Citizen Kane Blogpost

Citizen Kane is argue all one of the best movies of all time. This is because of its revolutionary camera use, soundtrack and story. I full heartedly support this claim because after viewing it and viewing it with commentary, I too have arrived at that conclusion. It is now one of my favorite movies and after seeing it, I was able to also pick up on the various ways that Citizen Kane has permeated into popular culture.

The first reason I think that it is revolutionary is because of camerawork. I especially like the use of deep focus by Toolen throughout the movie. For instance in the beginning flashback at Mary Kane’s house , the use of deep focus when everything in the scene is in focus really allowed me to be able to discern the contextual significance of that scene. The significance being how this scene forever changes Charles Kane’s life. Another scene that I thought had really good camera work was the montage with Kane and his first wife. This montage shows the disintegration of their marriage through a two shoot then one shots. The first shot was a two shot that showed a couple still in the honeymoon phase of the marriage. After that the shots are all one shots and through these shots we, as viewers, are able to see just how their relationship fades and the love fades. The last shot then shows them reading differing newspapers with Kane reading his Enquirer while the wife was reading the competitor Chronicle.

Another example of good camera work, in my option, is Kane’s speech when he is running for governor. During this moment, Kane is giving a speech about how he will put Boss Jim Gettys in prison and how he will be a represent ice for the people. The camera pans out to show a large crowd in front of and behind him, however in reality that is just painting with lights under it to show movement. I think this is truly revolutionary and an interesting solution to a problem. The soundtrack of this scene is also amazing because it gives the illusion that there are lots of people there when in reality there aren’t.

This leads me to my next point on why this movie is such a revolutionary film which is the sound of the movie. For instance, when Kane is yelling at Gettys at Susan Alexander’s house, This moment gave me goosebumps and I really felt touched and felt sorry for Kane. Another way Citizen uses sound well is at the end of Susan Alexander’s opera. Kane is the last to get and clap the loudest while. everybody else. is just paying lip service. The sound of his clapping as opposed to the track on the movie is much louder and through it we as an audience are able to see how he feels X about the opera and Susan Alexander’s carrier overall. That is a feeling that Kane is trying to make her something she truly is not and he is starting to realize this but as, we know, he will never show this little inkling of realization and continue to pressure Susan until their nasty divorce.

Citizen Kane is one of the best movies ever and I as a student am able to see why. This is because of the way Welles uses camerawork and sound to his advantage. Kane is an immortal literary character and so too is his work.

Week of Feb. 1-7

This week in Film Study, I learned about editing and the various techniques of editing that make a movie a film. Something that stood out to me as something really interesting was the concept of discontinuity editing.

This technique interested me because most conventional movies try their hardest to make sure continuity is preserved. However with this concept of editing, all prior rules of continuity and editing are out of the window. For instance in order to show an action scene in XXX, the editor decided to show the same stunt three times from three different angles. I thought that this was a really different approach to the just standard slow motion explosion shot that other action movies seem to cling to like a baby to a bottle.

Another reason I think this is an interesting concept is its overall ability to tell a story. For instance if a director wanted to show significance of a certain or object, they might show that scene then show another action then jump back to where the actor is redoing that action. This shows that the action was important because it was important enough to repeat. Another way this is able to show a story is that through the use of jump cuts which are a form of discontinuity editing, it can show how a character has supernatural powers or is able to teleport. The movie Jumper does this very well. It is about a man named David who is capable to teleport anywhere instantly of “jump”. The movie shows this through the use of a jump cut which show the main character in one place and then in the next shot in a different place. This is very important to the story because this ability causes the government to go after him and like most movies in this similar vein, he wins.

The last reason I like this concept is the ability it has to be continuous or just an accident. For instance in a clip shown in class for the movie Goodfellas, it is in the funny how? where Joe Pesci,Ray Liotta and a couple other mobsters are in a restaurant and Pesci is telling a story about a job that he had been on. When he is done Liotta says that he’s funny. Pesci then asks funny how? and goes into a tirade against Liotta about the question of his humor comparing himself to a clown. Liotta is obviously befuddled and just says that he’s funny and a moment of absolute tension ensues with Pesci finally breaking it with a laugh and everybody bursting out laughing as it was just a joke. Throughout the entire scene, the editing does not keep to any certain continuity because throughout the scene Liotta’s glass keeps going up and down in a incongruent way. Another way that this scene doesn’t stick to any certain continuity is throughout the scene Liotta’s arm is all over the place. The reason for all of these seemingly odd blunders is because Scorsese wanted to focus on the story and the tension of the scene instead of a continuity.

Discontinuity editing can usually be a bad thing but can be a good thing when used in the right places. That is why this concept was so interesting to me .