The Film Citizen Kane has changed dramatically in my eyes, since the first time I actually watched the film. However on my second viewing, I have come to the conclusion that I had missed a great deal of information the first time around. I remember when I first watched it, the thought, "great another black and white boring classic" came to mind. After sitting through two hours of information that I thought was supposed to be important ,but ended up being one big contradiction I found that I couldn't really get anything out of the film, besides learning about some rich guy and his... sled.
When my second viewing of the film began, the same feeling of "How am I going to be able to sit through this", began to happen again, until I decided that if I didn't get anything from the movie the first time I should really try and look for subtleties that I may have missed to better the experience, and to better understand Charles Foster Kane. The Second time around was way more interesting, because I saw all these things I didn't really catch the first time.For example I had no idea that there were models used throughout the film, as well as "Deep Focus" also being a key factor in the meaning behind alot of the content.
I would have to say when looking at the form point of view of this film, and how the camera works , that there are a lot of camera shots that I thought were just out there, and really interesting. For example
this one right here that perfectly frames young Charles Foster Kane in the window and yet as the camera pulls back to the conversation of his mother discussing his living arrangements with his father and the banker. We never lose focus of Charles.Everything is really sharp in the for ground, middle ground, and background including the simple hat on the table. I had no idea that this was actually possible to do on a camera back then, until I learned in class that Orson Welles actually wound back the film numerous times to get this sensation of vast depth, and also keeping everything focused. I had a discussion about this film and why it utilizes this deep focus. The first time viewing the film I have to admit I didn't notice it at all, but the second time I couldn't help but always look around to the areas on screen that weren't necessarily important, but were still in focus for some reason. It was explained to me that the focus was used to underatand the world Kane was living in, to better connect to the man himself. I guess that makes sense, because of how a person's character is defined by what they have been through and how they have over came there obstacles.My absolute favorite shot, or series of shots in this film would have to be at the very beginning, because initially how its set up, and also how we somewhat start to penetrate into this No Trespassing sign through a series of dissolves to this lonely lit room atop this monstrous castle. The reason I feel that this was one of my absolute favorite scene was because of how frustrated the scene made me once I (the Camera) entered the room. It was as if my freedom to penetrate walls was taken away and I was immediately sucked into this glass ball not able to see the intense moment that naturally people would want to see.
I found it fascinating that my "frustration" to being confined isn't that uncommon and is actually one of the main topics of the Article " The Real Fascination of Citizen Kane" by Bert Cardullo.The article discusses that not only does the opening give this feeling of entrapment after being free, but actually there are many examples of the same feeling throughout the movie. The scene I disscussed earlier with the mother captures the same emotions of entrapment." The camera movement changes the appearance of the space the hero occupies from open to closed...Now he appears tiny within the firm frame that remains visible from the table at which sit his mother and father." After reading this I felt that for once I actually felt the emotion I was supposed to naturally feel through subtleties in scenes, rather than having an emotional response happen in front of me on the screen and not caring or connecting as much.
I feel that films that can make you have this type of connection, are the films that become remembered. Granted this is only the second time I have watched this film and there is more than likely a lot of information that I could still obtain from watching it over and over, I can now see why it has been taken to be one of the greatest films of all time.
