Orson Welles created a
masterful political and social commentary in his film that continues to
resonate today. He builds the story of Charles Foster Kane as a cautionary tale
about power, money, and material wealth paling in comparison to the human
connection of love. For all his wealth and power, he died not having the
ability to love and accept love in return. Welles accomplishes this in a subtle
way primarily in his use of lighting in the cinematography of his work.
From the opening scene
of the no trespassing sign that is dark and foreboding, whenever Kane is on
screen in an authoritarian framework it is dimly lit and/or in high contrast to
another character. When he is young and innocent the scene is filled with
light. Just as when he is taking the reins of the newspaper he is dressed in
light clothing and the shot is anything but dark. Another example is when Kane
returns from his travels with his fiancé in tow, he is dressed in light
clothing and once again the shot is filled with light.
Another way this is
underscored is how Susan Alexander is shown bathed in light and soft focus,
appearing to be angelic. This continues until she disintegrates into alcoholism
after Kane dies. Even in the climactic scene of her escape from Xanadu the shot
is bright presumably because she is taking control of her destiny and walking
away from Kane. Once she exits and he destroys her room and possessions he
descends into darkness once again. Charles Foster Kane leaves his world
isolated in the empty dark halls of Xanadu without light and love. Welles uses
lighting as a metaphor for the soullessness of power juxtapositioned against
the light of love and human connections.
Group 2: Calvin Brent,
Emilee Bowles, Dan Bowman, Sarah Chewning, Jessica Davis
As a member of Group 9 I agree that throughout the movie Citizen Kane, Orson Welles uses lighting to show power, feeling, and the overall mood of the scene. From the very beginning of the movie the stage was set. We saw the dark and dreary images of Xanadu surrounded by bad weather and lightning. Every scene in the movie that Welles wanted to portray as bad he made sure that it was dark and every happy scene was shown in bright light. As they said in their post, when Mr. Kane announced his marriage to Emily they were outside and it was a beautiful day, but as their marriage started to fall apart the images got darker and darker. At the end of their marriage, they were sitting far apart from each other at the dinner table reading two separate newspapers and the lighting in the house was very dim and showed that they were on the road to separating.
ReplyDeleteI really love the way that light and love are connected in this post. I agree that Welles does a terrific job in using the lighting as a metaphor. In the early stages of film, I feel like since development hadn't been that great, they had to pay very close attention to the smaller details of production, and Orson Welles seems to do just that with his great contrast in the majority darker scenes from the few brighter scenes. As you stated in your post, about how dark and foreboding the "No Trespassing" sign is, I love how that was used to open the film as well as close the film. I think this sign had a lot to do with the way Kane was; he in a way refused to let people pass a certain point of closeness with him, solely because these people would never be able to know the really Charlie Kane, who was lost in his childhood long ago. Great post.
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