiderate tendencies. In the rare instances his characters did care for someone, it was only a lover and even then, they were only occasionally treated how one would expect today.
Each of the characters in Orson Welles’ films show some aspect of human nature in a negative light, as Welles himself was “dark, self-absorbed, and very troubled.” Revealing Welles’ most biting critique of man, most of his characters manifest some form of egocentrism. Such selfishness is exemplified in Citizen Kane, though it is slightly different than Welles other films in that there are no gunfights and no one is murdered. Throughout the film, we see that Kane accumulates an increasing amount of power while losing more of his soul. Encompassing the film are themes of
…show more content…
He initiated a fight in a car with his girlfriend, pulled a gun on her, and killed her. Afterwards, he proceeded to shoot himself. Some of the characters in Welles’ films portrayed human nature in a borderline psychopathic way; as does my next modern day example. Unfortunately, a twenty-one-year-old girl who lived a town over from me went missing. As it turns out, a man had kidnapped, tortured, and murdered her. Upon further investigation, his basement was found stocked with torture devices and many body remnants were dug up in his backyard. Regrettably, the dark side of human nature that Welles reveals throughout his films is very relevant today as shown through misogynists and the relationships between men and women in
I believe what Orson Welles is trying to portray through the movie Citizen Kane is the difficulty that goes into describing a person’s life after they have passed on. The reporter Thompson investigates Kane’s story and witnesses it unfold as it is told by those closest to him. Although this makes you wonder how different it would have been if Kane got to tell his own story rather than rely on the reminiscences of his colleagues because not a single one of these people knew or could figure out what drove Charles Foster Kane. The only person who could have fully understood Kane was Thatcher, but his concerns focused more on making money rather than the loneliness of a child. With each perspective we get on Kane’s life as well as the lack of his own point of view, it forces us to question what truly mattered in Kane’s life.
The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare and 1941 film Citizen Kane possess many similarities in themes and characters, despite the completely different settings and plots. Both main characters are ambitious and determined to achieve a goal, even to a certain point where they lose everything truly meaningful to them. While Macbeth strives to become king of Scotland, Charles Foster Kane attempts to become popular and influential. Both Macbeth and Citizen Kane desire to be powerful members of their respective societies and receive respect and recognition from their acquaintances. In both works, they acquired everything they thought they wanted, yet realised they could not have what they truly desired, essentially ending up with “nothing of value”.
Rudy, the protagonist of the movie, grows up catholic in a low-income industrialized city together with his family that loves Notre Dame football games. Rudy’s ultimate goal is to get into Notre Dame and play football in its team; however, he does not have the grades, the physical configuration or the economic resources to be admitted to his dream school (and play football). Hopeless and disbelieved by everyone around him, Rudy eventually follows his siblings and father into work at the local steel mill where the majority of the male population of Joliet Illinois ends up going. Weeks after his birthday, due to an accident in the steel plant, his best friend and his only believer, Pete, dies and leaves him completely devastated. He suddenly
These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale
The interesting facts about us humans is the way we see things. About how the human condition takes on the horror or fear they think. The way our minds think under illusional fiction. Stephen King might have a claim that humans crave horror to face our fearss, although many other people crave horror for a fun experience. Why do we all crave for horror?
The Film Citizen Kane was a groundbreaking film in the 1940’s, the way Orson Wells depicts his film with different lighting, cinematography, choice of camera shots and mise-en-scene throughout this movie truly showed the masterpiece that this film is. In the Film Citizen Kane, it was the first movie that went against true Hollywood cinema by introducing flashbacks throughout the movie to show us how Charles Foster Kane changes throughout the movie. Throughout this movie the audience can see how Charles Foster Kane undergoes a variety of physical and emotional changes from when he was just a young boy all the way until his unfortunate death. Power, that’s all that Kane wanted in the start of the film. In the beginning of the film Kane gets ownership of the struggling New York Daily Inquirer, Kane suggests that he wanted to use journalism to apply to the public and protect the interest of ordinary people.
