Sequence
Analysis
Susan as a Part of Kane’s Collection
In
Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) the
audience is introduced to a man through the flashbacked remembrances of the
people that knew him. The multilayered
character study – motivated by the mystery of Kane’s last words – explores the
importance of perspective in narrative storytelling. The titular character of Kane is seen to be
a complex collection of ambition, sadness, vanity, and anger and one of the
more telling sequences of his nature involves his introduction to the character
of Susan whom he has an affair with.
This sequence is noteworthy because it is told through the eyes of
Kane’s old friend Leland who did not personally witness the events, and thus
the audience is left to consider if this flashback can be trusted as fact. The sequence is most effective in demonstrating
the opinions of who Kane was through its use of suggestive dialogue,
motivational editing, framing, and establishment of patterns that appear later
in the film.
Leland
begins the lead up to the sequence by saying, “according to Charlie,” letting
the audience know that what they are about to see is the version that Kane told
his friend and not an eyewitness retelling of events. This tool of perspective allows the film to
offer suggestive dialogue and imagery without explicitly showing the affair between
Kane and Susan – which was not shown in Classical Hollywood films. Susan’s delivery of the repeated line “hot
water,” is told with a slight sensual flair implying that asking Kane up to her
room may not be as wholesome as the words suggest. This is followed by the next scene where a
slight moan in the transition sounds suggestive but is accompanied by more
groans to go along with the toothache that Susan is dealing with. “What you need is to take your mind off it,”
Kane says as he shuts the door to the audience, giving the impression that he
has less than wholesome plans on how to accomplish that. The non-diegetic music accompanying the
sequence up to this point – as it started just as they entered the apartment building
– has been melancholy, suggesting again that what is happening is not
good. When the door opens on Kane and
Susan the music takes on a sweeter sound.
The suggestive nature is driven home by the final shot of the sequence,
which shows a bed fully lit in the background.
If
the audience is to trust Leland’s telling as what Kane had told him, then it
can be assumed that the editing offered at the end of the shadow puppet
sequence can give some insight into how Kane viewed Susan. As revealed by his sentimentality for his
sled “Rosebud” the audience is aware that Kane has a longing for his childhood,
and his mother. During this scene he
starts telling Susan about how he was collecting some of his mother’s
belongings, and talking about his “youth,” upon that word there is a cut to
Susan – who is framed in close-up with flattering lighting and a bubbly look
upon her face – demonstrating the youth that Kane sees in her. Kane becomes seemingly agitated by Susan in
that same moment when she seems to not react to what he’s saying, he drops his
smile, and says, “I run a couple of newspapers, what do you do,” the shot then
cuts to the medium shot that had established the characters earlier. This shows that he has a disconnect from her,
and that perhaps he realizes she is sort of daft but, she begins talking about
her mother and Kane once again begins to take interest. This establishes that he is still attached to
the idea of his mother, and all mothers are a conduit for his, because it was
not Susan’s dream that she be a singer but her mother’s and Kane ignores that
fact. “You know how mothers are,” Susan
tells Kane, and he smiles knowingly, and agrees that yes, he does, the camera
has cut back to his close-up at that point, again emphasizing the importance of
Kane’s mother.
The
most effective framing of the entire sequence is Susan’s perfect reflection in
the mirror atop her vanity. She is, in
effect, a photograph, just as those that border her vanity. Strong light shows on her face, her winning
smile, and charm as she giggles at Kane.
She must look up to him, and his close-up is shot at a low-angle to make
him look larger than life. The framing
in the mirror solidifies her as a memento, the photographic imagery suggesting
that this is the permanent way that Kane will see Susan for the rest of their
relationship – as an idealized youthful girl.
The knowing snow globe/paper weight sits atop the vanity as well, there
is no “close-up emphasizing” the snow-globe but by coupling it with a shot of
Susan the film, “evokes not only her [later] departure and the sled……but the
whole cluster of [Kane’s] childhood...[emphasizing that] Kane has lost
everything” (Bordwell, 321).
