A lot of history behind this film. Maybe there is something behind studying the production and distribution of films. MacDonald says this was the first film to use music as sound bridges in the transitions. While music was used to transition, there were also places where the sound was abrubt. Death comes, then instead of a smooth bridge, there's an abrupt sound cut to bouncy jaunty music; or the parrot screech. Definitely themes of death throughout the movie. There's also some other sound themes that it would be nice to look closer at: stomped on lines (though, not likely to find anything surprising), placed sounds of rain, use of laughter, use of reverb, point of audition--especially in relation to the opera premiere--or maybe it was deliberately out of balance (acc. more over-powering than the melody that couldn't keep on top of the power balance), and sudden crashes in sound (also not likely to have any surprising correlations/commentary here). There were sounds that, at least today, are not surprising any more--the noisy discordant music accompanying the montage of "you're going to keep singing opera" or the impassioned strings at the end. And sounds done "different"--the heavy breathing during the suicide attempt and hearing the breaking in of the door from the inside from Mrs. Kane's point of view--although, she likely wasn't hearing anything, even though we were hearing things from her point of view. [Okay, I took notes this time. Can you tell?] It's a shame I haven't had a chance to read the article of use of silences before watching this; the slander scene (between the two politicians and the former and future wives). Then there's the play of reality--both the mirrors of mirrors of mirrors with Kane; and the scream in the background when Mrs. Kane "should" have screamed and didn't after being slapped. Other than the mirrors, there were some visual things that I noticed, too. There's the foreground/background and size of figures/people in relation to other people. There's the camera angles between the drunken Jedediah and Kane show-down (the first one--where Jed asks to get sent to Chicago). The ending image of Susie's first opera also struck me as being very similar to some of the shots from the original King Kong; the story parallels are incredibly close, too. I read in MacDonald the analogy of the sound as a jig saw puzzle like the story was. What about the analogy of Kane as an opera singer. Susie makes the remark that the "whole audience doesn't want you" and that fits a description of Kane, too. So, is he an inept "opera singer"? trying to sing a melody that's too high for him [MacDonald of Susie], trying to make it in something that's out of his league--like the opera (the Olympics of voice) is for Susie? He doesn't come across as being out of his league except for the accusations Susie makes of his lack of ability to love. Then there's the whole aspect of the audience finding out and knowing who/what Rosebud was and the world of the film never finding out. What does that say about reality and what is representative and telling or not, or who has power? I'm not sure I agree with the distorted "Dies Irae" theme [Hermann calls it a "variation" which is probably more accurate than a distortion] as being about "futility"--but it's kind of dangerous ground to disagree with a quote from the composer himself. I think it's more about death than futility; although, in the case of this movie, I don't think they're divorced from each other. Then there's the title: Citizen Kane. Is it saying that being a citizen is "futile"? And there's the analysis in connecting the film to Coleridge's poem--though I'm assuming that's been "done". There's the deliberate voiceover in the newsreel bringing in Noah, but unless there is further commentary on being a citizen by that reference, I can't see it saying anything between Kane and Noah--and I don't think it's just about there being a lot of animals; although, that might have been the original intention.
Hmm, wonder if I'd generate this many thoughts all the time if I took notes on a film?
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