Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a classic film depicting the life of a very well known wealthy man by the name of Charles Foster Kane. The film begins with Kane himself laying in bed dieing as he mumbles his last word, "Rosebud." From that point on a group of newsmen set out to find the meaning of this famous last word, thinking that it will be quite easy, but very quickly they realize how wrong they are. Throughout the rest of the film we watch the story of Kane get told from a number of point-of-views, but all by people who knew him his whole life and spent all their time with him. The reporters go from person to person are and unlucky in finding the meaning of this word, but are astonished about how much they did not know about the famous man. We learn about the women who have been in and out of his life, the death of his son, the relationship he had with his best friend, and the relationships that he had with the men that helped run his companies, and one that basically owned him. This sad and miserable story of a man who was taken from his home at a young age a never really knew what real love and family was, lived a horribly sad and defeating life. Not enough money in the world could buy him the love that he so wanted from those in his life and the gifts he gave to show that love didn't help either. Charles Foster Kane died a sad and lonely man and that in itself makes this movie extremely enjoyable because we cannot help but have sympathy for a man who has never known the real meaning and feeling of love or family.

Many people say that, "Citizen Kane is the greatest movie ever made," and although I do not agree with this statement I truly can see how so many people would. The reason I say this is because I honestly do not know enough about film and what makes it good to state that it is the best movie ever. I will say though that it is a beautiful work of art, from the cinematography which was flawless in my book, to mise-en-scene, and the editing. This film is beautifully made into something that people have grown to love and watch over and over again, which is a big part in what makes a film great. Even though I wouldn't say that it is the best film ever made I would say that it is in my top ten best films. I really would like to watch it again and again because I think that there are so many things that I missed while watching in class. It had been long day to say the least and I knew that I was going to have a hard time noticing things about the film, but I have to say while I was watching it I couldn't take my eyes off the screen because I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Overall I would say that Citizen Kane is a great film, and one that I would most definitely suggest to others. I think that it is a film worth watching just if your curious as well. Many people know about the infamous word "Rosebud" and don't even know what it means or where it comes from. This is a film that is dubbed as the greatest film of all time and that is completely understandable in my book even though I don't agree. The pure artform of this film makes it a masterpiece and a must see.

What is Film Noir?

What is Film Noir is a question I am not sure I can fully answer, because I am not so sure I know what it is. While talking about this in class I was torn about whether or not Film Noir is a style or a genre, and I would have to say that it is both. When film noir was first introduced during the 1940's-1950's. According to Raymond Durgnat, film noir wasn't a genre, but he continued with that statement by saying, "it is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood. It is a film 'noir' as opposed to the possible variants of film 'gray or film 'off-white,'" (Schrader, 230). After I read this I could only help but to agree with what Durgnat was saying but as well continued to talk about this in class I felt conflicted, because I felt beforehand that it was a genre, but after reading the article by Schrader and listening to what everyone had to say in class, and really hearing about all of the numerous aspects of film noir, I decided that I believe that it is both a style and genre, and here is why.

Back in the 1940's-1950's when the beginning of these films labeled film noirs came out I believe that it was a genre of film because everything about a film noir film fit into the decade in which they were produced. From the way that these films were set to portray the lives of people who looked just like everyone in the audience. Some of the key things that were almost always included in these films were; a femme fatale character, a hardboiled man who was usually a detective or officer of some sort, plenty of crime from beginning to end, usually shot at night on the streets while raining or as if just rained, lots of shadowing for contrast and to show the vertical lines that were very common as well, urban type setting, many times the police are the bad guys and the detectives are the good guys, corruption of all sorts, shifting in alliances, moral ambiguity, an expendable character or two just to name a few. Overall these films were filmed to show what people we hiding and many times they were love stories as well, almost always involving the detective and the femme fatale. Overall these were and still are great films, but to our generation now they seem boring at times and just cheesy or funny. We are not able to take them as seriously as they were probably taken back then because we have a very hard time relating to the characters and often the story as well, which leads me into my next point.

Today when I look at the differences between authentic real film noir films and the ones that have been made in the last ten years or so, I cannot help but see an enormous difference. Nowadays these film noir-esque films are just plain unappealing to me. I am all for your traditional shoot-em-up blow-em-up film and some classic crime stories, but these films are just boring and hilarious. They are constantly poking fun at what was once the classic film noir genre, and now when they make these new versions of film noirs they fail miserably, which is why I would also classify this as a style because there is no way to remake these films to actually look like and portray the real film noir type film. You can throw in all of the same elements and it still is not a good interpretation because this generation cannot relate to the kind of dress they wear, how they talk, or even what they do, our world is just way too different now to ever go back to how it used to be in the 1940's-1950's.

Film noir is to me a genre and a style. Maybe that just sounds like I am copping out on this question but it truly is what I think, and who can really argue with that? Well I guess some can and thats okay we are all entitled to our own opinion and ideas.