by Tina Christian

Created on: January 11, 2008

Expressionism via Cinematography

Orson Welles' film, "Citizen Kane" (1941) still delivers some of the best style direction done in early Hollywood and still holds up in 2007. The stylistic elements of "Citizen Kane" include expressionistic use of lighting and dizzying camera angles such as, extreme close-ups, panoramic long shots, and deep focus to frame people and objects which reflect main character Charles Kanes life. Cinematographer Gregg Toland illustrates Charles Foster Kane's dominance and most importantly his relationships in the story, through the use of dark shadows and white lighting. Without the visual art Welles' and Toland create the story would be flat and two hours of agonized drawn out story.

The lighting of first scene of Charles Kane playing as a boy in the snow demonstrates how the white of the snow symbolizes freedom, openness, and innocence until the camera moves inside his home. Welles directs the camera to deep focus on the mother signing white papers while we see Charles' innocence becoming smaller through the window in the background. It is all focused through the eye level of how tall Kane is as a boy. During a scene in his later years, Charles is viewed as small through another deep focus shot while standing near windows again, which implies he hasn't really grown emotionally and is still that little boy in Colorado. The innocence of what Charles used to be is glimpsed again when he meets Susan Alexander. While in her room, the camera again uses eye level angles to show the audience a snow-globe, childhood pictures, and her innocence in a white blouse which all attracts Charles to her and figuratively links them. Later on, white is used against him within the sterility of his many statues and in death when the nurse wears white. This expression of life is brought full circle in the end of the film when we see the artificial snow in the snow globe that crashes to the floor. The light aspect of these moments in the film give further meaning into Charles Kane's life where as darkness or shadows force other characters to remain in ignorance.
The opening is intriguing with shots of darkened fences lit by moonlight through a series of dissolves. Each frame represents Charles differently. The larger than life K in the gate shows the audience he's a man with power. The gates opening framed like teeth and thorns are all at a low angle shots with his foreboding castle in the background visually describing to the audience Charles is ruthless and

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>