Cinematography in Citizen Kane Daniel Kekes-Szabo College

In Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, (1941) the cinematography utilizes deep focus shots to demonstrate the importance and power dynamic between the characters in the frame, while the heavily varied angles highlight one character at a time. The contrast between these two elements of focusing on one or multiple characters complements the theme of perspective and not knowing one person by a single word, but also the contrary idea of Kane’s personal “Rosebud” realization, that money and power should not have been everything and his family and friends were pushed away by his own actions.

The narrative of Citizen Kane would not convey its ideas in an effective manner without the groundbreaking cinematography. Deep focus shots throughout the film are one such element that conveys the intent of the narrative through a purely visual format. The first, and perhaps the most significant deep focus shot of the film, is used to depict Kane when he was a child. Shot from the inside of his childhood home, his father, mother, and future guardian Walter Thatcher are all clearly in focus in the foreground. Kane’s mother and Thatcher are on one side of the screen, his father separated on the left, but in between these characters, a young Kane can be...