My favourite scene from Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is the scene situated in Mrs Kane’s Boarding School. To me it is one of the most masterful pieces of work in the film. The use of sound and lighting to show dominance, paired with the beautiful flowing camera work really helps set the scene and create a sense of verisimilitude.
My first point will look at the snowy scene wherein we can see a young Charles Foster Kane playing by himself. Here the Mise En Scene conveys simplicity of life and happiness. The lighting is very bright which hints to how fond Kane was of his childhood, it shows positivity and contrasts with how his life is later on. The actual scene is extremely simple and this correlates to his simplistic and innocent life. As a child he had nothing to worry about. However when the camera tracks into the house the scene is much more complicated and full of objects. This shows how the current conversation is going to complicate Kane’s life.
Additionally, the camera work is extremely fluid and helps to push the conversation without interrupting it. This is especially good because the dialogue is fast and any interruptions may cause the viewer to lose track of the conversation and miss certain parts out. This is seen most notably in the instance where the camera tracks through a split in half table which then merges together to be seen in shot. This creates a sense of fluidity and in my opinion is an outstanding shot and shows Welles’ creativity
Not only that, but lighting plays a big part in the dialogue scene. Throughout the whole scene much of the light is focused on Mrs Kane – showing her dominance over her husband and her control over the future of her child. The lighting foregrounds Mrs Kane and shows how important her opinion is in this scene and this conversation. It is very hard to pick out unless you know what to look for but it has such a big impact and therefore is one of the reasons this is my favourite scene.
Finally i am going to look at the how the size of the adults shows dominance over young Kane as this for me really stood out. The physical size correlates to power and seeing them tower over Kane reveals that his future is in their hands, the tallest of them all being Mr Thatcher (George Coulouris). This foregrounds Thatcher and implies that he is now the person with most power and influence over Kane. Kane’s future is in his hands. For me this scene beautifully reveals Kane’s past, and the beginning of his journey to become this new man who is vastly different to his child self.
