The Role Of Mise-en-scene in the Movie "Citizen Kane"

Citizen Kane is one of the most well-known movies, having a successful debut in 1947, and is still popular today. Aspects that made the film so accomplishing were mise-en-scene, inciting indents, climax, and dramatic irony. Tied together, these few aspects created a base for not only Citizen Kane, but in movies today as well. As the result of the filmmaker’s ability to perfect these features, the film not only gained wealth and attention from the audience, but also had award winning performances.

Mise-en-scene is a very important aspect to any film. It shows setting, costume, lighting, and performance in a movie. Specifically, Citizen Kane shows these four aspects, tying them all together. Setting was shown through gloom and darkness, showing how important Charles Kane’s death was to the film. Setting was also based on the flashbacks to describe the story. It was easy to tell when the story was in the past vs. the present. Costume showed wealth with tuxedos for the men and fancy furs and dresses for the ladies. The costume also helped to keep similar characters separate and helped the audience to differentiate between characters.

The lighting was also very important to the film, especially because it was black and white. If the lighting wasn’t focused on the specific object, the audiences’ attention wasn’t drawn where needed. Citizen Kane did a very good job getting the lighting just perfect. Performance was very believable in the movie. Although the actors didn’t have much experience at this time of movie making, they did well. They all showed emotion and kept the audiences’ attention throughout the entire film. Mise-en-scene helped to shape Citizen Kane into the great movie it is.

Inciting incidents are important to any good film. They give purpose as to why even make the film. It’s the hook and story to the plot. Citizen Kane had a very interesting incident. The inciting incident in the movie was when Thompson, the reporter, tried to find the meaning “Rosebud.” The plot revolved around Thompson finding the hidden meaning; searching in stories and letters to discover its meaning. Although Thompson never found the importance of “Rosebud”, the audience discovered it was the sled, which showed the importance of Kane’s childhood.

Climax shows the high point of the film and the purpose of the plot. I believe there were two climaxes to the movie. The first being when Kane left Mary, his first wife, to be with Susan, even though he knew it would ruin his reputation. The second high part was when the audience discovered the sled to be “Rosebud.” However, I think Kane being with Susan was the intended climax and was supposed to be the highest part of the story.

Citizen Kane was told through the eyes of everyone except Charles. Even though the story was about Kane’s life, he had no role because he was already dead. Susan, Thatcher, Bernstien, Leiland and the housekeeper were all asked by Thompson if they knew the meaning of “Rosebud.” Although the reporter never found the meaning, he was shown a lot of insight to Charles’ life. The story was told through everyone except who it was about, Kane.

Dramatic irony occurred in this film when the reporter decided to try and find meaning behind “Rosebud,” although it had no meaning to him, only to Charles. “Rosebud” in and of itself showed some irony. It told the audience how important Kane’s childhood was to him and how innocent he was. This also showed how corrupt being adopted and having his last memory with his parents ripped from his hands was.

The result of mise-en-scene, inciting incident, climax, and irony being joined was an award-winning film, and one of the most well-known movies. Personally, I enjoyed the movie, although it was hard to follow at first. They jumped from one person’s story to the next, so it was hard to understand who was talking. Once the stories were pieced together near the end of the show, I began to like the movie more. Although the actors had few lines and little to no experience, the acting was stellar for the time period. Actors didn’t have much experience being filmed during this time, but they adapted and overcame. The cinematography was also very well done for the time period. As stated above, the lighting, costume, and performance all created the film and made it very popular and well-known. Everything tied together made Citizen Kane such a great movie, even to this day.