Wait..."There wasn't a cane in Citizen Kane"

To me the film, Citizen Kane was the beginning of a new "breed" of filmmaking. Orson Welles put so much, time, energy, and heart into the creation of this film that it seems to be crammed full of technical elements of film. Some can take this in a positive light while others can see it as distracting and almost "too much". I would have to say that some of the techniques used were almost too drastic...(the parrot) but at the same time the film gave a whole new light to the term photography. Welles does a good job of varying his shots he uses a wide range of shots, he uses extreme long shots (Kane's mansion), long shots (Opera theater), medium shots (Breakfast table), close ups (Susan's face pleading to Kane to let her stop singing), and extreme close ups (Kane's mouth as he whispers his last word, "Rosebud"). The great thing about the photography in Citizen Kane is that the camera's distance, angle, and aspect ratio tell a story in themselves. The use of high angle and low angle provide another aid in determining what is going on in a certain shot. When Susan is pleading that Kane let her stop her singing career she is on her knees and is almost as low as she can get in the frame, Kane stands above her and dominates the frame showing his power. The camera angle from Susan's perspective is a low angle and she is looking up at Kane in fear, the camera angle from Kane's perspective is high angle as he looks down upon Susan, almost in anger and disgust with himself. The movie in itself was a huge contribution to the filmmaking world and the elements of film seen throughout have provided a platform for movies to build off of.