Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a film about a man, Charles Foster Kane, which recounts his life, his loves and the empire that he created for himself that gave him the title of being the quite possibly most successful man in America, maybe even in the entire world. Kane's story is told in full through a newsreel at the beginning of the film, highlighting his accomplishments that essentially led to his eventual demise. The film then goes onto to delve into Kane's life in detail, through flashbacks told in the point-of-view of the most important people in Kane's life (Thatcher, Kane's guardian growing up; Bernstein, Kane's friend and business manager; Jedediah Leland, Kane's best friend; Susan Alexander, Kane's mistress and eventual second wife; and his caretaker) to a reporter searching for the meaning of Kane's dying word, "Rosebud". The viewer is given a point-of-view that allows a deep look into the core of Charles Foster Kane, and left wondering what is the real measure of a man's life once he's dead.

Citizen Kane has been hailed as "the greatest film ever made" by many film critics and scholars. Critics have stated that "Citizen Kane is the biggest cinematic landmark since pictures first started moving" and "With its spirit of visual and narrative innovation, and Welles's precocious towering central performance, Citizen Kane almost lives up to its reputation as the best of all time" (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/citizen_kane/). I don't know if I would agree that it is the greatest movie of all time, solely because of the fact that I am not a film scholar and have only started to critically and analytically view films beginning with this class. I don't have classic Holllywood films to compare Citizen Kane to in the areas of style, narrative, composition, etc. nor do I have the critical eye to determine what "the greatest film ever made" would look like. But watching this film, I felt so connected to Charles Foster Kane and could empathize with the struggles that he endured throughout in his life. I don't think that he ever knew the real meaning of what it is to love and be loved, because his father abused him as a child which led to his mother giving him away to be raised by Thatcher. Not being raised in a healthy environment and never being taught the true meaning of life, Kane sought to gain love and success through his fotune. His idea of the American dream was to have wealth and success, and throughout the film, we see Kane trying to maintain that ideal at all costs. He didn't want what he couldn't control and he controlled everything that came into his life: the newspaper, Jedediah, both Emily and Susan, and set out to control politics by running for govenor. Kane filled his life with material possessions bought with his wealth and people that he thought he could control in order to atttain happiness and success. The narrative of the film illustrates this in quite a unique way, through the perspectives of others in his life whom he tried to control and ended up pushing away. These flasbacks, along with the newsreel at the very beginning of the film, foreshadow Kane's eventual demise in a powerful way. Kane's breakdown leading up to his death occurs right after Susan tells him that she is leaving him, and leaves Xanadu. We see Kane tear apart her room, symbolizing him breaking through the facade that he has created for himself that has led him to be incapable of love and caused him to end up alone. He walks out of the room, to all of his staff just watching him and we see a singular "K" charm hanging out the front of his suit. His name, his wealth and success are all that he has left for himself. They have defined his life and now that he is alone, he realized that this is not the life that he wanted and he is forced to come to terms with his true inner self. To him, this was no longer the American dream that he had worked so hard for. He lost two loves, his best friend and everyone else that was close to him in life because he was so incapable of loving anything other than his money and himself.

Citizen Kane displays an emotional depth that I don't think I've witnessed before in any other film. The narrative perfectly illustrates the hardships in life, the heartache of love and loss and that wealth and success mean little without knowing how to love and be loved. I was moved by the ending and the room surrounded with millions of dollars of possessions that never made Charles Foster Kane as happy as Emily and Susan once made him. I can most definitely understand why this film is considered by many to be "the greatest film ever made", and never will I forget the story of Citizen Kane.

Definition of Film Noir

After watching four films that were characterized as film noir, I have come to see film noir as a spectrum filled with different genre conventions that represents that time in which the film was made and the story that the narrative is trying to portray. I don't believe that a film has to fit a certain number of criteria in order to be classified as a film noir. Rather, I believe that if a film has some attributes of a conventional film noir, was made during the film noir period and gives off a tone of suspense and tension that the theme of the chase  brings out within the narrative, then it fits what I consider to be a film noir fit.

