Morgan Wam
Art 100 Glau
October 28, 2014
Art Interview Assignment For this assignment I used the photo that was taken as a film still by Orsen Wells of Citizen Kane. I chose this photo or film still, because I was going to interview my grandparents along with some of my friends. I wanted to see the reactions of people from different generations. This was interesting because both of my grandparents remember this movie and when it actually was released. Although they were very young at the time, they remember it being a good movie and one that shaped films for many years to come. I chose this movie’s film still because it is an extremely famous movie and one that could be remembered from older generations as well and younger generations as well, whether or not you have even seen the movie. I have not seen the movie but I know its name for many reasons, along with being made by one of the most famous directors of all time. I am going to give my opinion of the image based on no knowledge of the movie or even the plot of the movie. I think this image is cool and mysterious because of the look on the man’s face in the film still. This was one of the first movies, which was part of Film Noir. This was a style of film that began in the 1940’s that encompassed dark, black and white, mysterious and sometimes deathly-related films. As stated in the book, “these films depict the dark side of the American dream”. This would most likely explain why the title of the film is Citizen Kane; I am assuming there is something dark or ghastly about this particular citizen. As far as the interviews, like I mentioned before my grandparents knew about this movie and had actually seen it. When I interviewed my friends, not only had they not seen the movie even so only 1 of them had even heard of it. When I asked what Citizen Kane was, my friend thought it was a band, which it is, but not exactly the answer I was looking for. Needless to say, there was a generation gap in my questions and answers and this was the way I wanted it to go. I am glad that I got to see differences in the answers of the people I asked questions to. Another somewhat important detail of my interviews was that for my grandparents, I had them go on the computer and look up the image I wanted them to se based on me being on the phone with them while I did this. For my friends on the other hand, I took a picture of the film still with my phone and sent it to them and asked what they thought. I do not know how much of a difference this made, if any, yet I thought it was important to point out. I enjoyed this assignment and the answers I received. Below are the questions and answers I received from each of my interviewees.

1. Brian Heiser – Age 21
“Do you know anything about this image based on the title that I gave you?”
No, I have never heard of this, what is it? The guy in the picture kind of looks like Walt Disney but more evil, almost like he is up to something. Is the backdrop supposed to be there or is this a painting?
2. Don Wam – Age 79