Citizen Kane and Bonnie & Clyde

Essay for 'Film and Television Studies' course. years old. Not revised. Not serious.

Challenging and conforming to the classical Hollywood cinema style
Citizen Kane and Bonnie & Clyde

Compare and contrast TWO films studied in terms of the ways in which they conform to or challenge the norms of classical Hollywood cinema.


The idea of the formulaic ‘classical Hollywood cinema’ has been a benchmark for the study of consequent filmmaking styles and movements. It provides us with a template on which we may overlay other works and draw ideas as to the correlations between the different pieces. When viewed in context, it is these sorts of observations that help us to understand the interconnected relationships between the world, the filmmaker, the film and its audience, and to develop a more complex appreciation of the importance of art to the identification of man.

In 1941, Orson Welles released a film called Citizen Kane, a film that deals quite literally with the idea of the identification of man, specifically a man, Charles Foster Kane, who dies in the opening scene. This film, although initially not so successful due to a combination of mainly external factors, has been recognised as one of the finest made films to date (Carringer, 1996; Lecture Notes - Production). Deviating from the classical Hollywood cinema in several ways, including unusual mis-en-scene and audio-visual relationships, it is the narrative structure of Citizen Kane that makes it so effective in portraying the situation of the life and death of a powerful man in a time of great industry.

Similarly, Arthur Penn’s film, Bonnie & Clyde, has also been a focus of critical study, since its release in 1967. “Combining commercial success with critical controversy” (Kramer, 2005: 1), Bonnie & Clyde is said to be one of the films that marked a ‘renaissance’ era in Hollywood cinema, one that continued into the 1970s and became known as ‘New Hollywood’ (Kramer, 2005). Notable of the ‘new Hollywood’ films was their continuation of certain classical genres, as filmmakers of the time were drawing influence from extensive knowledge the ‘old’ Hollywood styles, but were then expanding these genres into new areas that reflected the values of not only the times the films were set, but the times in which they were made (Lecture Notes – New Hollywood; Kramer, 2005). Bonnie & Clyde, reminiscent of the gangster films of earlier Hollywood, also shows notable influence from European movements, particularly the ‘French New Wave’ that had emerged in the late 1950s. Distinguished by strong themes of sex and violence this new wave openly acknowledged its filmic nature (Bordwell & Thompson, 2008; Lecture Notes – New Hollywood), fashioning the proudly glamourous, reflective style evident [especially in the cinema scene, the characters’ fascination with fame, etc.] in Bonnie & Clyde.

Like countless films before and since them, both Bonnie & Clyde and Citizen Kane adhere to a narrative structure; a chain of images occurring that represent events and are organized in such a way that the audiences reactions may be manipulated, arousing any or many of a spectrum of emotions, opinions or thought. It is the relationship between pictures that creates these narratives and our association with them is dependent on the way in which they are delivered.

As a loosely biographical account of the two real-life figures from the 30s Depression Era, Bonnie & Clyde enjoys a fairly linear plot structure, beginning with the meeting of the two and twisting through a condensed version of the comedy and drama of their adventures toward a great climax. As Lester D Friedman describes:

“Boy meets girl in small-town Texas. Their crime spree begins as girl goads boy into robbing a grocery store; they speed out of town in a stolen car, spirits high. Against the backdrop of depression-era America, this attractive and stylish young couple and their accomplices careen through stickups and shootouts, kidnappings and narrow escapes, ultimately meeting their dramatic end in a legendary ambush.” (1999: 1)

The traditional narrative form of introduction, complication and [briefly] resolution can be identified in the film. We are introduced to our unlikely protagonists at the beginning of the story, the exposition, and their situations are immediately clear; Clyde is a crook and Bonnie a small-town waitress, dreaming of something bigger. From this moment the action quickly escalates to a point where they can no longer turn back; Clyde shoots a man during a robbery.

The body of the narrative is a series of ups and downs; the film characterized by dramatic changes in tone. There is clear juxtaposition of light-heartedness and humour, realised in scenes of romance and friendship, and the very serious drama of some incredibly realistic violent scenes. The casting of the two main characters mimics these themes; a fair-haired Bonnie, capable of passion and gentleness and dreaming of fantastic romance, is often dressed in light coloured clothing that compliments her femininity. In the scene where the two first meet, she is like a ‘Juliet’ calling from her bedroom window. The fact that she is not clothed acts as a metaphor for her naivety and vulnerability. Clyde on the other hand has darker clothes and features and represents brutish masculinity and violent power. There are times when their power situations change though, for example Clyde’s self-assurance is challenged when he feels the need to express tenderness and open up to Bonnie [especially in sexual situations].

Unlike Bonnie & Clyde, Citizen Kane does not have a linear plot structure but, rather, follows an almost point-of-view revelation of a story through the eyes of the journalist Jerry Thompson, who encounters a number of different people’s perspectives and recollections of the man Charles Foster Kane as he pursues the origin of Kane’s dying word, ‘rosebud’. The limitations of this style contribute to a sense of mystery, which becomes the driving tension of the story, whereas in a movie such as Bonnie & Clyde, the tension is based on action and a snowballing sequence of events. Just like the recurring metaphor of the ‘puzzle’ throughout Citizen Kane, the picture falls together piece by piece.

