Citizen Kane Expressionism

Expressionism is defined as using a art form or drama as a means for depicting subjective emotions and responses. Forms of expressionism often connect to the artists own life which could be said about Orson Welles’s 1941 film Citizen Kane. It is widely thought that Citizen Kane is an unauthorized biography about the life of William Randolph Hearst, a well known newspaper tycoon from the time the film was made. The film is perhaps a dramatized account of a man who controls the people through controlling the media, giving him the feeling of being a God. This is heavily supported by the imagery in the film such as the huge campaign posters of Charles Foster Kane’s face looking out to the crowd of supporters. The imagery of Xanadu on it’s huge mountain looks like some …show more content…
The stylistic approach to every flashback varied according to the narrator being interviewed about Charles Foster Kane. This adds to the characters complexity by painting him a deplorable but also as a victim. The last sequences in the film leave the audience unsure about how to feel about Kane. As he stands sad, decrepit and solitary before all his servants after tearing his luxury filled lounge apart, one can’t help but feel remorse and sadness for a man who spent his whole life seeking power and control. Chapter 3 in Corrigan and White’s The Film Experience explained the different elements of cinematography. It begins by describing the origins of cinematography by using methods like chronophotography and eventually film to create apparent movement. During the time period in which Citizen Kane was filmed, it must have been filmed on celluloid film stock which was not replaced with safety film until 1952. Citizen Kane was also shot on panchromatic film stock which allowed for more a wider