The two passages written by Bordwell and Toland provide the analysis of different aspects of Citizen Kane, one of the most legendary products in the cinema industry.
Gregg Toland, an outstanding cinematographer, primarily famous for his work with Orson Welles on the movie Citizen Kane, in the paper “How I Broke the Rules in Citizen Kane” makes the analysis of his collaboration with Welles as well as the analysis of major achievements which were made in terms of this collaboration during the shootings of the film (Toland 569). Firstly, he explains the differences between the terms “commandment” and “convention” claiming that the first one is associated with the axiom or rule and the second one is related to the tradition; thus, Toland stresses that numerous of conventions were challenged by them during the filming of Citizen Kane (Toland 569). The cinematographer managed to test and prove numerous of the ideas which regarded to be radical in Hollywood at the time he worked.
Toland emphasizes that before an actual process of filming of Citizen Kane had started, the whole photographic approach was scrupulously planned. The cinematographer stresses on the extraordinary role of Welles in the Hollywood’s development. This was Welles who, while having a special understanding and vision of the direction and the purpose of the camera, insisted on the making filming technique non-obvious. As a result of the collaboration of Toland and Welles, the world obtained a possibility to be introduced with numerous of innovative cinematographic approaches due to which the quality of cinema as a commercial product has crucially increased; the examples of these approaches are approximate human eye, system of “visual reality,” twin-arc broadside lamp, and special use of ceilings sets (Toland 570-571).
In contrast to Toland, who is focused primarily on the elucidation of technical approaches used for the filming of Citizen Kane, Bordwell makes deeper examination of the style and theme of the movie. The author suggests that to comprehend the real value of the movie, it is preferable to stop glorying its technique but to pay stronger attention to the clarification the uniqueness of the style of Citizen Kane and the seriousness of its theme. Bordwell claims, “Kane is a masterpiece not because of its tours de force, brilliant as they are, but because of the way those tours de force are controlled for large artistic ends” (Bordwell 103).
While making the analysis of the peculiarity of Citizen Kane, Bordwell reminds about bringing to the film a particular interest by Welles from the perspective of the point of view. As well, Bordwell stresses on the complexity as one of the basic characteristics of the movie. For instance, rather sophisticated complexity associated with the movie arises from existence of numerous of conflicting judgments of the narrator regarding the personality of Kane. Because different sides of Kane are being distinguished by different characters during specific stages of main character’s life, it appears to be rather difficult for the viewers to formulate a definite estimation of the personality of Kane (Bordwell 110). The author argues that the complexity as well as the unity of the film could become achieved to great extent due to the application of symbolic motifs which contributed significantly to the reinforcing of the realism (Bordwell 113). All in all, Bordwell defines Welles’ imagination, and more generally Welles’ genius, as one of the crucial factors leading to a huge success of Citizen Kane
Works Cited
Toland, Gregg. “How I Broke the Rules in Citizen Kane.” Perspectives on Citizen Kane. Ed. Ronald Gottesman. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1996. 569-572. Print.
Bordwell, David. “Citizen Kane.” Focus on Orson Welles. Ed. Ronald Gottesman. Englewood Cliffs: A Spectrum Book, 1976. 103-122. Print.
