Scene 1: Kane, Mrs. Kane, Susan and Gettys face off on the eve of the election. Kane's opponent, Gettys threatened Susan beforehand to invite Mrs.Kane, and the four came to Susan's house. Gettys threatened Kane to withdraw from the election by exposing Kane and Susan's affair. The choices of Kane, Mrs.Kane and Gettys lead the story. Susan is just an irrelevant "singer", and her feelings, and the consequences of her involvement in this matter, mean nothing to the trio. And Owells accurately expressed the feeling of being coerced by mixing Susan among the three through the scene scheduling.
First of all, from the time the four gathered outside the door to Mrs. Kane's departure, Susan was out of the screen many times.
The first time outside the frame, Gettys reveals his identity, and Kane knows Gettys' intentions and threatens Gettys. Although Mrs.Kane doesn't know the beginning and the end, he already feels the rain is coming. The conflict begins, and within such a node, Susan is excluded.
The second time, Gettys blamed Kane for the two's election struggle, and against Mrs.Kane. In the 38 seconds of footage, Susan is not seen.
For the third and final time, Kane said that she was not threatened by Gettys and was not afraid of a scandal. Susan is actually next to Kane, but she is obscured by Kane in this shot. For one, Susan's will is useless in this conflict, so only three people appear in the frame. Second, Kane's decision makes the fate of Susan and Kane closely linked in the future, and Kane is in absolute dominance.
And Susan's weakest shot begins when Gettys tells the two of them "intimacy". At first, Susan and Kane were in the depths of the picture, in the dark, and their posture was attached to Kane.
Gettys mentions the story, Susan leaves Kane and tries to defend, but gets interrupted by Gettys. Susan stopped in the middle of the three.
Gettys said there was evidence of an affair between the two, and if Kane didn't do what he asked, it would be made public. Gettys stepped forward again, worried about his situation. Interrupted again by Gettys.
After Gettys finished speaking, neither Kane nor Mrs. Kane said a word, and Susan finally had a chance to finish saying "What about me?
From Susan trying to speak, intervening in the conflict, to the last "What about me", the other three stood in a triangle shape, and Susan was always in the middle of the three, surrounded by a group, and came forward three times, but almost interjected a sentence Must not. Powerless despair, ready to come out.
And such a triangular position was used by the director when Kane was forcibly taken away from his parents in his childhood, and it felt even more oppressive. The similar composition scene may be suggesting the similarity between the young Kane and Susan at this time. Susan later said that Kane always "loved" her the way he thought she was, regardless of her feelings. Kane suffered from what her parents called love, but in the end she became like her parents.
Scenario 2: Kane gets married for the first time, newly married.
Newly married Yan Er, in love. As time passed, the conflict between the two became more apparent. The director used a series of montage shots, still the dining scene, to show the emotional changes of the two. In the shot below, the two are still sitting opposite each other, unlike the characters who dominated the picture when they were newly married. There are gorgeous utensils under the shot, which is also the gap between the two.
Finally, the director used a panoramic shot to emphasize the coldness of the Kane couple's relationship. When they are newly married, the camera is closer to the characters, which is more warm.
Scene 3: The size of the characters in the picture and their importance in the plot. Hitchcock believed that the size of the characters in the picture and the importance in the plot should correspond.
It's still the confrontation scene, where Kane faces the threat from Gettys and has to make a decision. When speaking, Kane walks out of the dark, from the background to the foreground. This principle is also reflected in the scene where the agreement with Thatcher is signed.
I'll end with my favorite shot at the end.
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