CITIZEN KANE: NARRATIVE INTERPRETATION
B&T: we canÕt escape stories, even by going to sleep.
In a narrative events are connected spatially.
Gestalt: We
make sense of a narrative, then, by identifying its events and linking them by
cause and effect, time, and space
We
connect things together through inference: we infer that Roger Thornhill had a busy day b/c of the way
heÕs dictating narrative depends so heavily on cause and effect, and the agents
of cause and effect are characters
character
traits
the
plot=the action that we see
Éthe
story goes beyond the plot
As
we watch a film, we construct story time on the basis of what the plot
presents.
Have
you ever seen a film where itÕs not in chronological order? Where the end comes
before the beginning?
We
are quite accustomed to films that present events out of story order.
A
flashback:
Titanic
Does
the film cover a day or an entire life?
Little
Miss Sunshine: 2 days.
Juno: a year
plot
duration selects from story duration
screen
duration selects from overall plot duration
Temporal Frequency (p. 76)
Sometimes you see the same event in the film more than once.
Space
(p. 80)
Events tend to occur in particular locales
One of the few films ever made inside a major studio in the U.S. in freedom Ðnot merely freedom from interference but freedom of the routine methods of experienced directors.
Space
can also become the basis for a plot pattern. This usually happens when
the
action is confined to a single locale, such as a train
Openings, Closings, Patterns of Development (p. 80)
Film doesnÕt just open, it BEGINS
The most common general pattern is a change in knowledge.
Goal oriented plot (searchesÉRaiders of Lost Arc)
Investigation (criminal)
Climax
A film does not simply stop; it ends.
Narration of Story Information (p. 82):
divulging
story information at various points
Narration = when the plot arranges cues in ways that withhold information for
the sake of
curiosity
or surprise, or supplies information in such a way as to create expectations or
increase suspense.
ÒWho
knows what when?Ó
Range of Story information (p. 83)
Unrestricted or omniscient narration; restricted narration (important to mystery films)
Hitchcock works so well b/c we know and the subject does not.
Depth of Story information (p. 85)
how
deeply does the plot plunge into a characterÕs psychological states?
This
is about the continuum between objectivity and subjectivity
Point of view: whoÕs pov?
Flashbacks
are usually motivated as mental subjectivity
Narrator
(p. 86)
Character narrator; voice of god
Hollywood cinema
the assumption that the action will spring primarily from individual characters as causal agents
Cause
and effect imply change.
Most
films
display a strong degree of closure at the End
I. VIEWING CONTEXT 62 YEARS AGO
Viewing the film in 1941 would have been different than viewing it today, especially in the artificial constructs of a classroom.
In 1941 it was almost impossible to see.
Critics praised it.
Theaters wouldnÕt show it: too scared.
RKO picture
Big 5 (little 3)
Paramount
MGM
Warner Bros.
Twentieth Century Fox
RKO (owned just a few theaters)
Columbia
Universal
United Artists
Only RKO theaters would show CK
And of the RKO theaters, many bought the film, but refused to screen it.
Even RKOÕs Radio City Music Hall didnÕt run it, when a Hearst columnist threated to write an expose on Rockefeller, who owned part of Radio City Music Hall.
MGM head, Louis B. Mayer, went to RKO head before the film was released
Offered him $800,000 to destroy the film (negatives and all)Ñthe $800,000 came from the four other top studios.
Studios were scared they would lose favoritism from Hearst, and wanted to indicate to Hearst that they werenÕt against him/his newspapers.
RKO said NO
So you see, it was a very bold move to make this movie, and there was a sort of electricity about its production.
In the history of America
Big business was attacked in the 1900s. Muckraking journalists, which often found a voice in Hearst papers.
Big business was attacked in the late 1920s, early1930s. (New Deal policies/FDR)
Big business was gaining ground in the 1940s, and even more so in the 1950s.
Hearst papers had a huge empire, and were very powerful.
Supported big business (and were supported by big business).
What Orson Welles did in 1941 was something of a scandal.
So if people DID see the movie, there was all this anticipation about how similar the movie would be to HearstÕs life.
And there WERE similarities.
Welles = Hearst (same stature)
Susan Alexander=Marion Davies
Not so talented
Jigsaw puzzles
Kane built opera house=Hearst supported MGM
II. Reading the film narrative
We donÕt have this viewing context today, obviously, but at least we can appreciate CK in terms of how it craftily breaks the norms of Classical Hollywood Cinema:
And part of the fun of CK (not to mention many excellent movies) is trying to determine what exactly the AUTHOR meant by various elements in the film.