The
continued use of strong shadows echoes the rest of the film, and Kane himself
is often seen dressed in strong black that often bleeds into the shadows around
him. He is presented primarily as an
ominous and giant figure, even in this sequence where he is shown towering over
Susan in the mirror scene. They
eventually move to be on the same level after the shadow puppets but in the
dissolve to the parlor he sits creepily behind and below her. It is evident that he has power over her even
in that framing which echoes her opera performance, particularly his clapping
at the end. There is a teddy bear
stealthily inserted in the second parlor shot, and Susan, seen by Kane as a
vibrant child is permanently kept in that light. The later scene, involving “the childish
décor of [her] room in Xanadu reveals Kane’s attitude toward her,” filled with
toys and nick knacks, and he lords over her singing lessons, and won’t let her
go like a parent rather than a lover which adds to his dark presence (Bordwell,
320).
Thought
its conception existing in the era of Classical Hollywood Citizen Kane creates an affair sequence with strong suggestive
storytelling aided by its use of perspective to alter the story slightly while
still offering the needed drama to create a strong emotional arc without
upsetting the censors. It also
contributes strongly to Kane’s search for happiness and meaning by adding
another statue to his collection: Susan.
By clearly establishing that what Kane loves about Susan is her youth,
it adds to the drama of later scenes and makes the tragic arc of their romance even
more potent, and Kane even more deplorable but tragically sympathetic.
Works Cited
Citizen
Kane. Dir. Orson Welles. Perf. Orson Welles. RKO Pictures, 1941. Film.
Bordwell, David, et al. Film
Art: An Introduction. 11th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2017. pp.
320-321.
Shot
Breakdown – Kane Meets Susan Sequence – Citizen Kane
Transition
|
Description
|
Length
|
|
1.
|
Dissolve
in
|
Shot
down at street
Tracks
up to shot of store front
Camera
moves in toward Susan framed in doorway as S enters mid-ground
Camera
tracks right with S
Camera
pans right to K
Camera
focuses on K
S
crosses frame
Camera
tracks in on pair
Camera
is static as K and S enter apartment
|
1
min. 23 sec.
|
2.
|
Dissolve
|
Camera
is static
Action
is framed in the lit doorway all else is black
Camera
tracks in quickly as door shuts to total darkness
S
and K are now in a close-up sharing the screen
Camera
is static as S exits shot to focus on her reflection in the mirror
|
29
sec.
|
3.
|
Cut
|
Medium
shot of S in the mirror
Objects
around the mirror are in the foreground
|
7
sec.
|
4.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
3
sec.
|
5.
|
Cut
|
Medium
shot of S in the mirror
|
5
sec.
|
6.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
8
sec.
|
7.
|
Cut
|
Medium
shot of S in the mirror
|
5
sec.
|
8.
|
Dissolve
|
Medium
shot of wall as S’s body is replaced by a shadow
|
6
sec.
|
9.
|
Cut
|
Medium
shot of K and S
Camera
tracks in as shadow puppets end
Both
figures fill the space
|
52
sec.
|
10.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of S
|
3
sec.
|
11.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
5
sec.
|
12.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of S
|
4
sec.
|
13.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
11
sec.
|
14.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of S
|
2
sec.
|
15.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
3
sec.
|
16.
|
Cut
|
Medium
shot of K and S from before
|
36
sec.
|
17.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
6
sec.
|
18.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of S
|
4
sec.
|
19.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
5
sec.
|
20.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of S
|
6
sec.
|
21.
|
Cut
|
Close-up
of K
|
6
sec.
|
22.
|
Dissolve
|
Medium
shot
S
is sitting higher than K as he looms behind her
|
25
sec.
|
23.
|
Dissolve
|
Medium
shot
Same
location later time as evident by the costume change, bed is now in shot, and
K faces toward the camera rather than in profile
|
18
sec.
|
Dissolve
out
|
Sequence
Analysis – Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
Kane
Meets Susan
1. Mise-en-scene: Shot in a studio
a. Chiaroscuro,
just as in the rest of the film, heavy shadows.
Opening of sequence is on a stoned street. Susan is framed in the doorway of the shop. Faces are well lit during the opening. Kane is dressed in all black, Susan at first
also wears black but white shows prominently in her outfit, until the next cut
where she remains in white entirely.
Framed in doorway once inside, from a distance, covered in
blackness. Faces obscured in shadow once
camera moves in, and until Susan sits to be framed by mirror. Lots of pictures are framed around her
vanity, as she too is framed in the mirror.
