Citizen Kane Breakfast Montage Essay

Abstract While it is evident to the viewer that Charles and Emilys marriage is falling aside during Citizen Kanes eat montage, the mise-en-scene and practiced devices use to reinforce this conceit atomic number 18 little recognizable. The variation of the actors demeanors and spot, the cash advance of costumes, and the use of liteing subtly support the presentation of a deteriorating marriage, and further more than, of Kanes inability to sustain a successful, lasting relationship due to his career.The mise-en-scene and expert devices used in the montage are by no promoter limited to this portion of the film. In fact, they are found in legion(predicate) scenes throughout the movie to reveal other relationships that have fallen apart as a result of Kanes profession, such as his companionship with Jed Leland and romance with Susan Alexander.The actors attitudes in each(prenominal) sequence in the montage and their place workforcet in relation to whiz another are each exam ples of the mise-en-scene characterisation Charles and Emilys feelings toward each other as duration passes in their marriage. The introduction to the montage shows the viewer two individuals playfully flirting after a long night of parties. Charles even plays the role of a butler as he serves his wife. Emily on the other hand, giggles and smiles as she begs her economise to stay collection plate with her a little longer before he goes to work. As each successive sequence passes, Emily becomes reprimanding as her husband begins to spend more time at work, scornful when he insists on putting Mr. Bernsteins demonstrate in the nursery and when he insults the president in his publisher, and eventually distressful as she sits at a silent breakfast table nurture the rival newspaper of her husbands. Charles tone of verbalize evolves from flirtatious in the opening sequence, to powerful and peremptory as his paper starts to become more successful, to critical when his wife starts to question his authority and literary topics, to demanding as he tells Emily people will think what I want them to think.This last controlling statement reflects a later scene, where a drunk Jed Leland writes a unreserved article about Susan Alexanders terrible opera performance. Kane and Leland initially wrote a declaration of principles stating that the newspaper would always bring the people ripe news. To advance his career, Kane stepped away from that principle and only showed the people what he cute them to see. The difference amongst Leland lacking to be an honest reporter and Kane wanting to become a successful businessman, no matter what the cost, destroyed the mens friendship. Not only do Charles and Emilys tone of voice change with each successive sequence, but the length of conversations and the distance between the peer also change by becoming shorter and more distanced.The rootage sequence is a long, flirtatious banter consisting of talk about parties and Emily s beauty with little talk of the newspaper between the married couple sitting next to each other. Each progressive breakfast has a shorter conversation dominated by talk of the newspaper as opposed to the couples relationship. After the premier breakfast, Emily and Charles sit on reverse gear sides of the table, a physical demonstration of how the newspaper is creating distance between husband and wife. A similar example of evolved physical distance can be seen in the later romance between Charles and Susan Alexander.A prime object lesson of this is the scene where Susan is putting together a puzzle on one side of the massive living room in Xanadu and Charles is standing at the other end. When Charles and Susan started perceive each other, they were more often than not plastered in proximity. Susan was an asset for the Inquirer during her opera career, where Kane would have great reviews scripted about her performances, despite the fact that they violated his Declaration of Pr inciples. Huge audiences were brought to his newly built opera house, thus making his name more popular. However, once the second Mrs. Kane ended her career as an opera singer and was no longer useful to the newspaper, Charles began to separate himself from her. The progression of Emily and Charles physical appearance- from striking clothing, hair, and familiar upkeep to neither husband nor wife trying to impress their profound other with their physical presentation- is another example of mise-en-scene exhibiting the failing of the relationship. Emilys first outfit is a frilly, scratch-exposing dress that was exhausted during an evening out.Her hair is in an intricate, pretty up do and her makeup lightly done, but her skin still youthful without blemishes or wrinkles. Each following sequence has Emily erosion a dress that shows less skin and is more proper, her hair worn increasingly more carelessly, and her face showing more wrinkles and looking less youthful with a sad expr ession. Charles follows a similar pattern in the way his dress evolves. He initially wears a suit meant for a party and looks hand near with his hair slicked back and almost no sign of age on his face. However, he starts wearing robes to breakfast with unkempt hair, not looking to impress his wife. A few sequences in, we start seeing Charles back in a suit, but with increased amounts of age lines megascopic on his face, indicating that he is spending more time and energy at work, and he is either coming home from work around breakfast time or leaving immediately after breakfast to endure to the Inquirer.While the clothing choices of each character reflects the decreasing effort to enthrall each other, the wrinkles on each characters face shows how both the relationship and the newspaper are starting to perturb both husband and wife. Both primal lighting and fill lighting contribute to the montage by show the time of each day and the presentation of the actors faces. The graves tone light is a parallel in every sequence of the montage. It always comes from the back windowpane and portrays that it is the same time of day in each sequence. The corresponding incessant time of day paired with the evolving conversations and attire described earlier compose a feeling that the act of having breakfast together has become wont and a burden as opposed to romantic for the couple. While the key light is unchanged throughout the montage, the fill light on each actors face changes in each sequence to assist in the idea that time is passing.A large amount of fill light is used at the outset of the montage, giving a youthful, blemish-less look to the faces of Charles and Emily. However, the fill light becomes less prominent in each successive sequence, giving Charles an intensify harshness on his face with more age lines and Emily more prominent shadows along her cheekbones and eyes, making her appear to be tired and sad. Acting, costumes, and lighting are all devices used throughout Citizen Kane to demonstrate failing relationships between Kane and some of the closest individuals in his life, including Emily, Jed Leland, and Susan Alexander. Nevertheless, the breakfast montage effectively applies both mise-en-scene and proficient devices to display the first broken relationship caused by Charles Kanes passionateness for the Inquirer.