Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane

One aspect that I found important while viewing Citizen Kane was the dominance the director layed on Kane’s character. The director did this in many forms. But I will only cover how he utilized many focuses on his character as well as angles. The importance on Kane was high from the beginning of the film as the first seen was him on his death bed, laying in the dark creating a mysterious scene that left the audience curious for more, especially with the last word “rosebud” that rolled off his tongue. From that point on it was a scavenge to figure out the significance of ‘rosebud’ and Kane’s life. With the flashback from Kane’s diary as he was a child being shipped off to New York, Kane never failed to leave the view of the camera, always in focus whether it be the foreground or background, he was there. Kane, situated between individuals, can be seen far throughout the window. As he grew older, his character grew a large dominance in society, most all angles are from looking up at him or him looking down on people. The director made sure the his superiority ruled all. Even when Kane himself wasn’t the main focus of the shot his presence was, in the scene when the investigator went to Bernstein’s ( I think) office his mural hung high above the men. And as Kane left scenes he always fell into interesting perspectives so he never actually left the shot, for example, one of the last scenes of the move after his wife left him and he trashed the room, Kane walked out and down the hall, and although the camera was still pointing at the door, Kane left the scene by a reflection in the mirror of him walking away down the hall. All in all the intricacy of the importance of Kane’s superiority in this film is rather extraordinary, as Kane, of course, is the head honcho.