(Citizen Kane, 1941) Kane’s parents used the power of money as an accessory for giving him away to a billionaire. Since that day, the protagonist went through a traumatizing experience, insecurity and redisposition due to his parents’ actions, which marked the beginning of his tortuous need, to be loved. This unreturned love created a sense of fear and mistrust to love something or someone, only to experience abandonment again was something Kane never got a chance to learn. Citizen Kane broke all the rules because of Welles, there were no
Directed by Orson Welles, the 1941 motion picture “Citizen Kane” is the story of the rise and fall of a great, influential man. The opening scenes of “Citizen Kane” are quite different from what follows during the rest of the film. Fading in and out of different landscapes instilled mystery. This mysterious vibe was carried on during Charles Foster Kane’s death through the use of shadows, quiet music, and close up shots. Isolated in his vast empire of a home, Kane uttered only one word before he passed: “rosebud.”
Citizen Kane challenged the traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema mainly in the area of sound. Orson Welles was ahead of his time when he created his works of manipulating sound to transfer meaning in the film Citizen Kane. Welles used concealed hanging microphones to obtain different levels of sound throughout the film. The manner, in which the story was told, from Kane’s death flashbacked to his life of success and ultimate failure, was also a new style of storytelling for films. Welles also used symbolism with his last mumbling word “Rosebud.”
There are many things that make “Citizen Kane” considered as possibly one of the greatest films every made; to the eyes of the passive audience this film may not seem the most amazing, most people being accustomed to the classical Hollywood style, but to the audience with an eye for the complex, “Citizen Kane” breaks the traditional Hollywood mold and forges its own path for the better. Exposition is one of the most key features of a film, it’s meant introduce important characters and give the audience relevant details and and dutifully suppress knowledge in turn. “Citizen Kane” does not follow this Classic Hollywood style exposition, instead going above and beyond to open the film with revealing as little information as possible and confuse/intrigue
Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is a cinematic classic, released in 1941. Citizen Kane challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema. Kane was narrated by several people that include their take on Kane’s life. The story unfolds by many flashbacks and is told by different perspectives over the years through different narrations. Charles Foster Kane was a millionaire, head of newspapers and died saying “rosebud”.
Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema through techniques in cinematography, mise-en-scene and lighting. The mise-en-scene build of Citizen Kane is the pivoting point of the narrative forthcoming and Welles uses every technical element encompassed in this build to span his narrative across 60 years of Charles Foster Kane, the main character 's life. The beginning of this build is founded on the black and white shooting choice which sets an ominous almost 'film noir ' lighting and feel of the opening scene of the castle in Xanadu. This where we see end of Kane 's life, but every aspect of the film 's narrative will revolve around these frames and including the questions of 'who has died '?, 'what was the significance of the snow globe? ', and 'Who is rosebud? '. The camera angle in the deathbed scene is deliberately shot from a low angle, which further implies the importance of the person lying in the bed as well as providing mystery as the viewer is not yet privy to whom has just
Throughout the film, Welles uses unusual arrangements of music that creates suspense for the audience. The main thesis of this scene is the myth
Two films, although created years apart yet have a lot in common, including their content of it’s narrative techniques. Both films, even though black and white with strokes of genius of cinema offer a vast stretch for study. I will be looking at Sir Orson Welles “Citizen Kane” (1941) and Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” (1950). We see in Citizen Kane he values for the American life. The three abstract themes that constantly follow through Citizen Kane are Wealth, Power and Love.
Kylie Mawn Professor Rodais CINE 121 Midterm 4 March 2018 Question 1: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is a film that is well known for pushing cinematic boundaries in many ways. One commonly recognized technique in Welles’ film is deep focus photography. Deep focus photography is used in films to allow everything in a shot to be in focus at once. Typical, only specific characters or objects are in focus in any given frame in order to guide the audience’s attention in a scene, but deep focus can bring a new level of sophistication to a shot.