Does any great god know what the motif of Citizen Kane is? The more, the better.

Citizen Kane, also known as Great Citizen, is a biographical film, a famous masterpiece written, directed and performed by movie master orson welles, who was only 25 years old at that time. The film begins with the death of newspaper tycoon Kane, and through his life experience and career rise and fall history, he witnessed the complex truth under a capitalist myth. Based on William Landauer Hurst, an American news giant in the early 20th century, the film shows the life of a newspaper king with novel artistic techniques.

abstract

Based on William Landauer Hurst, an American news giant in the early 20th century, the film shows the life of a newspaper king with novel artistic techniques. Kane died after leaving "Rosebud" in the sauna capital manor. A young reporter was commissioned by the newspaper to investigate the meaning of these words. By consulting relevant memories, we can understand Kane's youth experience and his mother's difficult life experience. Bernstein, the chairman of the newspaper, introduced the development of Kane and the past events that led to public opinion involving the country in the Spanish-American War in 1897. Kane's former friend Leland told about his marriage to Emily, the niece of the President of the United States. His meeting with his second wife, singer Susan, and his failure in the presidential election. Susan introduced her and Kane's life changes from lovers to husband and wife at the nightclub. With Kane's support, she wants to be famous in the music industry. After the defeat, she and Kane lived in seclusion in the fairyland-like Sanadu Manor. It was not until Kane's old furniture was finally burned that it was discovered that "Rosebud" was originally carved on his childhood sleigh.

detailed

At dawn, the silhouette of San Bernardo Manor, which is as majestic as a palace, stands on the top of a mountain on the Florida coast.

The camera slowly approached the iron gate of the manor, and the top of the iron gate was inlaid with a huge letter "K". The camera pushed through the iron gate and came to this palace-style building. Through the window, it approached a dying white-haired old man on the couch. I saw his lips moving and mumbling the words "Rosebud"; He held a crystal ball paperweight in his hand, and there was a scene of a farmhouse in the snow in the center of the ball-suddenly, when his hand was released, the crystal ball fell to the ground and broke with a crash.

Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper magnate known as American Kublai Khan, died alone at the age of 76.

A news documentary shows Kane's legendary life, and a black-framed picture of Kane occupies the whole screen. All kinds of newspapers reported the death of this powerful man on the front page. The commentary said: "In its heyday, the Kane Empire once controlled 37 newspapers, 13 magazines and a radio network. It is an empire in the empire. " News Mirror traced the origin of Kane's rise, then founded Inquirer, set foot in politics and became a man of the hour. He has been married twice and divorced twice, once with the president's niece Emily, who rose to the top; Once I married Susan, a "female singer", which was a sensation. It was his affair with Susan that was exposed, which led to his political career in running for governor, and never recovered. After the Great Depression, the Kane Empire declined rapidly. In his later years, Kane lived in a secluded place in the Sannadu Manor until his death.

Jocelton, the editor-in-chief of a magazine, was not satisfied with this hastily edited news film, so he entrusted a young reporter Thomson to conduct an in-depth investigation on Kane's life and asked him to find out the true meaning of Kane's last words "Rosebud" in order to reveal the true image of this "American Kublai Khan" as a human being.

The first object that Thomson visited was Kane's second wife Susan. She is now a singer in a cheap bar in Atlanta. Nearly 50 years old, she still wears heavy makeup, but flatly refuses to be interviewed. The expulsion order of "get out" may be hiding the pain of this famous singer's life.