In The Maltese Falcon, fits into the first phase of film noir with the genre conventions in line with the theme of the "private eye and the lone wolf" (Schrader). Sam is the private detective who is working on his own, with his partner who is killed early on in the film, and is enlisted by various parties to help find the falcon. Many of the film noir genre conventions are present: the femme fatale Bridget, the strong male hero, the foreigner, etc. But there is also a lot to say about the stylistic aspects of The Maltese Falcon that add to the tone of suspense and mystery that builds throughout the narrative. The music that play when there is a cut from one scene to the next adds a sense of mysterious and lends itself to foreshaowing what will happen next in the film. Many different people come into Sam's life, trying to threaten him into finding the falcon and giving it to them first. The viewer is continuously wondering what is going to happen to Sam: if he'll find the falcon in time, if the police are going to arrest him, how much danger he's in, what Bridget is hiding. All of these different aspects, along with the lighting and sense of moral ambiguity, build the suspense and mystery until the very end of the film.

Touch of Evil is unique within the film noir genre, in that it doesn't fit into any of the three phases of the film noir period. It has some of the genre conventions of a typical film noir (Mike Vargas as the male hero, Susie as somewhat of a femme fatale) but it was less predictable than the film noir's that came before it. Although Touch of Evil doesns't fit into a category within the film noir period, it does have stylistic aspects that contribute to the suspense and mystery that I believe is typical of all the film noirs we've seen in this class. There is the presence of darkness and the use of lighting that adds to the suspense of the narrative. Especially when Vargas gets attacked in the alley, the genre convention of alleys or docks is at play. There is the presence of the Grande family throughout the film, who seem to be following Vargas' wife Susie. Their presence adds to the suspense and mystery of the film, because we as the viewer don't know what they want or what they are going to be to Susie. There is also an overwhelming presence of the theme of moral ambiguity within the narrative. We can see the actions of most of the characters in the film, and how they are struggling with the nature of right and wrong which makes us wonder when everyone else is going to find out the truth.

Chinatown seemingly does not fit into any of the three film noir period, but most definintely contains genre conventions that make it a film noir. I would say that it would loosely fall into the first phase that contained the theme of the private eye and the lone wolf. Gittes spends most of the movie on his own, trying to figure out who killed Mulwray and who is dumping water. Mulwray's wife is the quintessential femme fatale, who is surrounded by mystery after her husband's death. There are many aspects of film noir that also add to the suspense and the mystery within the narrative. The suspense was created more by the narrative, and how the characters interacted with one another. Especially in the relationship between Mrs. Mulwray and Gittes, there was a great deal of mystery and tension because she had something to hide which wasn't discovered until the end of the movie. Every character in this film seemed like they had something to hide, and that no one was exactly who they said they were. Because of this, I as the viewer was left in suspense until the very end of the film, and was quite suprised at the resolultion.

Finally, Gilda is considered to be a part of the first phase of film noir. I found this movie to be very similar to Casablanca while watching it. Both movies revolve around a love triangle, and the gambling/casino atmosphere. There were quite a few genre conventions that I noticed in Gilda. Gilda definintely seemed to portray the femme fatale, who was torn between money and passion. There was the presence of evil within the lives of both Johnny and Mundson and that something about their business seemed suspicious. There is a great deal of suspense that is incorporated into the film because we as the viewer see that Gilda and Johnny have met before, and still have feelings for each other but now that Gilda is married to Mundson, we are left to wonder how long their history will go unnoticed,

Overall, I believe that film noir comes in many different forms and there isn't one umbrella definition for what a conventional film noir is. There are films today that could fit the definintion that I have constructed, but weren't made during the time that film noir was present in American cinema. But I think that this is a topic that is subjective, and it is up to the viewer to determine what is and isn't considered to be a film noir.