h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The use of perspective and ‘deep focus’ in Citizen Kane - A51938706
Author: AijamiOka - U13982320

A short essay of the delights of innovative style of Orson Welles and his crew.

There is an EGE on Citizen Kane A253757 which you can link to, and also two on Orson Welles: A750052 and A755750

AijamiOka:

You appear to be brand new to the Guide. Welcome!

May I presume that you are, or were recently, a film appreciation student? If so, please don't too easily buy into the CK hype.

I've seen CK several times, at several ages, and I cannot believe that the general populace sees it as "the greatest American film ever made". That honour is largely given it only by the film appreciation community.

Yes, it was a great cinematic achievement, and I think that the title of your entry is the true, correct focus for judging its importance. It just wasn't that good of a story, or produced particularly well.

As an example, only a nit would watch the movie wondering what 'rosebud' meant, when the sled is prominently on display in the opening. And, I can't imagine anyone giving too much though or credence to a man's last gasped word (normally hard to understand, at best).

Many of the scenes should have been reshot or ended up on the cutting room floor.

Then there is the matter of the protaganist being of a totally reprehensible sort. Like Dickens' Scrooge, nobody would have grieved much, or given much thought to his death without a lunch being provided. Enemies make poor grievers.

I know that its just my opinion, though it is shared by many others.

My suggestion would be to focus exclusively on the camera and lighting work, and keep this going through peer review.

Best of luck with this different take on what to watch for when being subjected to Citizen Kane.

Hi Aija!

Your article is very well structured and outlined, there is a good introduction which exposes the purpose of the piece of writing and leads the reader up to the main idea. Furthermore, the individual paragraphs of the main body are clearly linked to each other and they all refer to the headline and your thesis statement. Moreover your work is very informative and convincing, written in an easy but elevated style.
However, in order to being able to fully understand your work, it is absolutely necessary to have seen the movie and to have, at least a little idea of the cinematic world and its expressions and terms. If you do not have this knowledge it is nearly impossible to follow all your ideas and explanations.
The only thing I personally miss is a kind of conclusion at the end, a little conclusive statement summing up the most important points of your article.
But all in all I really liked your article and enjoyed reading it! Very good work!!!!

I'm not a film student anymore, I was. And I got to admit that CK did something to a young impressionable mind, as did the radio show he did, War of the Worlds. I agree that story line is too simple, obvious at parts etc, but what one has to remember that this was done in 1941, everything was different then.
The cinematography is without equal, and so is Welles, despite the lack of his narrative skills.

Thanks for your opinion though, but I guess it'd be more useful for me to comment on the structure etc of my text instead of the content.

Next time I'm planning an essay about Allen or Polanski... Anything against them?

Very interesting article, maybe a bit on the technical side, but that comes with your approach to the topic.

A few minor changes could make the article more accessible:
a) you could give Leland's name earlier; the first time you mention him it's only 'Kane's only friend'
b) you could explain what 'Xanadu' is.

Probably no problem if you've seen the movie, but if you haven't it gets a bit confusing.

Apart from that, it is really a great article. I'm looking forward to your next articles (please, please Polanski first)

Yet another ed Austrian writing group member? Flea Market for this?

Seconded

Thanks. I've put all the seemingly abandoned ones from that group on it, though I do hope they come back to work on them.