Mise En Scène Analysis : Citizen Kane
“People will think what I tell them to think,” states Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane, and there is no aspect of Citizen Kane where this statement is more apparent than the delightful use of mise en scène to direct the audience both consciously and subconsciously. As James Naremore informs us in his analysis, Orson Welles maintained rigid control over every aspect of mise en scène¹, which when combined with the deep focus cinematography technique that Greg Tolland used to shoot this film make the mise en scène of this movie particularly adept at visual storytelling. Walking through the shots of Citizen Kane feels like stepping through the lines of a poem. Each shot is a contrasting duality of meaning where you see and hear the plot on the surface aided by the mise en scène, but if you take a closer look, you see the aspects of mise en scène that communicate a deeper understanding of the characters and hence the story itself. These aspects, in particular, Lighting, Setting, & Staging allow us to interpret the circumstances of the characters, predict their actions, and understand their cognition.
We see this illustrated comprehensively during the confrontation orchestrated by Gettys at Susan’s house. The characters have arrived here after Kane’s rally at Madison Square Garden. While the rally suggested through its open vastness, the power, ease and confidence that Kane had felt, the setting for our confrontational scene sharply contrasts it by being an extremely small room, completely packed with furniture and cramped by the people inhabiting it in a private residence situated in a lesser affluent part of New York City. This sharp contrast is being used to convey that the power and confidence Kane had felt are going to be flipped to the opposite end of the spectrum, akin to the manner in which the setting has been flipped.
This sense of foreboding is further heightened by the use of low key lighting in the scene. This particular lighting produces highlights and shadows which in conjunction with the staging of the scene are used to communicate with the audience. The combination of these two aspects is so artfully done that not talking about them together is a disservice to the mise en scène of this scene.
Our scene begins with Gettys being completely covered in shadows on the left of the frame, which portrays this mysterious, sinister man who is a threat in the minds of the other characters. (Figure 1) He commands our attention by being in contrast to everyone else. Once he introduces himself, he steps backwards into the light, which reveals his face partially. This informs us that the characters now know who this man is, however, he is still only partially in the light and there are disjointed shadows all across his face, because Emily still doesn’t know the motives of this man, while Susan and Kane from their anxious gazes suspect that this man knows their dark secret. This also allows us to retrospectively realize that the staging of Gettys standing in the doorway, in essence almost guarding it, draws a parallel to how he is standing as an obstacle to Kane entering political office. (Figure 1) We then see Kane walk towards Gettys to face him. The lighting by placing these two figures in darkness while Emily is in the light and the staging by creating a frame within the frame using the bodies of Kane and Gettys, direct our attention to the central character at this point in the scene, Emily. (Figure 2) A little further ahead in the scene the camera cuts to a view inside the room and pans to the right, positioning itself beside Emily, inviting us to see the mise en scène from her perspective. We see Gettys & Kane lit by a back-lit source of light combined with a side-lit source that places them both in the shadows without quite being silhouettes. The placement of both men, at an equal distance from Emily and in the shadows, is used to portray that Emily is currently ambivalent towards the two men and is deciding who to listen to. The two men stand facing each other, mirroring their positions from earlier in the scene to reinforce the idea that these men are two opposing forces, two opposing choices, an idea which is further accentuated by the curt, almost rude, exchange of words. (Figure 3)
As Gettys makes his big revelation, he steps forward into the light, completely visible, while Kane has remained in the shadows. This foreshadows that Emily will eventually take up Gettys offer instead of standing in solidarity with Charles, which is further emphasized by Gettys being polite to only Emily throughout the scene. At this point in the scene Susan, who has remained out of the frame for a while, returns through the use of blocking. This symbolizes that she is the external factor that is going to decide the fate of the relationships and circumstances of the three characters already in the frame.(Figure 4) This long shot comes to a thrilling conclusion as we see Gettys, Susan and Emily facing away from the camera which directs our attention to the person behind them, to the person backed into a corner as signified by him standing in the shadow, to the person who is the central figure in the scene as of this moment, Charles Foster Kane. (Figure 5)
The conclusion of this scene illustrates how lighting, staging and setting, three different aspects of mise en scene, come together in perfect harmony. As the camera cuts to a reverse shot on the 180-degree axis and the shot becomes an over the shoulder shot from behind Kane, we are now invited to look at the mise en scène from his perspective.(Figure 6) We see him looking at his wife and his mistress. He is looking at them in this moment of silence, both of whom are placed in the light and have pleading looks in their eyes, this is hinting at the fact the he is trying to decide who loves him more, importantly who loves him more and not who he loves more, and who is going to be on his side in this fight. We then see Emily say that the story won’t be published, implying that Kane will give up, and starts to walk back, she stops and looks back at Kane when she realizes that he hasn’t moved. This movement has now placed Emily’s face in the shadow while Susan has remained in the light.(Figure 7) This gives us an idea of the decision that Kane is going to make, Emily has betrayed his ideals and is taking away the love of the people of New York from him, so in his mind Emily is darkness while Susan is now the only light, the only person who loves him.
We then cut to a POV shot from Emily’s perspective and we see Kane. We see him through a frame within the frame made up of the bodies of Susan and Gettys, who turn away from the camera and thus direct our attention to the central figure, Kane. This attention is directed because Kane is about to make a monumental decision. He is backed into the corner, being forced to give up his political ambitions, so he stands enveloped by the shadows, (Figure 8) but Kane has decided he will not step back, a metaphor which we see brought to life by blocking, as he steps forward and into the light.(Figure 9) This step into the light occurs after he has remained in the shadows for nearly the entire duration of the scene. So this shot of finally stepping into the light with a defiant look in his eyes informs us that in his mind he believes that he has regained control and regained power.(Figure 9) This idea is also emphasized by the low camera angle in addition to the mise en scène.
All these movements, combined with the highlights and shadows, occur and are intensified because the setting is a small cramped room. This setting invites a sense of claustrophobia mirroring how Kane feels trapped. It also places all the characters in close proximity increasing the tension and conflict, and allows for the staging to occur in a planned way so that it can interact with the light. It also allows for the creation of frames within frames. The hidden gem of the latter half of this scene is that due to the proximity of the characters we can trace their eyes to find out who they are looking at, how they are looking at them and whether they are in the light or in the shadow at any particular moment, which allows us to see the complex web of changing emotions at play. A perfect symbiosis of the three aspects of mise en scène.
As the scene draws to an end Emily says, “You decided what you were going to do Charles, some time ago.” Well put, Mrs Kane. For this tells us that Charles (Orson Welles: The director) decided what Charles was going to do well in advance by planning to rigidly control the mise en scène¹. The scene concludes with Emily walking out, leaving the camera with a shot of an empty doorway: a doorway which symbolizes the hole in Charles Foster Kane’s heart that he longs to fill with love, and a doorway which I encourage you to walk through and step into the world of taking a deeper look at mise en scène in order to gain new perspective about the cognition, actions and circumstances of the characters.
Bibliography
[1] Geiger, J., & Rutsky, R. L. (2015). Film analysis: a Norton reader. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Featured Image Courtesy : http://entertainment.time.com/2013/05/01/the-citizen-kane-of-citizen-kane-lists/
