Personal reactions to the film
Overall my personal reaction to the film Citizen Kane is that this was an interesting movie which introduced many different styles of photography. Throughout the first half of the film, I particularly liked how I noticed the similarities between Charles Kane and real life entrepreneur William Hearst. I really was captivated in the beginning of the movie as the newscast of Charles Kane had described his life and accomplishments after he passed away. This movie made you feel connected to Charles Kane by focusing on his life and the transformation from a little boy to the successful man he became. Orson Wells played a great role in portraying his character and he seemingly transitioned into this old man throughout the movie. It was really impressive how the make-up artist in this film made Orson Wells go from a young adult to looking like an old man. The second half of this movie is where I started to lose my interest in Charles Kane and the story in general. I felt the turning point in the film for me was when Charles was exposed on the scandal he had with Susan Anderson. His character from this point on became lifeless and lost credibility with the audience. He didn’t seem to have that energy that he once exposed in the beginning of his career. I felt that he became helpless with and lost his drive to continue with creating news for the people and was more obsessed with collecting statues and other items. I would like to express that the photography in this movie was unique and different from modern day conventional films. I noticed a big difference in the scene shots and camera angles used in this film and how they look different from the movies I view today. Some of the scene shots in this film capture a room full of people all surrounding the main character Charles Kane. This represents a formalist style of mise en scene. This film was shot in black and white and shows many scenes where the director would use the three point lighting system to enhance the characters dominance such as he did with Charles Kane. Consequently I feel there is less excitement in a movie when it is filmed in black and white, but most of the time the stories are well put together so it makes up for it. This film did capture my attention and I was happy to have watched it and view a piece of history.
Technical Aspects of photography in the film
The technical aspects in this movie looked like an experimental project with all the unique scene shots and camera angels. I feel impartial to some of the choices the director made in using camera angles and scene shots, but it was definitely interesting to watch for a first time. In particular I found that the low angle camera shots of Charles Kane made him seem larger than life. His ego was big and you got that impression with the use of low angle shots. I really liked when Charles would walk in a room at the newspaper factory and all of his men would gather around him. In this frame the director places Kane at the top and center of the shot. This suggests Charles has power and authority and in this scene you can feel it. One of the greatest scenes in the movie was when Charles was delivering his speech for governor of New York. This scene was really amazing. The high camera angle shows a complete view of the stage and supporters that surrounded around Kane. This angle was probably used to increase the importance of the setting and environment. At times during this scene the long shot of Kane from the upper balconies was probably chosen by the director to include the audience that Kane was speaking to and to signify how many people he was reaching out to. There were many eye level shots used in this film. This is more of the normal way of filming a movie. It was used in many scenes where Charles was engaging in conversation with his first wife at the dinner table. Many other scenes used the eye level shot to capture Charles and his persona with great detail. One scene in the