Cinema/ Movie Class

In the rampant consumer culture of America , every advertiser politician , and insurance salesman would contend that money is the key to happiness . Americans relish the dream of the high life , and it reflects in their music , movies , and TV shows . However , some artists still try to reject the immense pull of consumer culture and create art with the message that money is not really the key to happiness . The classic film Citizen Kane shows the dehumanizing influence of riches and deals with extremely an wealthy man alienated from his colleagues and significant

others , searching for something that money cannot buy . For Citizen Kane , a simple montage of married life shows this alienation and the lack of hope suffered by the main character and illustrates the point that money cannot by wisdom or happiness , and that true wealth comes from the intellect

In Citizen Kane , Orson Welles created what is largely considered the greatest American film of all time . It certainly has one of the most famous quotes in cinematic history -- one word that sets the movie forward and paints an image of the larger than life man depicted on the screen : Rosebud ' Experimenting with overlapping dialogue deep-focus cinematography , chiaroscuro lighting , exotic camera angles oblique narratives from various points of view , the film depicts the entire life of Charles Foster Kane and the erosion of his humanity under the immense weight and pressure of his personal wealth

When the viewer first sees young Kane , he is playing in the snow near his parents ' simple western home . From simple means to opulence , the film follows Kane as he is gradually alienated from romance , love , life itself by the ossifying blanket of his money and the will to power that it breeds (Eyman and Gianetti , 1991 ,

. 212 . Little by little , Kane becomes rigid with age , gradually relinquishing the ideals he set to maintain as a young man . He becomes and artifact of his own wealth , an increasingly remote speck of humanity adrift in the vast halls of his palatial home , Xanadu . Though the film is ripe with scenes of severe alienation and the futility of money in the face of human desire , a particularly powerful scene is the montage of Kane and his wife at the breakfast table over the years . Welles takes them from loving newlyweds to middle-aged hostility in less than two minutes

The mise-en-scene of the montage shows the same setting and characters and how they evolve through the years . With a youthful looking Kane and his wife Emily , they profess their love for each other as any young lovers may . He even agrees to call in late to work to spend time with her . The surrounding room is opulent , but filled with plants and a large window that seems to lighten the mood . After a whirlwind cut that suggests the passage of time , Kane and Emily still sit at the dinner table , though older and a bit colder . She politely asks why he spends so much time...