Citizen Kane achieves a great deal of meaning from the devices of metaphor and motifs. The music score, for example, is notably based on ‘themes’, which encourage a sense of unity across the film and indicate the presence of certain forces, such as Herrmann’s “Power” theme, and the vulnerability of Charles Foster Kane represented by the “Rosebud” theme (Lecture Notes – Sound). The relationship between sound and picture is also a key to the movement of the narrative. Sound spikes, for example, are often used as a transition between scenes. Sound matching is also commonly employed as a continuity tool, very important in scenes to indicate a progression through time. Sound matching is used to trace the development of Charles Foster Kane’s political career, with the same speech moving through locations and speakers. It is also used to show the development of Susan’s ‘talents’ and the relationship between the two, from the ‘love nest’ to another house at a later date.

Graphic matches are also popular. In the opening scene a particularly powerful series of shots is used to introduce the audience to certain sorts of ideas:

EXT. XANADU – FAINT DAWN – 1940 (MINIATURE)
Window, very small in the distance, illuminated.
All around this is an almost totally black screen. Now, as the camera moves slowly towards the window which is almost a postage stamp in the frame, other forms appear; barbed wire, cyclone fencing, and now, looming up against an early morning sky, enormous iron grille work. Camera travels up what is now shown to be a gateway of gigantic proportions and holds on the top of it – a huge initial "K" showing darker and darker against the dawn sky. Through this and beyond we see the fairy-tale mountaintop of Xanadu, the great castle a sillhouette as its summit, the little window a distant accent in the darkness (Mankiewicz & Welles, Citizen Kane, Screenplay)

They set a premise for the movie in a number of different ways. Although the mis-en-scene is misleadingly gothic in appearance, the images of gates and fences imply a voyeuristic intrusion onto someone’s personal property.

The gloomy lighting, the deserted setting, and the ominous music give the opening of the film the eerie uncertainty that we associate with mystery stories. (Bordwell & Thompson, 2008: 309)

We later recognise, from his enormous collection of newspapers, statues and furniture and his treatment of Susan, that ‘property’ and ‘ownership’ are what Charles Foster Kane’s livelihood is based upon and what he prizes most. In each shot, the lit window appears in the same place and grows larger and larger. It is obvious that this window is the focal point, and it serves as a symbol for a ‘window’ into the story.

At the end of the film, this very first sequence is reversed, indicating that we are moving back out of the scene; Citizen Kane, the story and the man, is over. ‘Rosebud’, that very first utterance at the beginning of the film and the metaphor for Kane’s suppressed self, has taken a physical form and has been released into the atmosphere as a billowing plume of smoke. While Jerry Thompson is still oblivious to the mystery, he is resolved by concluding that ‘rosebud’ was simply a small piece of a much lager picture. The audience is resolved because our curiosities are satisfied and we understand that Jerry is very right. This style of resolution fits in line with traditional narrative structures and comfortably contrasts with the ambiguity of the opening scene. It ties up most of the loose ends, leaving a well-rounded story in its wake.

The final scene of Bonnie & Clyde, however, does not necessarily evoke that same sense of completedness, which can be considered unfitting with ideas of the classical narrative structure. The story itself, though linear, exists as almost a sort of snapshot of the tale. This echoes throughout the narrative, with the theme of wanting to capture and preserve moments in time often appearing, through suggestions of photography, poetry and news articles. There is a clear logic to it; the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows begins when they meet and ends when they part, a snapshot of the period that they existed and not before and not after.

Consideration of the classical structure of Hollywood cinema is important to filmmakers and viewers and critics alike. It is the ways in which filmmakers approach these norms that sets certain films aside from the rest. Both acclaimed as leading examples of the situation of the cinema of their times, Bonnie & Clyde and Citizen Kane take what they need from already established cinematic conventions, then push the boundaries into a league of their own. The rounded, non-linear form of Citizen Kane constructs the whole picture of a life and death of the fictional Charles Foster Kane from a sea of ambiguity, while Bonnie & Clyde’s progressive sequence immortalizes an interval of the lives and deaths of the historical figures Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows. Both works strongly reflect their situations and, by acting as a portrait of these characters, serve to explore and comment on the human condition through the endless possibilities of the film medium.


Bibliography

Barton Palmer, R. 1986. ‘The metafictional Hitchcock: The Experience of Viewing and the Viewing of Experience in “Rear Window” and “Psycho”’, Cinema Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2 , University of Texas Press, Texas. [Online] http://www.jstor.org/pss/1225456 Accessed 12/6/08.

Bordwell, D and Thompson, K. 2008. Film Art: An Introduction, 8th Ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.

Carringer, R.L. 1996. The making of Citizen Kane, University of California Press, California

Friedman, L. D. 1999. Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Cambridge University Press, London.

Hitchcock, A. 1995. Hitchcock on Hitchcock, University of California Press, California.

Kramer, P. 2005. The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars, Wallflower Press, London.

Mankiewicz, H.J and Welles, O. Citizen Kane, A Screenplay, [Online] http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&q=cache:OW9fgaC8ejoJ:ftp://162.105.169.100/pchen/MGF2002s/CitizenKane.doc+citizen+kane+musical+score [Accessed 12/5/08]