Please only use the links and reviews provided and insert them into the paper**
Final Analysis Guide: Building Citizen Kane
For your final analysis, you will need to work through the following steps:
1. Read the introduction under Content for Citizen Kane.
2. Read through all of the preparation material for Citizen Kane
Ebert, Roger. “A Viewer’s Companion to ‘Citizen Kane’ ”. Roger Ebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times, 6 Dec. 2014.
< http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/a-viewers-companion-to-citizen-kane >.
Dirks, Tim. “Citizen Kane (1941)” [review]. Filmsite.org, American Movie Classics. 2011. Web. 6 Dec 2014.
< http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html (The “Background” section only.)
Riedlinger, Michael . “Orson Welles – Painter.” Senses of Cinema. Issue 53. 30 Dec 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
< http://sensesofcinema.com/2009/feature-articles/orson-welles-painter/ >.
Crowther, Bosley. “Citizen Kane (1941)” [review]. NYTimes.com. New York Times, 2 May 1941. Web. 6 Dec 2014.
.
Rist, Peter.” ‘ La Regle du jeu’ (‘The Rules of the Game’): The Rules of Criterion.” Off Screen, 8.6 (June 2004). Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
< http://offscreen.com/view/rules>. (This is to give you a bit on deep focus cinematography. Focus especially beginning mid paragraph # 3.))
View the scene analysis by Christopher Faulkner of a clip from Jean Renoir’s 1939 The Rules of the Game:
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D935288_94198105_3262
3. Print out the Scene Map of the movie and read through to get a sense of scene layout.
Download here: Citizen Kane Scene Map
(4) 4. Print out the Film Guide for Citizen Kane. Download here: Film Guide for Citizen Kane
(5) 5. Watch Citizen Kane. For some of the scenes, it will make sense to watch them again.
In terms of borrowed experience, it is useful to know that part of Welles radio experience was providing voice over for the March of Time news reels.
In terms of deep focus, watch the flashback scene to Colorado several times. Watch for the long take inside the cabin especially and see how they manage to keep the boy present throughout the whole scene. Watch this scene with a bit of charity too — a quick watch often leads viewers to see the mother as cruel and uncaring. A longer watch shows many signs of her pain –deep breaths, awkward swallowing as she holds her emotion in, stepping between the father and the boy to keep the father from hitting him (which clearly is one of the reasons she is sending the boy away). Note how outside she shifts from left to right to a much more positive placement — the blocking of movement outside is brilliant as a marker of the emotional content of the scene.
Also, in terms of deep focus, pay particular attention to the scene in which Jed gets fired after starting a bad review of Susan’s singing.
(6) 6. Rewatch Grapes of Wrath and Stagecoach, taking notes of links to Citizen Kane (especially use of light and deep focus camera work).
7. Rewatch Rebecca, taking notes of links to Citizen Kane (pay attention to the opening scene as the viewer is moved through a ghostly landscape, the breakfast/dining table scenes, the ending sequence with fire, camera movement, and the size of rooms/furniture in relation to peopl,). (As you rewatch the opening scene in relation to the opening of Citizen Kane, think also of the opening sequence of the film Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) – you’ll see a remarkable resemblance!)
(9) 8. Write an original extended analysis of a minimum of 3 to maximum of 5 single-spaced pages, tracing the film heritage of John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock in guiding rookie filmmaker Orson Welles (in collaboration with Gregg Toland) to create what is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made. You must bring in the readings and reviews listed above; if you are aiming for an A, you will want to bring in material from throughout the course as it relates to analyzing the work of Welles and Toland in Citizen Kane. It is fine to use screen shots as illustrations — they don’t count inside the page limits for the analysis.
Your goal is to show insight into the key elements of film (script, production design, cinematography, editing, and sound) as it applies to Citizen Kane and its links to its predecessors Stagecoach, Grapes of Wrath, and Rebecca. It will be important to use appropriate vocabulary of film in your analysis, to cite specific connections between the films with detailed examples, and to fit this together into a coherent, well-written, interesting, and insightful analysis. Be sure to document your sources in text and with a bibliography at the end.
Be sure to proofread. Post this as an attachment in Word or Open Office. Format: Calibri 12 point, margins top, left, bottom 1 inch, right 1.5 inches; name/class at the top right, one blank line, title of paper centered, one blank line, start paper. Use block paragraphs without indents; one blank line between paragraphs. Word doesn’t use single space as the default, so be sure to set it to 1.0 spacing and remove the default to have a space after each paragraph.
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