Friday, September 26, 2008

Citizen Kane

I was impressed after watching Citizen Kane. For it's time, it really was a cinematographic marvel. It made great use of lighting, types of shot and editing. It was very interesting and unusual how the story was told too; starting with the shot of Kane dying, then replaying his life via a number of mediums, including a newsreel, story telling and book research. Orson Welles did wonders with lighting and shot types and angles throughout the movie. One prominent example was the high/low angle shots used in conversations between Kane and Susan, which made Charlie appear superior. In the same takes, Welles experimented with lighting to enhance the effect. When I as watching the movie, I was astounded with the crane shots, especially the last one which was just mind boggling.
One element that I wish had been utilized in Citizen Kane is color. I feel that Orson Welles could have done amazing things with color and tonation in this movie, after seeing what he did with black and white. It wasn't that far off either. The Wizard of Oz came out that same year and took advantage of color.
Even having parts of the film in color and parts in black and white would have been really cool. Like as Kane's life was replaying progressively moving into more color.

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