Citizen Kane and Film Noir

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Peter Chen WRT 102 Prof. Marderness 11/20/2012 Origins of Film Noir, A Study of Citizen Kane. A man’s last words lead a news reporter back down memory lane of one of the most influential person of early 20th century America. A news paper tycoon’s rise and fall, a story that defined a whole nation and become of fundamental definition of a classic American Film, Citizen Kane(Orson Welles, 1941) is arguably the greatest film in American history. Its cinematic techniques, narrative style, and character development were the first of its kind. Director Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland created a film that changed the way films were made and allowed filmmakers to experiment with new cinema techniques and narrative styles. Many believe that Citizen Kane’s visual style led to the creation to film noir. French for “black film”, film noir is one of the defining genres of American film history, in this essay I will be comparing the cinematic and narrative style of the film noir genre and Citizen Kane to determine whether Citizen Kane is indeed the origin of Film noir. Film Noir gain popularity in the post world war era because of its unique visual and narrative style with a focus on the female antagonist, the famme fatale. The story often features a male protagonist with a secret past who is trying to move on, but is forced to return to his past because of the occurrences of an event or a character, often the famme fatale, with whom the protagonist shared a past. Most noir films are hard-boiled crime thrillers that follow a flash back narrative style. Film noir rely heavily on the use of shadows and dimmed lights as part of the mise-en-scene to create an image that gives the audience a sense of fear and paranoia. Often the frame of the shot is very distinguished between light and shadows, the outlines are bold. When the famme fatale appears on screen, it

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