In the Cecil Memorial Library in Philadelphia, Thomson was allowed to enter the archives to consult the unpublished manuscript of the memoirs of the late banker Cecil. 1870 that snowy winter, Kane's mother ran a family-style boarding apartment. In the early years, a tenant defaulted on the rent and used a property right contract of an abandoned mine as collateral. Unexpectedly, this abandoned mine was later proved to be rich, and the Kane family immediately made a fortune. When Kane's mother entrusted her property to him, she wanted to send him to the metropolis for education. Kane Jr. didn't understand what he wanted to be as an adult, "the richest man in America." He refused to leave his mother and this rural town, so he rammed Cecil with his sleigh. But he was finally taken away, leaving the children playing in the snow in the sleigh. After Kane acquired property rights as an adult, he took the initiative to buy the first newspaper and publish The Inquirer. He openly opposed Cecil, talked about maintaining social justice when he was in a mood, and pretended to protect the poor from exploitation by a big company (he owns a huge stake in this company). The conclusion written in Cecil's manuscript is that Kane is just a lucky rogue, a spoiled and irresponsible shameless person.

In the skyscraper of The Inquirer in new york, Thomson met Bernstein, the general manager who cooperated with Kane in running the newspaper. The old man recalled 1890 the first day Kane took over the newspaper. Kane is young and arrogant. He advocates not asking the truth, creating sensational news and competing with documentaries for readers. However, in the Declaration of Principles released to the public, Kane solemnly wrote: "I want to provide a daily newspaper to the residents of this city, which should faithfully report the news ... and no special interest groups are allowed to interfere in the authenticity of these news." Kane believed in pragmatism and was brave in innovation. He devoted himself to politics from running a newspaper. He also dragged the whole class of rival documentaries into his own newspaper, and even created public opinion to encourage the United States to get involved in the Spanish-American War of 1897. He also realized his marriage with the president's niece Emily with political ambition. As for the question about "Rosebud", Bernstein can't explain it. He just said it might be the girl he loved or "he lost something". Finally, Bernstein suggested that Thomson go to Leland, Kane's college friend and later a drama columnist, and said that this person had first-hand information about Kane's private life.

In the hospital, Thomson found Leland in a wheelchair. Down and out Leland told him that Kane lived by power. He is a poor newspaper operator. "He entertains his readers, but he never tells them the truth." His marriage with the president's niece Emily is purely political, and its breakdown is inevitable; Later, I met the singer Susan, and fell in love at first sight, which led to the scandal of "A golden house hides a charming woman". When Kane entered politics and was elected governor, his political opponent Gatis defeated him with the scandal of "Kane is in love with a singer". Kane built an opera house for Susan, but Susan's first performance with limited talent failed. Leland wrote an article and criticized it truthfully, saying that Susan was just "a beautiful, but inadequate, amateur". This critical article was written by Kane, because Leland can't die of alcohol. After the article was published, Leland was immediately fired by Kane, and their friendship broke down. Kane suffered setbacks in politics and love, and lived in seclusion in the manor of Sandu Palace.

Shoot a story

194 1 year, late at night in Los Angeles, USA,

"Stop!" Just a few minutes after filming, young orson welles shouted and said to the photographer loudly, "What I want is a big elevation angle, a big elevation angle. Do you understand? "

This shot was shot more than ten times, and the actors, the sound engineer ... all the staff were exhausted, but the young director was always dissatisfied and shouted "stop!" over and over again. Yelling at the photographer over and over again: "The elevation is great!"

The photographer lying on the floor with a camera can't stand it any longer. The fledgling boy stood up and shouted, "I'm low enough, don't you get it?"

The staff around stopped their work, and some people looked at them with glee. The young director stared at the photographer calmly without saying a word. Suddenly, he turned to the prop box, picked up an axe and walked quickly to the photographer.

People don't know what kind of stupid things the young director will do. Under the gaze of stunned people and the exclamations of people around him, the young director swung an axe and cut once, twice and thrice at the wooden floor where the photographer had just laid ..... and smashed a hole in the floor.

The director asked the photographer to stand in the hole and calmly said to him, "This is the angle I want." In this way, the photographer squatted in the hole in the floor, lowered the lens infinitely, and took an unprecedented high elevation angle, a lens that no one had ever taken.

Film is regarded as one of the greatest films in American history because of its innovative photography technology and novel narrative methods, such as big shot, large depth of field and shadow backlight, and it is still a necessary teaching film for American film academy.

be in the background

"Rosebud" is used to call little Kane's sleigh in the film, but it is actually Hearst's mistress Marion David.