FORMAL EXPECTATIONS
In terms of Formal Expectations, letÕs talk about how our expectations are constantly challenged in Citizen Kane
Hollywood Cinema Norms:
Active, goal-oriented protagonist: searching for a specific thing: find it at the end:
INVESTIGATION
Sequences
are often demarcated by cinematic devices (fades, dissolves, cuts, black
screen, and so on) and form meaningful units.
Citizen Kane:
Desires, traits, goals are not spelled out.
There is no search for an object, but for character traits.
Conflicts have an uncertain outcome
At the end, the narrationÕs omniscience (the fact that weÕre let in on somethingÑwhat Rosebud is) was way more than normal.
No closure at the end.
Citizen Kane thwarts our expectations of certain formal conventions.
We talked about how thwarted expectations can be thrilling and challenging, and give us suspense, and surpriseÉ
But first viewing, especially for you watching this film in this artificial context, many aspects of CK can seem UNSATISFYING
From a narrative perspective, We have to work a little harder to understand it.
Luckily, we have the luxury to watch it multiple times.
And in adjusting our expectations to a disorienting work, we can hopefully more appreciate its utter mastery.
LOOK AT PLOT SEGMENTATION:
REORIENTATION TO THE PLOT OF CITIZEN KANE
Functions
Similarity & Repetition
Differences and Variation
Development
Unity/Disunity of Citizen Kane
(Five principles of Film form)
A. FUNCTION
Element Function:
KaneÕs death Stimulates newsreel, search for Rosebud underway
Deed to gold mine Wealth. Propels story, gets CK out of boarding house
Mother sending CK away Grows up into a rebellious, spoiled man
Father One reason his mother wanted to send him away
Thatcher, rich businessman Motivates his presence on newsreel: heÕs powerful enough to testify at Congressional hearing (shown in newsreel)
His success motivated him to write a journal, now on deposit in Thatcher memorial library
Can explain Kane as a child.
ALL CHARACTERS HAVE A PARTICULAR FUNCTION:
These interviews play a causal role in KaneÕs life, as well as in the investigation.
Much of the filmÕs power arises from the complex ways in which the plot cues us to construct the story.
Parallels Film
Xanadu: like opening of film
Funeral: after opening, the first thing we see is KaneÕs death
Headlines: Occupy same position as newsreel itself
Title Card: ÒTo 44 million U.S. news buyers, more newsworthy than the names in his own headlines was Kane himselfÓ
Corresponds to reporters discussing KaneÕs newsworthiness
Growth of Empire
Boarding House first mention of sled/Thatcher & Bernstein
Thatcher testimony
Political career
Private life
Private life/ weddings&divorces Leland
Opera house
Political campaign Susan
Depression
1935: KaneÕs old age
Isolation Raymond
Death
=striking similarities
The film functions as a map
BF: SHOW NEWSREEL
=First recollections are broad.
Later recollections are specific
Welles confuses the viewer in the beginning, but makes it clear later
Every element has a specific function, and we could talk about every element all week:
What did Orson Welles really mean by the snow at the beginning of the movie?
Is this really the inside of KaneÕs memory? Does the snow directly connect to this sled?
b. SIMILARITY REPETITION, which reinforce certain themes or ideas in the movie.
a) Opera scenes
News on the March
Leland (see perspective of audience, distaste)
Susan (see her perspective)
=so three times. The opera must be significant comment on KaneÕs character, a turning point.
Music is so memorable!
b) Writing the review
Leland (We learn Kane wrote review, panned his wife)
Susan (she thinks Kane tried to bribe Leland, but was powerless to influence opinion)
$25,000 is returned
Why did Kane give this to Leland?
=A comment on KaneÕs character
was it a gesture at friendship?
Was it b/c he wanted to prove himself more generous than Leland?
c) Snow globe
Opening
Saves it from SusanÕs demolished room (after she accuses him of never doing anything for sentimental purposes)
End
d) cup at beginning and end
We learn he has lots of junk. We learn that perhaps he is very sentimentalÉthereÕs more to him than just his need to manipulate others.
e) Rosebud
See sled in beginning (provides transition from boardinghouse to cheerless Xmas where Kane gets a new sled.)
Sled at the end
So thereÕs SIMILARITY AND REPETITION, but within this thereÕs also DIFFERENCE AND VARIATION.
