The films opening scene started with walls of Xanadu with a no NO TRESPASSING sign, then the films shows random shots of the property in Xanadu, the area was filled with fogs and the sound was very hunting as if someone was dying and to the viewers it was. The sound and the visual effect of the film has emphasizes the protagonist of the film, Kane and his once great empire that has soon fallen. In the scene where Kane was about to die, the image of being alone filled the whole scene.
2. Discuss the uses of light and darks in this film
The sound manipulates the dark and light of the film. When something is about to happen to the protagonist or emphasizing his greatness, fast beat music plays. But when the protagonist is about to do something mean, a slow hunting beat plays. He also uses the angle of camera to enlighten the viewers of what is happening in the scene.
3. Wells uses the UP-ANGLE SHOT. Give several examples of this. How do these shots create a psychological mood
When the protagonist of the film has lost hope of the election, the scene back in the newspaper office, the shot opens with the journalist standing outside the door of Kanes office and when can finally came out, the angle has emphasized how devastated he was. The director uses used the up-angle shot when Jedediah Leland confronted Kane when he got drunk telling him what he fills about what had happened in the company. You can feel the tension between them, as if emphasizing how small Kane looks and what Leland says is true.
4. Describe the creative imagination of Welles in the scene with Kane and his first wife at the table.
In the scene where Kane and his first wife Emily was sitting on the table showed and let the viewers understand how the relationship started and how it failed drastically that in the end of it, they almost never spoke to each other. The table scene also showed how the adoration of the couple died and how they lost interest with each other, it started with the couple who cant get off each other. It also showed how less and less he treated her wife with respect. His wife also lost interest of him after he spent less time with her and more of his time in the newspaper.
5. How does he use sound to create mood
Cheerful music plays when something great or historical has happened in it the life of the protagonist an example of this is when the New York Inquirer is about to give Kane a welcome home trophy, the musics beat is fast and exciting. When the director is emphasizing the defeat of Kane in the election, no sound was added, not until Jedadiah came in and wanted to confront him about his previews actions. When emphasizing the loneliness of Kane, the director uses a sort of hunting sound.
6. Discuss structure Observations, details, technical aspects and emotional involvement.
The Newsreel wanted to be different from the others, they know that the death of Kane will interest the public and they dont want something that the public have already heard, they want something the public doesnt know yet, something different. They know the last word of Kane, everybody knows, but no one dared investigate who or what rosebud is. They are show casting uniqueness, much like The New York Inquirer when Kane first got a hold of it, unique from every other newspaper.
Mr. Thatcher was the only who could have understand Kane, he was there when Kane was sent away by his parents, he saw how the father of Kane could have treated Kane. After Mr. Thatcher has given Kane his wealth, he was confused why Kane only got interested in the old newspaper company and when Kane took it, he was struck by how much Kane bashed bank trust. Although he never really understood Kane, he did have some genuine intentions to make Kanes life better, all Kane saw is someone who took him away from his parents, someone who mimics his parents but doesnt equal to them.
Mr. Bernstein has nothing for Kane but admiration, even in the death of his business partner, he still admires him. When Mr. Bernstein was interview, all that he could have told the interviewer were great things about Kane.
Jedediah Leland was one of the very first people who work for Kanes The New York Inquirer he was the dramatic critic for the newspaper. Like Mr. Bernstein he too have admired Kane for his unique ideas and strong principles, but has lost it when Kanes attitude change, he no longer was the man he use to admire at the beginning. Jedediah think that Kanes change after a while, he was no longer the man with principles, for Mr. Jedediah, all Kane was in the end was a pretentious act.
Emily Kane was the first wife of Kane she was the niece of the president, Kane and Emily had a child who also admired his father. She admired Kane when they first started but after sometime the love, the spark between them no longer exists. Kane attacked his uncle and almost never listen to what Emily has to say, He did what he thought was right, after Kanes affair with the hopeful singer they then went on separate ways.
Susan Alexander Kane, the second wife of Kane. They met at the streets, and she was first a mistress before being married to Kane. Kane built a opera house for her, the first night of the opera was a total flunk, not wanting his dignity to shambles and proving Leland was right, he wrote an article that bashes his wife and then fired Leland. Devastated with the review, Susan no longer wanted to sing again but Kane demanded that Susan continue in order to gain control of what little dignity he has left. She was much younger than Kane, Kane Built everything for her, but the young wife of Kane wanted what to do things that most young people do, associate with other people rather than being like Kane who isolates himself in Xanadu. The relationship was controlled by Kane, making his wife Susan feel more like a property rather than someone who youre suppose to care about. Kane did what he thinks Susan like, he even built Xanadu for her, but in the end, it never worked out, because he never really asked what Susan wanted, he just built what he think Susan wanted.
7. Epilogue- discuss Relate to beginning
The reporters face is not seen all through out the film to create a mystery, so that the viewers wont have a hold over him and just concentrate on the protagonist Kane.
One of the main theme in Citizen Kane is The Difficulty of Interpreting a Life, the question at was., who was Kane, not what makes him, all trough out the film, his wealth is only subjective to who he really is. The whole film is about Kane but we dont really know want drove him to lead his life the way he did, only he could answer that and he is dead, all the film gave us for assumptions why he lived his last days that way. The second was the myth of the American dream, when Kane was left to Thatcher he was promised to live a life of dreams, and although he was rich and later on became powerful and sort of in control of what the people wants, he was alone and isolated in his own world. The third was the unreliable memory of those who told the story of Kane, since Kane never really poured himself out from anyone, no one really knew him, all they could say was how they assume he is, and it is not even that reliable, all of those that the reporter interviewed was either dead or too old to remember most of the things in life.
8. Key moral questions The meaning and value of Rosebud
Kanes family is not poor enough to give him up, his mother merely though that he would grow up to someone better than them if he is influenced by other people than his father. While with my Thatcher, Kane got what the concept of the American dream, financial affluence and material luxury, but never what he wanted. When he was getting older and already rich and has many influences, he stopped being the person who really understood the public but someone who insisted the news to the public, giving them what they though was good for them.
What Kane did wrong in most part of the film is when he tried to buy everyone, and though of what would be best for them but never asking if that is what they want, much like what his mother did to him. So when he lost the election for governor, he transferred his frustrations to her second wife who was the cost why Kane lost the election in the first place.
After his strike of good luck, with the newspaper and getting married to a presidents niece, he was devastated on his lost at the election, saying if that is what the public wants. That destroyed his youthful hope and excitement, adding the failure of his second wifes opera house, he was tired and just wanted to be left alone.
No one can really escape destiny and fate, if it chooses you to be alone you would be. We are all destined to die, in the film no matter how great Kane lived up to be in the end, it was his fate to be alone and alone he was. Even though Kane was not the kind of man who you want to around you, he still have opened a lot of doors for everyone, without his guidance the destiny of Susan might have not been fulfilled, she went back to singing and dancing soon after she left Kane. The publication that was once dying was revived, that was its destiny, it was planned, someone had written that it will become a newspaper that set the standards among other newspaper.
In the film Meet John Doe and Citizen Kane are similar in terms that both of these movies are about knowing who the person really is. The paper both printed news to spring up political issues. In Citizen Kane they printed out a murder of a women even though it wasnt confirmed and in Meet John Doe they printed a suicide letter from the unemployed John Doe, which was all made up to protest societys ills. In both movies the setting circulated in the newspaper publication.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment