Film as a Visual Medium: a Look at Citizen Kane and Rashomon

Film as a Visual Medium: A Look at Citizen Kane and Rashomon

Kitty Cheng 040769260

Michael Ackerman A1

FS101

Film, as a visual medium, has many advantages in the telling of a story. In both Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, innovative camerawork, editing, and mise-en-scene are used to express certain aspects of the plot. Both stories convey the ultimate message that truth is subjective through the use of multiple perspective narrations. Both films are highly praised for their technical advancement in cinematography, and their innovative use of non-linear plots that were done with subjective narration by different characters and the use of flashbacks. The cinematography, camerawork, editing, and mise-en-scene are great influences in the effectiveness of the subjectivity of the narration in the two films.

With subjectivity being a central theme in the story Rashomon, the use of film as the medium in which the story is told is very effective. In this film, narrative subjectivity is emphasized by the use of moving cameras, which establishes different rhythms for each story as well as show the narrative character’s perspective of the scene. Unlike with the traditional, Classical Hollywood Style, the use of the camera in this film show not only what is relevant to plot, but also what is relatively irrelevant, humanizing the camera and giving a more realistic narration, as, in reality, the eye tend not to focus on something for an extensive period of time without brief glimpses of other things; this tricks the minds of the audience with psychological realism, leading them to become more involved and connected with the narrator and the story. By using a moving camera to capture short, spontaneous and seemingly random shots of the surroundings and shots that are framed with branches, the camera realistically mimics the eyes of the narrator and portraying the movements of the narrator and through emphasising their physical perspectives.

In the first three versions of the story, subjectivity is highly emphasized through its cinematography. The camera does not show us the situation as it would have objectively appear to the narrator, instead the camera focuses on the narrator’s dramatization of his part, emphasizing the movement of the speaker, and de-emphasizing the other two characters. During these scenes, much of the camerawork is shaky with sudden, violent jerks which suggests movement by the narrator; this help to convey the intense, gripping atmosphere, reflecting the dramatic situation and fear felt by the characters involved. The fourth version, however, is an objective observation by the woodcutter who is a non-participating intruder, a witness of the events. “Kurosawa intends that this version stand for the truth,” (Gillespie, Ward) therefore, the