Movie poster (1 1)

The nickname of one of Alice's most intimate parts led to Hearst's strong move. After the whole incident, Wells claimed that he didn't regret the handling of the whole movie, except for one thing, Rosebud, because it really hurt Davis. In fact, Davis is a very smart and talented person. He is one of the most popular figures in the film industry. He was by no means a phenomenon of the wealthy women in the entertainment circle at that time. She is not like Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane, except that she likes drinking and playing puzzles.

It is said that the Oscar judges of that year sneered at Wells' arrogant appearance. At the award ceremony, whenever Kane is read on the nomination list, there will be boos from the audience. In the end, the film won only one best screenwriter, which is said to be due to the face of the old pen holder Mankaiwich.

Although the makeup of this film has not completely changed like that of playing an orangutan, the details show the spirit. With the breakfast scene spanning eight years and the subtle changes in the ages of the two actors, it can be seen that the makeup artist has a perfectionist tendency. Besides, it is said that Wells never showed his real nose in his movies.

Wells filmed Citizen Kane in an unprecedented way, so in many ways he acted as if no one had ever made a film. For example, at the beginning and end of the film, it was customary to put a large number of staff names at the front, but Wells moved it to the end of the film and attached pictures to the names of the main actors, which was particularly in line with the psychology of the audience. [ 1]

A (movie) fiasco

Film stills (20 photos)

No one was there when Kane died, but he was heard to say "Rosebud".

In the second half of the film, at the beginning of a "palace" scene, a parrot-like bird flew away screaming. If you advance slowly one by one, you will find that the eyes of birds are "transparent". Through their eyes, you can see the lakes and mountains behind you. The researchers put forward various explanations. Some people think there must be some meaning in it. Later, Wells came out to clarify that it was a "deduction" error of the optical department, and there was no implied meaning.

Kane wore a moustache when Susan firmly told him that she was leaving him. The next second, when he watched her leave, the moustache disappeared without a trace.

Movie 5 minutes 15 seconds. Major newspapers rushed to report the death of newspaper tycoon Kane on the front page. One of them is the Central Daily, which was the representative official media of the National Government of the Republic of China during the mainland period. It should be traditional Chinese, but only the headline of Kane's death is in Japanese, and other newspaper articles are still in Chinese. This may be because the film didn't find anyone who could write Chinese at that time or confused Chinese and Japanese characters by mistake.

6 film evaluation editor

The position of film history

1942 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, designated by the State Film Protection Bureau. Recognized as the greatest film in film history, orson welles, a genius, directed his screen debut at the age of 26. Milestones in film history occupy a prominent position in any arc de Triomphe that praises film achievements. It is a "pioneering work" of film art and a historical turning point between modern film and traditional film.

Citizen Kane, also known as Big Citizen, is a biographical film with rich connotation and philosophy. The film begins with the death of Kane, a newspaper tycoon. Through his life experience and professional history, he witnessed a complicated truth under the myth of capitalism. Citizen Kane embodies unique novelty in content and form, so it is regarded as an important experiment and innovation in the history of world movies.

Citizen Kane is an important experimental film in the history of American film, which is known as "the monument of modern film". It is regarded as a well-deserved champion and the number one classic of "Top Ten Movies in Film History". This pure "movie poem" is between the end of the great tradition of pre-war movies and the beginning of movies in the 1940s and 1950s. It is a film with highly concise life, profound understanding of human nature and society, and rational experience of the psychological world. It abandoned the prevailing film aesthetic principles at that time (novel elevation lens and concise and vivid depth lens, unique natural and smooth scene scheduling and moving shooting, and innovative use of sound, dialogue, lighting and original soundtrack), and it changed the traditional film shooting mode in Hollywood in the past, and some aspects of it were even imitated by future generations. The strength, courage, roughness, impact, entertainment and personal experience of art have reached the peak of that era.

