A Citizen Kane made Orson Welles, but in a way I feel like there is an inevitable connection between this film and Orson Welles. The 25-year-old Orson Welles is an upright young man, and this film is his masterpiece of self-written, self-directed and self-acted fame. The film tells the life of newspaper tycoon Kane, and kicks off with Kane's death. Through his life experience and the rise and fall of his career, he witnesses a complex truth under the myth of capitalism.
"Citizen Kane" is a rich and philosophical biographical film. The talented director Orson Welles is based on the American journalism magnate William Randolph Hearst and some of his own childhood experiences as the prototype. This film narrates Kane's legendary and tortuous life through various expressions such as long shots and depth-of-field shots.
This is a simple thing that happened in a simple life in a certain era. At the beginning of the film, there is a forbidden picture in the camera, and then the camera slowly moves upward, combined with the effect of superposition and music, which brings the audience a gloomy and depressing feeling. At the same time, this is also to elicit the tragedy of Kane Kane's life is tragic, bleak, and full of twists and turns. The way the camera is shown at the beginning of the film undoubtedly plays a role in promoting. Correspondingly, the end of the film echoes the beginning of the film, which is also a lens shift, but the implied effect is different. These two pictures just make the simplest summary of Kane's life.
The film tells a complete story based on the "rosebud" spoken by Kane before his death. "Rosebud" begins the film as suspense, as a newspaper mogul's dying words, as the last voice left to the world by a distinguished citizen, all wondering what it is, and then has a relationship with Kane through a reporter Thomson interview Several insiders who are closely related have narrated the life of the protagonist Kane from different angles. It is interesting that through their narration, various versions of Kane are presented. When the film puts so many Kane together, we get another Kane that is different from all versions, especially when people struggle to find the meaning of "Rosebud", which is very ironic at the end of the film Meaning to bury it with his own hands. Bazin raved about the film, Orson Welles's flashback and open-ended treatment of the story, without a traditional sequential structure, which was no doubt a remarkable practice at the time.
The film uses long takes and depth of field shots to enhance the overall, layered and three-dimensional feel of the film. What struck me the most was the scene where Mrs Kane signed the deal with Thatcher. Orson Welles takes the deep focus technique to the extreme. This clip first saw little Kane playing in the snow. At this time, the camera slowly pulled into the house. Mother and Thatcher were looking at little Kane outside the window. The camera continued to pull, and we saw little Kane's father. Looking at his mother and Thatcher helplessly, but this could not change the fate of little Kane being taken away by Thatcher. Finally, the mother sat on the stool, the camera stopped moving at this time, and a depth-of-field shot showed the movements of the four people The most incisive, the foreground is the mother and Thatcher, who changed Kane's life, and the father in the middle scene is powerless to change this reality, and the last performance is the lively and cute little Kane playing in the window frame , and at this time, the future of Little Kane has been decided at this moment. This depth of field lens can be said to be a breakthrough at the time.
Kane got everything he wanted, and in the end, he lost it all. He thinks that power and wealth can bring him together, but it is these that lead him on the road of self-destruction, and the lovely sled in childhood has become a memory. The whole story develops compactly and is full of meaning. The contradiction and irony of Kane's life is also worth pondering. The theme of this film is too complicated, and the malice of power and money is always only a one-sided meaning. There is Kane's childhood favorite "rosebud", which can also be connected with the lost innocence, which may be what the director wants to express the most.
View more about Citizen Kane reviews
