VM100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Life Imitating Art, Citizen Kane, Gregg Toland
Vm100!
Semester 1 Lecture #13
Professor Michael Selig
Citizen Kane (1941)
-Historical epic scope about ļ¬ctional character
Artistic Innovation
-Use of sound
-Modernist Tendencies in Kane
Use of Sound
-āSound bridgeā (Welles)- editing shots together, sound creates bridge
-Sound to create a sense of space- echoes inside palace
-As space gets larger, sound sounds like its traveling/echoing
-Overlapping dialogue for naturalistic effect
-Scene where Kane as kid is being adopted, parents discourse and Kane screaming/playing in
background
Modernist Techniques
-Modernism challenges the representational adequacy of conventional artistic forms
-Challenges the fact of representation having any adequacy, challenges its sense
-One wayā¦challenges the singular perspective/singular judgement of conventional forms
-Challenges audiences positions/perceptions
-Modernist notions that challenge pictorials seen in Cubism
-Cubism- rejected traditional perspective, rejected naturalism and idea that art imitates life
-Multiple sides of the same object seen in one painting, unconventional
1) Kaneās non-linear narrative
-Multiple perspectives/judgements
-Narrative starts with Kane dying, perspectives of investigators and backstory follow
2) Two subjects in the ļ¬lm
-Enforced by ļ¬ashback structure
-Film present (reporter) and ļ¬lm past (Kane) depending on which oneās desires or stories drive
story forward
-Spectator alignment not clearly with one or other
-Reporter mainly seen in shadow or quarter-proļ¬le
3) Ironic resolution
Rosebud- āI donāt think any word can explain a manās lifeā
-Entire ļ¬lm engages audience in meaning of Rosebud to ļ¬nd resolution in Kaneās life, just for
investigator to decide it must meaning bnothing
-āNo ļ¬lm gets madeā- Film about making a newsreel about Kane, but audience forgets by
ending of ļ¬lm?
-Gregg Toland and deep focus cinematography- More planes in focus, everything in focus
sometimes
Document Summary
Sound bridge (welles)- editing shots together, sound creates bridge. Sound to create a sense of space- echoes inside palace. As space gets larger, sound sounds like its traveling/echoing. Scene where kane as kid is being adopted, parents discourse and kane screaming/playing in background. Modernism challenges the representational adequacy of conventional artistic forms. Challenges the fact of representation having any adequacy, challenges its sense. One way challenges the singular perspective/singular judgement of conventional forms. Modernist notions that challenge pictorials seen in cubism. Cubism- rejected traditional perspective, rejected naturalism and idea that art imitates life. Multiple sides of the same object seen in one painting, unconventional: kane"s non-linear narrative. Narrative starts with kane dying, perspectives of investigators and backstory follow: two subjects in the lm. Film present (reporter) and lm past (kane) depending on which one"s desires or stories drive story forward. Spectator alignment not clearly with one or other. Reporter mainly seen in shadow or quarter-pro le: ironic resolution.