The snow globe/paper-weight is clearly visible on her vanity as
well. She is framed so that she looks up
at Kane, and his shots are shot at low angles which make him look bigger. Shadows in the next scene come from a natural
source – the lamp. This shot they are
framed so that they sit level to each other.
His use of the pipe makes him look even older. In the close ups the shadows cover about half
of their faces. Bordered by heavy
shadows. In the parlor as she sings Kane
sits below and behind her but looms, creating an ominous appearance. The light is provided by the lamps, there are
statues on a shelf, and a curtain that looks like it is framing a window. The dissolve shows that not only has Kane
moved positions but that they are now wearing different clothes. A statue sits next to Kane, a Teddy bear sits
in the foreground. In the background
the bed is clearly lit by the overhanging lights. Kane blends into the shadows even more. A clock pendulum swings over his head. Kane applauds her, which echoes a scene later
in the film.
2. Cinematography:
a. Camera
Movement: crane shots for the opening, moving up from the ground to the framing
of Susan in the shop doorway, then camera tracks in toward her and then pans to
see what she was looking at. We see Kane
then the camera tracks in towards him, and then tracks in toward him and Susan
before staying as they enter the house.
Crane tracks in when Kane closes door in the next scene so that the
action that was framed in the foreground by the door now takes up the entire
frame. Camera mostly remains still for
the rest save for a tracking shot after the shadow puppets to remove the lamp
from the frame and center the camera on the two characters.
b. B
& W photography
c. Opening
shot is a longer take and has the most camera movement.
3. Editing:
a. Dissolves
are used to show passages of time: intro
to sequence from Leland, passing of a few moments to shadow puppets, another
few moments to Parlor, and then again, in Parlor for a passage of at least days
or weeks before dissolving out to next sequence.
b. Shot/Reverse
Shots for dialogue, that follow the 180 rules.
c. Dialogue
and Actions that are important to editing:
Susan’s giggles segue into shadow puppets. Key words cut to different close ups. Kane’s words “Youth,” cut to show the
youthful Susan. “I run a couple of
newspapers,” cuts back to medium shot when Kane realizes Susan isn’t reacting
to his words, and Susan’s line, “you know what mothers are like,” cuts to Kane.
4. Sound:
a. Galloping
horse is crisp and loud, there’s the sound of the splash of mud that we don’t
see save for its appearance on Kane. The
sounds of Susan’s footsteps help create a sense of reality as she walks across
the sidewalk. Door slam on the line,
“take your mind off of it,” is very prominent to create foreboding. Piano is loud and helps the time transition
be subtler later. Kane’s clapping
dissolves into next scene to blend in with the applaud of the crowd.
b. The
non-diegetic music begins when Kane accepts Susan’s proposal to go inside his
house. It is a melancholy song
suggesting that this isn’t good. The
music stops abruptly when Kane slams the door, and then starts again when the
door is reopened with a more romantic flare to it.
c. There
is a suggestive moan from Susan at the moment of transition from entering the
apartment to the shot of her at her vanity, where the moan is added to the
groans of the toothache, adding to the sexual undertones of the sequence which
include her delivery of the line “hot water.”
Being old Hollywood explicit sexuality was not shown.
5. Narrative
Structure:
a. Use
of diegetic sound (horse galloping, and footsteps) help create a grounded
reality. Non-diegetic sound is
melancholy at first and then becomes romantic as we watch Kane fall for Susan
b. Characters
played by relative unknowns, Welles was famous but not as a film actor. Susan’s delivery of the word “hot water” is
delivered suggestively, the line “take your mind of it,” is delivered in a way
that is also suggestive of sexuality, which is carried home by the shot of the
bed that ends the sequence.
c. We
are told from the outset that this is the story according to Kane as told through
the eyes of Leland, who did not personally witness the events. Can we trust what is shown? Does Leland see Susan as a floozy that Kane
took advantage of? Susan is framed in
the mirror like a photograph, in strong lighting, so is she just another memento
for Kane. Dialogue editing, “youth,”
close-up of Susan, “mother,” close-up of Kane.
Kane is shown always in black, and Susan in white.
d. Plot: Kane meets Susan a girl who is young, and
youthful and a little bit daft who shows him great attention, and who reminds
him of his youth, and his mother. It’s
not so much love as possession, she is a snapshot of youth, that he tries to
preserve as evident by her room near the end that is filled with toys and looks
like a child’s.
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