Cinema Studies
May 12, 2008
Citizen Kane
The critically acclaimed masterpiece Citizen Kane directed by Orson Wells, although a commercial failure is regarded as the best movie to many critics around the world. The movie is revolutionary, though it has a very boring plot and a common theme of Life Vs Death; it incorporates many editing and visual effects such as camera angles and deep focus photography.
Orson Wells, who play Charles Foster Kane, play the part well but almost seems detached from the film time to time, as if he doesn’t care what is going on. He starts off the movie trying to start a newspaper company with Mr. Leland (Joseph Cotton), they are close friends. The visual techniques are stunning, the scene where Kane is starting his empire and you can slowly tell him and his wife’s relationship deteriorating and it is shown though a sequences of shots that start out as Kane loving her and have a peaceful relationship to them just tolerating one another. The sequences of shots show a long period of time in a few moments but it feels much longer.
The story line was also much different that most film out there, it showed the death of Kane then the story began as a series of flash backs, then the flash backs caught up and into present time. This series of event reminds me much of the novel Frankenstein which had the same premise of a begging.
The camera work was also revolutionary, it showed a lot of deep focus photography which allowed all the people in the shot to be seen equally clear. Also the incorporation of low angle camera shots help show the power that Charles Kane had acquired.
The movie was very boring for my taste, but with the good camera work and screenplay it made the film bearable to watch. This film in my opinion surely doesn’t deserve the Number 1 film title, but should be up with some of the best films for its cinematography.