Cinema in the 1940s

  • The war had much effect on America psychologically with the advent of the Pearl Harbor incident in 1941, yet it did not have much effect on the film industry as new stars emerged, the studio system continued to prosper, and cinema attendances boomed.
  • Advances in film technology (e.g. sound recording, lighting, special effects, cinematography and use of color) meant that films were more entertaining to the public and 'modern'.
  • Most films shared a sense of realism, mainly due to the war and the rise of American documentary films


Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, 1941
  • Known as the most spectacular and influential film of all time
  • directed, co-written, produced by, and starring Orson Welles
  • Audacious both in content and technique, innovative in its cinematography, music, and narrative structure
  • Depicts the story of the meteoric rise and legacy of tyrannical newspaper tycoon, Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles himself). Kane's career in journalism began with idealistic social service, but gradually evolved into a ruthless pursuit of power. Narrated through a series of flashbacks, the plot is revealed through the research of a newsreel reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper magnate's dying word: "Rosebud".







  • also creative storytelling techniques 

    • as the film portrays a long period of time realistically. Instead of being told in a linear, chronological manner, Kane’s story unfolds in segments that add more information as each narrator adds his or her story.
    • Telling Kane’s life story entirely in flashbacks was an innovative approach to storytelling. (Though it had been used in earlier films, Citizen Kane used them most effectively.) 
    • The flashbacks are given from the perspectives of characters who are aging, which casts doubt on the memories being discussed as well. 
    • The techniques succeed in painting Kane as an enigma, a tortured, complicated man who, in the end, leaves viewers with more questions.


    • Many cinematic elements in the film were completely unprecedented: 
      • chiaroscuro camerawork and expressionist distortions of images
      • plot revealed by flashbacks
      • unique camera angles and experimentations of perspectives
      • revealing ceilings in the framing of interior shots
      • The "wipe" cut - where one image is "wiped" off the screen by another
      • a new type of narrative device in which different characters provide different stories
      • *deep focus: using long-focus lenses to reveal parallel actions in both foreground and background (Credit also goes to Gregg Toland, Welles' cinematographer)
        • requires the cinematographer to combine lighting, composition, and type of camera lens to produce the desired effect. 
        • With deep focus, the film can showcase overlapping actions, and mise-en-scène (the physical composition of the frame) becomes more critical. 
        • allows the active engagement of all spaces in the frame. 
        • most effective in scenes that depict Kane’s isolation and loss of control as it gives the audience a clear view of the space Kane commands as well as the space over which he has no power.

     
    • What was the most striking is that Welles used all these new breakthroughs in cinema language recklessly together, and manged to integrate them into an aggressively personal style. The film's techniques marked a new direction in cinema. 
    • Many argue that Citizen Kane, with its inventive use of lighting and shadow, is the first 'film noir', a genre that employs dark, moody atmosphere to augment the mysterious atmosphere and events taking place.








    Michael Curtiz's studio film Casablanca (1942)



    • wartime romance by Michael Curtiz, depicting a story of self-sacrifice and heroicism, with a disillusioned nightclub owner (Humphrey Bogart) and a former lover (Ingrid Bergman) separated by WWII in Paris. 
    • best remembered for its superior script, for piano-player Dooley Wilson's singing of As Time Goes By, and memorable lines of dialogue such as Bogart's "Here's looking at you, kid."
    • shot almost entirely on studio sets 
    • the use of the environment as a framing device


    • also known for its successful use of lighting and shadow, as well as music (by Max Steiner)
      • to convey a sense of nostalgic romance. 
      • The cinematographer (Arthur Edeson) paid particular attention to photographing Bergman: She was shot mainly from her preferred left side, often with a softening gauze filter and with catch lights to make her eyes sparkle; the whole effect was designed to make her face seem "ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic" 
      • Dark film noir and expressionist lighting is used in several scenes, particularly towards the end. 


       


      • The script was written from day to day as the filming progressed and no one knew how the film would end - who would use the two exit visas? The film moves quickly through a surprisingly tightly constructed plot. 






      Sources:

      Robinson, David. The History of World Cinema. 1971.
      SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Citizen Kane.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2004. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
      http://www.filmsite.org/