Citizen Kane: A Review

Although I’ve always heard people talk about the much acclaimed Citizen Kane, I hadn’t actually seen it until last night. In the beginning of the semester, I was only really curious to see whether the all the hype about Citizen Kane was true. And I admit that was still one my goals last night. However, after watching the documentary last week about Orson Welles and William Randolph Hurst, I was really looking forward to watching Citizen Kane with or without the hype.

Well, now that I’ve seen it, I can say that I really did enjoy the story. I think having the background information from the documentary aided in my reasonably high opinion of the story but even without the background, it would be pretty decent. When the movie first started I was pretty skeptical because all the clips I had seen were well into the story and so I was not prepared for the loud voice over narration or the flashing images which were made to look like stock footage. Although I am a fan of the use of the whole flashing stock footage style, I found the narration jarring and I was glad when the film actually got into the story.

I also found Citizen Kane stylistically, very impressive. I particularly liked the scene in which Kane walks past the wall of mirrors as well as the scene when Susan leaves Kane, walking through the long hallway and out the two doors. Although Orson wells didn’t know the rules of cinematography, he certainly broke them well and this adds to the success of the film.

In the end, however, I do think that Citizen Kane’s acclaim is mostly hype. I know that’s a big statement to make considering that it’s topped a number of “greatest films of all time” lists. I also know that a lot of people say it is a film that has to grow on you but I just don’t see that happening to me. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it, end of story.



Image From: http://upload.moldova.org/movie/movies/c/citizen_kane/thumbnails/tn2_citizen_kane_4.jpg

The Quest to Define Film Noir

Is film noir a distinctively American cinematic drama? Initially I was inclined to answer yes to this question, however as I took a deeper look at film noir over course of our “genre” unit, I now know a great deal more about the origins/history of this period in cinema. Thus, I think this definition needs to be adjusted in order to be more accurate. Instead, I would propose that film noir is an American style of cinematic drama as opposed to a genre. I think it would even be fair to argue that film noir is a subgenre but style still seems like a more accurate description. This is made evident by the wide range of films that fall under the label of film noir One example of this is Blade Runner, which is really more of a Sci-Fi that is stylistically film noir. Another example is Brick, which while it is a modern film noir, would also fall into the crime genre.

I do think that it is fair to define film noir as a distinctively American style of cinema since it started as a response to the disillusionment experienced by Americans after World War II (Schrader). They were tired of “feel good” films that presented an idealist image of life in America. Still, I think it is important to remember that, while film noir is an American style of cinema, it did not just emerge without any outside influences. Film noir was influenced by German Expressionist cinema, a style which moved away from realism by using images or montage in order to convey the internal (i.e. emotion and the human condition) rather that realistic portrayal. (Corrigan and White) This gave German Expressionist cinema a mythic quality; its emphasis was on telling a story in a symbolic manner in order to capture the emotions caused a real event or period in history. Thus, while the emotions conveyed are realistic, the images themselves usually are not.

Film noir also has this mythic quality; the narratives tend to be very dramatic and, at times, farfetched, but the purpose of film noir, the dark style, was more about capturing the cynicism and disenchantment that American’s were attempting to cope with.

Because of its origins, film noir may seem very culturally contextual. Thus, one might wonder why the style keeps coming back in modern films. One would guess that the subsequent generations have experienced similar feelings of disillusionment and cynicism. As a result, they also want films that more accurately represent their experiences.




Corrigan, Timothy, and Patricia White. Film Experience: An Introduction. Boston: Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2004

Schrader, Paul. "Notes on Film Noir." Film Genre Reader III. Ed. Barry Keith Grant. New York: University of Texas P, 2003.