Orson Wells' 1941 film Citizen Kane is hailed by critics as the greatest film ever made. It gained this title not only because of its deep story, but also because it used many groundbreaking storytelling techniques. The majority of the story is told in restricted narration, with the viewer seeing only what the reporter, Mr. Thompson sees, or is told. Kane's story is not told in a more thematic order instead of a sequential one. Each of the people Thompson interviews tells Kane's story from a slightly different perspective, and focuses on different things. This allows the viewers to see the same events multiple times but get different information each time. This unconventional form of narration has been duplicated many times in films such as Pulp Fiction, among many others. The only time that the narration breaks from being restricted is the very end, when the camera reveals the true meaning of rosebud to the viewers, but not Thompson. This sudden break in the flow of the narrative gives the viewers more insight about Kane's life, but also emphasizes the restricted feel of the rest of the movie.
3 comments:
I never thought of the style of narration, and you made alot of good points about it. I suppose that was fairly unique in pre-war films. Kudos.
---Colin
The way the movie shows the same events from multiple perspectives is interesting. Your reference to Pulp Fiction is also interesting, but I think I'm going to have to see it before I can say anything about it.
i also enjoyed the originality of this film, it had mulitple perspectives that all overlapped throughout, i felt it to be very interesting.
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