As far as the film is concerned, Citizen Kane is not flawless, and it can only give 70 points for its exquisite structure, but Wells can get more than 90 points for his strength, courage, rudeness, entertainment and personal experience. In terms of skill application, the photography technique of "depth of field lens" is quite novel from today's perspective.

media comments

Citizen Kane has been filmed for more than 60 years, but it is still regarded as a well-deserved champion and the number one classic of "Top Ten Movies in Film History". For three years in a row, he has been ranked first in the "Top Ten Movies in the World" selected by the world's top directors and film critics in every 1952 issue of the authoritative British magazine See and Listen. However, it is puzzling that Citizen Kane is also a film whose box office is extremely disproportionate to its reputation. When explaining this phenomenon, senior film critics said: "It is not a sitcom that people can see at a glance, but a film that highly condenses life, deeply understands human nature and society, and rationally experiences the psychological world. It has far-reaching significance and needs to be chewed repeatedly. It is a pure' movie poem'. Citizen Kane has a kind of immortality that breaks away from the fetters of time. All aspects have risen to a new height, some aspects have been imitated, and some have not dared to break through so far. Many movies that follow it have just made a breakthrough at a certain level or point, and they have been strongly sought after by everyone. Citizen Kane has greatly broken through the original expression of film art at every level, and some have almost reached the height of "no one comes after".

-andrew chow, a senior American film critic.

Hollywood financiers (and perhaps movie audiences all over the world) can accept beautiful prose or poetic prose ... but when accepting pure poetry, legends, fables and myths, I mean the movie Citizen Kane here, and maybe they will find it very difficult.

-famous French director Fran? ois Truffaut

Orson welles and his first novel Citizen Kane are the cornerstones of modern movies. No matter who owns a movie like Citizen Kane, it can only give people a feeling that they are at the end of their tether. This achievement is enough to make people admire the world and stand out from the crowd.

Therefore, orson welles should be immortal with his Citizen Kane, and he should occupy a prominent position on the forehead of any Arc de Triomphe in the history of movies.

-andre bazan, a famous French film theorist.

The voting results of experts are like a touchstone, which accurately reflects their views on global movies. For 40 years, Citizen Kane has been unique and ranked first. Orson welles is simply Shakespeare in the modern film industry!

-Nick James, editor-in-chief of Watching and Listening

Citizen Kane is not only a great movie, but also a master of early audio movies-just as The Birth of a Country is the peak of the silent film era, and 200 1 Roaming in Space establishes a narrative pointing to the future-these peaks stand above all other movies.

-Chicago Sun Times

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane, based on orson welles's new york newspaper tycoon William Lang Dolf Hearst (1863- 195 1), combined with his childhood experiences and feelings of living in other people, created the image of Charles Foster Kane. Herman Mankiewicz, the co-writer of the play, has a close personal relationship with Hearst and is a friend of his mistress and movie star Marion Davis. The film was shot in secret, but Hearst protested because he thought it was an attack on himself by innuendo and tried to buy the film for $800,000 to ban its release. Wells was very shocked to hear the news. He had only one way to save it, and that was to try his best to show the film in a small scale and spread it by word of mouth. Sure enough, the high praise of some colleagues made Lei resist the pressure, otherwise this work will be preserved in the memory of a few people forever. It was not until the end of World War II that the film was reissued. It was first paid attention to in Europe, and then broadcast on American TV.

In fact, the way the film tells the story is far more valuable than the story it tells. The film consists of six flashbacks with internal logic. These flashbacks are not part of the puzzle, but the onion peeling from the outside in. For the first time, the film cuts the lens into the level of human nature and makes an in-depth discussion on human nature. This film can be regarded as an allegory of American personal struggle.

The film was nominated for nine Oscars, including best picture, director, leading role, photography, recording and music. However, due to the historical background at that time and the real characters involved in the film, it only won an Oscar for best original screenplay.

executant

Every character in Citizen Kane seems to be tailor-made for actors-not only the protagonist, but also the housekeeper Raymond, the politician Getty, Kane in childhood and so on. Most of the actors in this film come from the Crystal Company in Wales, which is good at radio and stage plays. They have almost no experience in film performance, but except for a few close-ups, all the actors' performances are very natural. Kane, played by orson welles himself, is still a model of film performance. However, the actor's superb performance can't arouse the applause of the ordinary audience, because there is no scene in the film where the actor can "show off" his acting skills, but if the audience compares the script with the film, they will find that the actor really paid a lot.

