Case Study: Citizen Kane

Originally written in 2014 as an assignment for East Carolina University by Maggie Pendergrass.

Citizen Kane

It’s really no surprise as to why Citizen Kane has such success as an critically acclaimed film that’s been studied for decades. Although the film originally opened to less than stellar reception from audiences, it’s grown to become wide for its use of the audience as a character and it’s production techniques.

Throughout the film, the audience is positioned to witness very specific and deliberate events, virtually including the audience as a character in the story. The audience is positioned as a part of Kane’s consciousness, witnessing past memories, such as the day he left home, coming directly from the man who witnessed it. We’re shown the newsreel, showing us the type of man Kane was to audiences and to those who saw his work and personality from a distance. We’re also positioned as the reporter, Thompson, hearing Kane’s life story for the first time. This is where the focus around the production techniques is most apparent. The audience never sees Thompson’s face. It is always shadowed or silhouetted so we can never fully personify him. This lack of descriptive features prevents us from seeing Thompson as a separate person and allows us as an audience to see ourselves in him.

Secondly, the cinematography of the film in itself is art. The angles and the movement tell a story in itself. The camera places the audience at different heights above or below the characters to invoke feelings of dominance, power, or subjugation. In the scene where Kane is talking to Leland about his love of people, we are at ground level, looking up to Kane as he is speaking on “love on his terms.” Through this technique we feel Kane’s dominance and begin to see him as more of a figure or icon and less of a normal man. Later in the film, we see long shots of Kane in the distance, the audience and other parts of his life are metaphorically pushed away from him. This strengthens the link between the audience and the film. I believe the use of the audience as a character helps tell Kane’s story in an artistic way and fully immerses the audience into the film. This immersion is, in my opinion, one of the many ways this film is a classic.