1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.
Citizen Kane is known by many for being the greatest movie
of all time, and there are many aspects of the film that give meaning to the
greatness of the film. There are many themes that take place throughout the
film that give it special meaning and a special place in film history. Orson
Welles in his debut as a film maker explores themes such as love and power with
ground breaking methods of production. Wells was able to incorporate lighting,
long takes, and a variety of camera movement and angles that no one has seen
before. Wells also used new wide angle lenses that helped to keep everything in
focus, giving many shots in the film a unique look but would also add drama and
emotion to the shots. By creating a deep focus in some of the shots, which
meant keeping everything from the foreground to the background in focus, it
allowed the viewers to see expressions on multiple characters faces without
having them standing right next to each other. This effect was used extremely
well in some of the shots and definitely adds an element to the film that had
not been used in films prior.
2) Find a related
article (on the film, director, studio, actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) and
summarize the content. You may use the library or the internet.
This article from Time Magazine takes a look back at Citizen
Kane and how it compares to other movies, and not just films from America but from
the entire world. The author of the article, Richard Corliss starts off
comparing Citizen Kane to other forms
of media such as music and television. He makes the point that because it is
old it must be outdated and that there have been newer more current movies to
surpass it. Briefly after, Corliss discusses a list of the top 10 films of all
time where Citizen Kane is not number
one on the list, but instead Vertigo is.
Throughout the middle part of the article, Corliss discusses many of the other
influential films from the beginning of cinema. However to wrap up the article,
the last few paragraphs start going into detail, explaining why Citizen Kane is so great. Corliss
mentions a little of Orson Wells’ background and how his history with radio and
theater allowed him to have his first movie be one of the greatest of all time.
In the last two paragraphs of the article, Corliss really gives credit to Citizen Kane about how it “wants to be
the best”. Because of that, Citizen Kane holds
a standard for what people should aim to create when trying to make a movie.
3) Apply the article
to the film screened in class. How did the article support or change the way
you thought about the film, director, content, etc.?
After reading this article, I am left with an even more
intense feeling about the film than after watching it the first couple of
times. Part of me agreed with the way the article started but the other part of
the me strongly disagreed. When I first began reading, I thought to myself, how
could anything top Citizen Kane as
the greatest movie of all time? Then I thought about the point the author made
about comparing music from today to music back in the earlier 1900’s. That
point was very interesting to me because in modern society people clearly have
a different taste in music than in the earlier 1900’s, so it makes the point
that the greatness of a song is really completely subjective to the time period
and culture in which it was created. The point made me briefly think about its relation
to film but then I realized that you can’t really compare film and music with
that same attitude because the mediums are so different. As I kept reading and
kept looking through some of the top 10 and top 100 film list in which Citizen Kane was not at the top, and it
just didn't seem right to have any other film stand above Citizen Kane as the best film of all time, especially with seeing a
film like Vertigo top it as number
one. Veritgo is great in its own
respect, however I do not feel that it holds the longevity and special place in film history that Citizen Kane has had for so many years. The
part of the article that really made me appreciate the writers opinion was the
way the article finished. The author wrote about how the film “demands to be
approached in awe” and “is often named the world’s best film: because it wants
to be”, which I think is completely true. No other film has really made such an
impact as Citizen Kane and that’s the
reason why it may be nearly impossible for any film to beat it out as the best
film ever.
4) Write a critical
analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of
the screening, class discussions, text material and the article. I am less interested
in whether you liked or disliked a film, (although that can be part of this)
than I am in your understanding of its place in film history or the
contributions of the director.
When looking at how Citizen
Kane compares to all other movies in terms of the greatest movies of all
time, to me Citizen Kane stands out
as a hands down winner. One of the best things about Citizen Kane is that it does not do one or two things really well,
but everything throughout the movie is on point. By using a combination of all
of the parts of the film making process, Citizen
Kane tells the perfect story of one man’s life, but it is a story that is
relatable to so many people. The way Orson Wells uses new lighting techniques,
camera movement and camera lenses, gives Citizen
Kane the perfect look it needs to help tell its story. The lighting is
moody when it needs to be and full with less contrast depending on what part of
the film is being shown. The change in lighting techniques and camera
angles throughout the film changes based on the mood and feel of the film that
Orson Wells is trying to portray to the audience. The framing especially
throughout the movie tells the story almost as well as the actual words that
are spoken. Cinema to me is all about how well a story can be told through the
use of moving pictures, and Citizen Kane does
it better than just about every other movie ever made. The way that the camera
is used to the story of Charles Foster Kane makes the movie stand out against
any other movie from its time period but what I think is so special about the
cinematography is that if the movie were to be played without sound or dialogue
people would still be able to follow the story. But truly one of the most
important things to remember about Citizen
Kane is how it changed the way that people look at and make movies. If it
wasn’t for Citizen Kane, the many
aesthetic elements that we love about movies today might have never existed.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM 1) ( ) I have not handed in this
assignment for any other class. 2) ( ) If I reused any information from other papers
I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper. 3) ( )
If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or
used indentation and citation within the text. 4) () I have not padded the
bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of
the paper. 5) ( ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.
6) ( ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated
in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography. 7)
( ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation
or originality. 8) ( ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully
transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
Name: ____Joe Katulak___________________________
Date: _10/29/14_________________
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