In this movie Orson Welles’ directing style is made pretty clear and the audience canrecognize that through the darkness and mysterious images. This movie is in first person POVwe watch the film through the newsman Thompson, this is important for the film because we seehim asking people about rosebud. Orson shows his dark style when we are introduced to hismother who is eager to send him off with a man, we are shown part of his childhood which isgoing to be important later in the film. A choice of cinematography used in Citizen Kane is thechoice of lighting, in some scenes the background is bright while the face of the characters infocus are dark. Sometimes; Kane’s face is half light and half dark, this could be showing hissinister side.
In the scene of Kane’s childhood the camera is pointed up using a low angle shot tothe man he is going to leave with, while the camera then points down with a high angle shot onhim as a child. This is showing this man has power and authority over him, while he is just aweak child with no choice. Gregg Toland and Orson Welles demonstrated deep focus throughoutthe movie, like when his mother was looking out the window at Charles all characters were inequal focus. They also used dutch angles in a few scenes, when we saw his wife and son in atitled way, this could portray the alienation of him to his family. Citizen Kane is a non linearfilm, there is no sequence and most of the story is told in flashbacks, this is helping with thecircular structure.
All these flashbacks illustrate how the point was reached, action begins andends at the same point. There are a few scenes of montage editing, when Charles and Emily havemultiple breakfasts over the years. A huge part of the mise en scene of this film was lighting,Orson Welles uses lighting to give contrasts of settings. The lighting in Colorado was differentthan the lighting in New York, the shift shows viewers how Kane interacts and thinks about thedifferent places. The bright snow is the direct light showing his tender memories of childhood, this brightens up the scene. Once he moves to New York the scenes get darker, symbolizing heisn’t as happy.
Leading onto the plot twist of the story; where his dying words were rosebud, thewords on his childhood sled. A symbol of his lost youth, when he was genuinely happy