Take pictures of ...

The achievement of this epoch-making film is also reflected in the shooting technology. For the first time, this film uses a large depth of field lens (that is, a deep focal length lens), a large number of low-angle overhead lenses and black and white light and shadow with intensity contrast. The composition of Citizen Kane is basically a classical triangle, but there is an almost natural relaxation rhythm when the camera changes and stays. In addition, the perfect montage compression time is used to expand the film capacity and make it reflect the major events in the protagonist's life concisely. For example, it shows the divorce process between Kane and his first wife, from marriage to divorce for eight years, but the film only uses six shots to show it.

It was Gregg Toland who took the picture for the film. Tholander was an accomplished photographer in Hollywood when he joined the crew, but the shooting difficulty was beyond his expectation. As we all know, those ultra-low angle shots were Wells' idea. When the photographer said that the machine was on the ground and could not be put down, Wells cut the floor and buried the camera underground.

Makeup editor

The makeup of Citizen Kane is rarely mentioned, but can you guess the real age of each actor without checking the background information? We marveled at Nicole Kidman's fake nose in The Hours, but it is said that Wells never showed his real nose in his movies. Although the makeup of the film has not completely changed like that of playing an orangutan, the spirit can be seen everywhere. With the breakfast scene spanning nine years and the subtle changes in the ages of the two actors, it can be seen that the makeup artist has a perfectionist tendency.

The film was edited by robert wise when he was an apprentice. Later, he was promoted to director, directing such classic works as The Day the Earth Stops, west side story and The Sound of Music. He once revealed that Wells rarely participated in film editing (this feature led to the destruction of his second work, The Amberson Family, by the film company after its completion). In order to make the documentary more realistic, Wise came up with a unique trick, polishing the film on the concrete floor and erasing the "flowers" that appeared after the projector shuttled too many times.

In order to achieve the special effects pursued by Wells, the film used a lot of special effects shots, which is said to be more than Star Wars 30 years later. You see, there are hundreds of scenes in the movie, but the scene setting only cost $6.5438 million (the price at that time). It is impossible to achieve good results by "burning money", and you must win as skillfully as the Lord of the Rings.

Wells made Kane, in many ways, as if no one had ever made a movie. For example, at the beginning and end of the film, the practice at that time was to put a large number of staff names in front. From the perspective of an ordinary audience, will he be interested in these names before watching the movie? "Kane" moved them to the end of the film, and attached pictures to the name of the starring role, which was especially in line with the audience's psychology. Although this incident is small, it can be seen that he is disorganized in film creation.

Sound montage

Bernard herrmann (1911-1975), the composer of Citizen Kane, is also a member of the Crystal Troupe. The legendary composer composed 54 works in his life. In his partner orson welles's solo work Citizen Kane, Herman showed his ability to deal with complex acoustics and music, created montage music that complements the camera, and changed the scene through acoustics. His soundtrack is like a loyal servant of the plot, and he shows outstanding talent in some paragraphs: he wrote a French aria similar to Marcelne's opera for Susan, a typical Broadway tune for Newspaper Celebration, and was nominated for best original music at the Oscar. The film soundtrack masters later shined in Hitchcock's place, including 1960 classic "Psychopaths".

Nonlinear narration

In terms of film narrative techniques, Citizen Kane broke the linear narrative techniques of previous film sequences, adopted a nonlinear multiple narrative structure, and used narrative techniques such as flashback and interpolation to express the characters from multiple angles and units, making the characters more vivid. Although this brand-new narrative technique is common today, it was unprecedented at that time, thus becoming the dividing line between modern films and traditional films.

