"Citizen Kane" was a revolutionary movie in respect to it's use of mise-en-scene. The story of Charles Foster Kane's life was told through a series of flashbacks. Welles used make up and costumes to help the viewer determine what time period the movie was currently in. We first meet adult Kane as a dashing young man only interested in his newspaper. Overtime, Kane grows rounder and his hair recedes. Welles does an excellent job of contrasting young Kane to old Kane to help the viewer make sense of the flashbacks. This is true of most of the other characters, such as Susan, Leland, or Thatcher.
Since "Citizen Kane" tries to recount the life of Charles Foster Kane it requires many settings. Some of the settings in the movie were created using paintings, such as the opening shot of Xanadu or Kane's political rally. Welles contrasts all of Kane's various houses, starting with the small, humble winter cottage he grew up in as a boy to the very extravagant Xanadu palace. At the end of the movie, we see Kane and Susan together in Xanadu. The setting is notably empty aside from various statues. Yet Kane's basement is overflowing with his life's belongings. This shows how Kane grew up to be a man who owned everything he wanted but still led an empty life.
"Citizen Kane" uses high key and low key lighting to felsh out character traits. The most notable of these is the reporter who is trying to discover the meaning of the word Rosebud. The reporter is always in the dark on the bottom right side of the screen. This choice in lighting takes the attention away from the reporter and concentrates it all on Kane. Welles likes to use low key lighting during the major turning points in the movie. When Susan tries to commit suicide, he employs low key lighting to reveal her distress and insecurity about her marriage and her singing. When Kane fires Leland, Welles again uses low-key lighting to emphasize the contrast between the two characters. "Citizen Kane's" unique use of mise-en-scene helped establish it as one of the best American movies ever made.
5 comments:
I concur on the mis-en-scene of the movie. Orson Wells did do a good job in creating flashback with costumes and settings.
nice review, i agree that mis-en-scene helped to distinguish orson welles, at different stages in his life.
i agree, i really liked the movie too, i also talked about the flashbacks but focouced on the editing. But i like what you said, Wells did a good job and so did you.
OMG!!! I totally dig ur blog!! ur AMAZING!!!
I think that the mise-en-scene is so good in this movie that I *never* realized that Welles was only 26 in 1941 until after I started researching the film itself. At first glance it is not entirely easy to discern why this was called the greatest movie but upon further research, I'm actually starting to agree...
(And yes, I'm aware this blog entry is 2 yrs old)
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