A modernist movement, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Artists bored of naturalism, with the main aims to elicit emotional responses, portray their inner feelings and ideas.

In place of a physical reality; it includes distortion, exaggeration, fantasy, and vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of color.

Expressionism seems to come about in times of political difficulties or social change.

Conventions of expressionist style include distortion, exaggeration, fantasy, and vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of color in order to express the artist’s inner feelings or ideas.

My favourite scene in Citizen Kane is the scene where Charles Kane smashes up one of his rooms. This is because I found the scene pretty amusing and it’s the most memorable scene for me in the film. In this scene there are a variety of different low angle shots being used. They are effective shots because they make Kane look powerful because he looks bigger and more threatening. Citizen Kane was released in 1941 and at the time, people who were going to see the film in a movie theater were mainly working class people who didn’t have a lot of money. So them seeing a wealthy man smashing up loads of luxury items that they could only dream about having is quite shocking and frustrating for them.

Buster Keaton: Buster Keaton was a film producer, comedian and actor who was known for his deadpan comedy films. He wrote, directed and starred in most of his movies. The General (1926) was thought to be his masterpiece, which was based off the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil war. His career sadly declined when he lost his artistic independence when he signed with MGM, but he brought himself back up years later as a comic performer. He inspired Orson Welles, who became one of the best filmmakers of all time.

Charlie Chaplin: Charlie Chaplin was a film producer, comedian and actor who was also known for his comedy films, which were mostly slapstick. He starred in most of his films on top of being the director and screenwriter. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921) which both featured comedy and drama, spreading empathy for those in poverty, just like he was as a child. However in 1940 his career began to decline as he was accused of being a communist sympathizer and was forced out of the United States and move to Switzerland.

Harold Lloyd: Harold Lloyd was a film producer and stunt performer, who was popular due to his ‘thrill scenes’ where he performed dangerous comedic stunts.

Film Title	Preference (/10)	Most Memorable Scene	Film Element Focus
Citizen Kane (1941, Welles)	7/10, closer to a 6 than an 8.	Kane smashing the contents of Susan Alexander’s room.	“The Greatest Film of All Time”

My favourite scene from Orson Welles’ 1941 Mystery/Drama classic ‘Citizen Kane’ is the scene in which Welles’ titular leading man, Charlie Kane, destroys the room which had once belonged to his ex-wife Susan Alexander in a fit of rage. I think it is brilliant because it embodies an extremely organic and human sense of escalation which, in a less skillfully made movie, would be reserved for scenes involving dialogue.

In here, however, Welles can pull it off on his own – as the scene starts from a small beginning, Kane packs a suitcase. Then, it spirals out of control along with Charles’ feelings, as he throws the cases across the room and then continues to tear down her bedding – moving on to smash nearly all the contents of the room. It’s a raw display of ape-like aggression that solidifies just how rotten Kane has become at his core.

From a technical perspective, the sequence is impressive because of the length that Welles goes to to create the imposing menace of this freakout – low angles were of course necessary, and they are frequently utilised, but the notable use is in the more extreme Worms’ Eye shots in which the camera is placed into openings in the floor. Shots like these are few and far between though, as the more common camera technique here is a long take – a way of forcing the audience to sit through this veritable tantrum with little to no respite, making it as uncomfortable as possible.

The choice of camera and lens for this movie also let it be shot fully in Deep Focus style, as opposed to the blurry Shallow Focus style employed by other directors (David Fincher, as an example) – Welles uses the Deep Focus heavily because it opens the viewer’s peripheral vision to include all of the present destruction. We see the entire fallout of Charles’ outburst.

The sound present in this scene is simultaneously rudimentary, emblematic of Welles’ background in theater and inexperience with film, but also quite effective. The lack of mixing makes the scene sort of accidentally funny in an amateurish way, but the sheer volume of all the clipping noise of the crashes does in some regards add a sheer intensity which could easily provoke fear in a cinema audience using more high-calibre speakers.

Overall, whilst many parts of this scene are notably showing of Welles’ amateur status, those same elements show the creativity and experimental nature that he brought to Hollywood which made the movie so beloved.