The nonlinear narrative technique was not originated by Wells. Several Hollywood movies have been tried before, but Wells took this "overlapping bedstead" form to the extreme. Each paragraph has a great time jump and overlap, and many illusions, dialogues and themes echo each other in different paragraphs. Wells even called Rosebud a "liar". Rosebud's motivation is just a gimmick of the plot. The exploration of this gimmick makes the narrative take shape, closely links the chaotic details of the whole story, and provides a dramatic question to catch the audience, which makes the film have the mode of detective film.

Orson welles and His Citizen Kane

1938 One day, when millions of Americans were listening to the realistic radio drama War of the Worlds, they were surprised to learn that the earth had been at war with Martians, and the public had a great panic. It was not until the next day that the truth came out. It turns out that people have been cheated by this radio program. In today's words, this program is actually a "show". At the same time, everything about the author of this radio program immediately became the headlines of major newspapers. This man's name is orson welles.

Wells has attracted the attention of some psychologists with his precocious wisdom since he was a child. At the age of 20, he was the director of the drama "Mercury Theatre". A few years later, China Radio and Television Company took a fancy to Wells' outstanding talent and signed a contract with him, agreeing to grant him special rights as a producer and director. When the European War broke out, the young genius came to Hollywood. When he saw the studio that made him immortal, he cheered happily: "This is the best mechanical toy that people can give a child!" " "

Wells was fascinated by the possibilities offered him by the "mechanical toys" in the studio. The first film he directed was Citizen Kane, which tells the life experience of a newspaper giant. However, influenced by literary skills and his own radio drama, Wells often deviated from the time sequence when telling stories through several witnesses. At the same time, he also accumulated some innovative technologies in the film, such as contrast photography, set with ceiling, systematic application of long focal length lens, excessive mobile photography and sound research. Most of these effects come from some old styles and techniques in classic works. Strong sense of modeling, bold attempt in form and strong personality in tone (although there are too many expressionist colors in style) can be said to be super avant-garde at that time. From the beginning of the Cuban War to 1940, Kane, a citizen described by Wells in all aspects, is not so much a newspaper giant as an extreme egoist. In the course of the film, the development of the plot gradually became confusing, but the theme became more and more prominent, that is, in a material society, many Faustian characters sold their souls for the desire of the whole world. The state of the whole material world reflected in the film is the most talked about film in the history of film. It has changed the traditional film shooting mode in Hollywood in the past and continuously influenced the development of movies. It can be called one of the most successful characters in the film history, whose artistic strength, courage, roughness, impact, entertainment and personal experience all reached the peak of that era.

Citizen Kane tells the story of "a man who almost lost everything" in modern ways (long lens, depth of field lens, low illumination, etc.). ) in 194 1. Kane is a child abandoned by his family to the society, a middle-aged man who spared no effort for the development of his media career, an old man who gained great wealth but was repeatedly frustrated in politics and love, and finally came to the end of his life alone in his imperial manor. Before he died, he spit out the last words of "Rosebud", which is the mysterious symbol that constitutes the content of the film. His guardian Thatcher, his subordinates Bernstein and Leland, his second wife Susan and his servant Raymond explained this riddle-like phrase from their own understanding, but no one could get to the point. The film accurately portrays the characters in Musk, concentrates the inherent contradiction of the Rubik's Cube on a newspaper giant, and concentrates the criticism of the consequences of American modernization in Kane's life course-Citizen Kane can be regarded as an American fable and a narrative about personal struggle ideas.

"Rosebud, Rosebud, Rose ..." A simple sentence is repeated, but it tells the story of prosperity and loneliness. This is the rarity of "it turned out to be colorful, as if it were given to broken walls in this way", but it is also a life lament of "painting cobwebs on the roof was once a wave of singing and dancing". Things are different. In his later years, Kane finally had to live alone all day and let his life come to an end. The moment Kane died, another flavor appeared. Subjective emotion is materialized in a crystal ball containing the mystery of life. The sun is out, but Kane is leaving. But who can say that there is no dignity and glory of life here?