The Plot both assists our search and complicates it.
DEVELOPMENT
How things progress
How our impression of the sled in the beginning is different than our impression of the sled in the end
How our understanding of Kane becomes more clear, but also more tangled.
PLAYING WITH TIME
Investigation: 1 week
Plot covers about 70 years, from KaneÕs childhood to his death.
Time is compressed, via montage sequences
Breakfast scene:
Emily=woman of his dreams, who he brought back from Europe like one of his statues.
Their marriage will collapse, like everything Kane touches.
The severity and intensity of this collapse are captured in one two-minute sequence.
It remains the most striking example of WellesÕ evocative and economical editing in CK.
Begins: MS
Warm light
Conversation is teasing, intimate
Visually reinforced by loving looks
He tells her sheÕs beautiful, when she complains, he says heÕll adapt for her.
5 more shot/reverse-shot pairs.
In each, eyes of the couple grow increasingly suspicious and severe
The conversations are progressively hostile and clipped
The newspaper becomes both a visual and verbal symbol of their growing division.
Note how they talk about the newspaper/his job/too much time spent there
First: ÒCharles, if I didnÕt trust youÉwhat do you do on a newspaper in the middle of the night? (wants more say in how he spends his time)
Third: Emily pleads w/ him to stop attacking her uncle, the president (wants more say in what is printedÑattacks one particular article)
Fifth: Attacks entire paper: ÒReally, Charles, people have a right to expectÉÓ(Kane: Òwhat I care to give them.Ó)=really criticizing the paper.
Changes in clothing (from romantic to formal)
=passage of time is also a passage away from emotional intimacy
The setting alters from an unobstructed and close space to an obstructed space cluttered w/ plants, flowers and newspapers.
Last shot:
Eyes no longer match, since theyÕre reading separate papers.
He: The Inquirer. She: The Chronicle.
They are far apart, opposite sides off the frame.
The shot has much colder and darker lighting.
Real time of this sequence is many years.
Through rigorous and creative use of an edited space, and a series of conversations w/in that space, Welles depicts more than just the synopsis of a failed marriage.
He also tells a succinct and cinematic version of the entire tale of CK:
How KaneÕs greatest desires seem to turn to dust almost immediately after he achieves them.
How he consequently becomes a man always alientated in the great spaces that surround him.
Other montages: growth of papersÕ circulation; SusanÕs opera career
UNITY/DISUNIITY
Unity:
Beginning is just like ending
Rosebud; audience finally figures out what it is: the sled
No Trespassing sign
=Suggests that at Xanadu, donÕt trespass on this life: youÕll NEVER get into KaneÕs head!
Disnunity #1: Thompson gives up search for Rosebud, doesnÕt reach goal
ÒNo word can explain a manÕs lifeÓ
However: thereÕs plenty of suggestions all through the film that this is the filmÕs firm message
Newsreel meeting: Òmaybe he told us all about himself on his deathbedÓ
Other reporter Òyeah, and maybe he didnÕtÓ
= already suggestion is made that Rosebud quest is pointless.
Leland scornfully dismisses Rosebud issue
=all these comments justify and ÒunifyÓ ThompsonÕs pessimistic view in the final sequence
But then WE know what Rosebud means.
But we can ask: Does this sled really, in some ways, sums up KaneÕs life?
Or is this too easy a gimmick?
ThereÕs a debate among critics to this day
ThereÕs lots of ambiguity about what Welles meant.
Disunity #2: Kane never reaches his goal
(although we never know what that is)
Is it happiness? What indeed, makes him happy?
There are small glimmers: The way he saved the snow globe, the way he kept the cup.
Ultimately, what is this film about?
Memory and Perception?
How one canÕt construct a life from various points of view.
All 5 narratives had restricted frames of knowledge
Thatcher: only see scenes in which he was present
Bernstein: heÕs thereÉmay have the best recollection
Leland: not always there (e.g., Kane and SusanÕs love scene), and drunk
Susan: drunk as she recalls
Raymond: in hallway
Is it a critique on Objectivity? How life is much more complicated and one canÕt simply capture all the elements of an individual in a newspaper story.
RKO paid the priceÉ
Because of what Hearst could do (and what Hollywood feared it could do), the studio was more or less ruined by CK.
Orson WellesÕ career was pretty much ruined
Herman Mankiewicz was shut out as a screenwriter.
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