Chapter Five and Post Production of Citizen Kane

I understandably had very high expectations for Citizen Kane, some hailing it the greatest film of all time. When watching it, I can't help but feel that it didn't quite live up to they hype for me, although it had a lot of hype to live up to, to be fair. Where I was overly impressed, however, were the effects, including the cinematography and editing tricks that were done in post production. So, it's interesting that I was assigned to read about my favorite part of the film, the special effects, some of which I didn't even notice when watching the film (like the first example of the packed theater not being so packed or even a theater after all). When you think of special effects, you don't think of paintings as backgrounds or set pieces, but this might be the most impressive effect of all, particularly in this film. It's even more interesting to find out that these choices were made because of constraints in the film's budget, when one might have thought that it would be just the opposite. This chapter also talks about the influence of sound, and how we get a radio-like vibe from the film. One of the most impressive scenes both sound and visual wise was probably the dinner table sequence between Kane and his first wife, Emily, and it shows their marriage slowly fall apart. It is clear to us what is going on, but it is presented in such a unique way that even feels revolutionary today. Even though the meaning of Rosebud was a bit of a let down, and the plot of telling a story about someone's life is a bit tired by today's standards, the technological aspects of Citizen Kane is really what made the film stand out to me.