Cinematic Techniques In The Film Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is undoubtedly a masterpiece in cinematography; almost every scene in this movie has some hidden message, and the audience are able to decipher those message through both visual evidence and dialogue/narrative. If we simply analyze this series of scenes from how they are presented visually, they artistically show how Charlie and Emily’s love fades away with time: in the first scene, Charles and Emily look at each other, lovingly; then, they have some quarrels in the following scenes; lastly, the couple read newspapers in silence, indicating the collapse of this relationship. However, the dialogue between Charles and Emily reveals subtler information on Charles’ personality. For example, when they’re newly married, Charles postponed his meeting for Emily; but several years later, he disregards Emily’s advice on a news report about the President and responds recklessly that people will think “what [he] tells them to think”. This two-minute scene, along with Leland’s comment that “[Charles] just didn't have any to give”, acts as an epitome of Kane’s life, reveals his …show more content…
Many other scenes exemplify this idea. When Emily confronts Kane, the camera shoots Emily from above while shooting Kane from below. Visually, this creates a contrast of power position between the two, then the dialogue deepens this impression when Kane claims “there’s only one person in the world determines what I’m going to do, that’s me.” Kane’s light-hearted “Twenty years? Well…” before he turns out to be the employer of the nine reporters; his cold “you have to sing” while ripping apart critics against Susan, etc. With extraordinary cinimetography techniques and dialogue, Orsen brings an insolent, selfish media tycoon back to